Amazon Completes Acquisition of MXPlayer
TapTechNews June 6th news, MXPlayer is a video player software and OTT service platform originated from South Korea developed by MXMedia & Entertainment. It was initially launched on July 18th, 2011 and currently has over 280 million users globally.
TimesInternet acquired a majority stake in MXMedia & Entertainment for $140 million in 2018. After the acquisition, MXPlayer announced that it would transform from a local video player to a comprehensive video streaming media platform.
Now, sources disclosed to TechCrunch that Amazon has completed the acquisition of MXPlayer and reached an acquisition agreement with TimesInternet on Wednesday evening local time.
Sources also mentioned that the valuation of this transaction is less than $100 million (TapTechNews note: currently about 725 million RMB), which is far lower than the $500 million valuation in the last financing. Allegedly, TimesInternet has been trying to sell its digital assets in the past two years, and this may be one of the reasons for the significant shrinkage in the value of MXPlayer.
Sources also mentioned that Amazon plans to retain the MXPlayer brand. As of TapTechNews' dispatch, Amazon and TimesInternet have not yet responded.
Actually, as early as February last year, there were news that Amazon and MXPlayer were in the process of negotiation for the transaction, and Sony also planned to get involved at that time, but gave up this plan due to the complexity of the Zee merger.
In addition, Amazon has also been continuously expanding its video streaming service in India in recent years in order to enhance its influence in second- and third-tier cities and more remote places. For example, the Amazon Prime subscription bundled with PrimeVideo only costs $9.50 per year (currently about ¥69), which is much lower than in other regions. In addition, Amazon also maintains a partnership with some local Indian telecommunications operators to promote the PrimeVideo bundled package. In addition, Amazon also launched another free but advertising-based video streaming service in India in 2021.