My Box receives $10m Chinese offer
The 29-year-old owner of a Hamilton firm that is being sued by Sky Television says he has received a $10 million takeover offer for his business from China.
Krish Reddy says his company, My Box NZ, has sold about 20,000 Android media players to consumers in 12 countries and is ‘‘rapidly growing’’.
Sky is suing My Box, saying its devices come ‘‘pre-loaded with piracy software’’ and My Box promotes them as a way to access content that Sky has exclusive rights to in New Zealand.
Auckland High Court judge Warwick Smith reserved his decision when the case went to court earlier this month.
Reddy said Sky’s objections had helped publicise his business and enabled it to build an international business from New Zealand.
‘‘We have to thank Sky. If they had left us alone we would just have been selling a few boxes, but the controversy made us world famous.’’
He said he was seriously considering the offer from the Chinese firm, which he declined to name, and had been given 21 days to respond.
The Chinese firm had a representative at the Auckland court hearing, he said.
Reddy said he was confident My Box would win the Sky lawsuit, but he believed My Box would be liable for any damages if it didn’t, under the terms of the takeover offer.
Reddy said My Box’s devices ‘‘captured streams from offshore’’ but it did not control how customers used them. My Box had not itself developed any software on the devices, he said.
Asked whether they helped customers find streams of pirated content, Reddy responded: ‘‘You are not going to get me to say that. It does find movies, TV shows, sports etc – exactly what we advertise on our website, Sky content as well, yes, that is as far as I will say.’’
Reddy’s other ventures under the umbrella business Von Roy Group include handyman business Handyman Pro and massage business Six Sense, at which Reddy is a senior therapist.
One of the conditions of the Chinese offer for My Box NZ was that it would close as a New Zealand business, he said. There were two other conditions that he would not disclose.