IT’S HOLLY-BABA
After IPO, Alibaba to pour cash into movies
If Hollywood handed out an award for film financing, it would go to Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
Studio heads are expecting an influx of investment dollars from Asia, thanks to the Chinese ecommerce giant, which is poised to pull off the biggest public stock sale in history on Thursday.
Japan’s Softbank — which owns more than a third of Alibaba Group Holdings and is sitting on a large pile of cash as a result — has been visiting the bamboodecorated executive suites of film studios with an eye toward winning a role in the movie business, sources said.
“The Japanese have started to take an interest,” one source said. “They’ve talked to Jeffrey Katzenberg’s DreamWorks Animation.”
Softbank has held earlystage talks with at least three other studios including, Relativity, Lionsgate and Legendary Entertainment, according to sources familiar with the discussions.
A spokeswoman for DreamWorks said the firm couldn’t comment on speculation. Relativity and Legendary declined to comment, while Lionsgate didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A major player in Japan’s mobile market, Softbank also owns 70 percent of No. 3 wireless player Sprint. The company is hunting for content partnerships that can strengthen Sprint against larger rivals Verizon and AT&T.
At the same time, Softbank, run by Japan’s richest man, Masayoshi Son, is talking to Alibaba about how they might jointly approach Hollywood from both an investment and content acquisition standpoint.
Alibaba’s Ma is interested in creating the “Netflix of China” by acquiring streaming rights to shows and films, in particular in geographic territories where Netflix doesn’t have much of a foothold, said one person familiar with talks.
“Softbank and Alibaba are both looking at investing,” a top Hollywood executive said. “They are getting aggressive.”
Son’s $20 million investment in Ma’s Alibaba has turned into a $55 billion windfall 14 years later. Given their lucrative history, it makes sense for them to pursue investment opportunities.
“Masayoshi Son and Jack Ma haven’t engaged [directly] yet, but the two companies are trying to get smart,” a source said.
Clearly, Softbank has money to burn — and the movie business can easily help spend it.
“Hollywood has a way of sniffing out the dumb money,” one source said.
Meanwhile, Softbank appears to be intent on driving deeper into the media business. Last year, the Japanese tech and telecom company made an $8.5 billion bid to acquire Universal Music Group from Vivendi, which rebuffed the offer.
Softbank already has articulated a strategy to get deep into the videogaming business, according to one source. Last year, it acquired Finlandbased game maker SuperCell for $1.5 billion.
Softbank wasn’t immediately reachable for comment