Alibaba buys into China's leading out-of-home (OOH) marketing network which covers 150 cities and creates 500 million daily offline impressions.
Alibaba Group announced on July 19 that it will pay US$1.43 billion for a 6.62% share of Shanghai-based Focus Media. It will also acquire another 5% interest in it within the next 12 months.
Alibaba and its affiliate will also buy shares in an entity controlled by Focus Media's founder and Chairman Jiang Nanchun. The total investment, not including the expected additional 5% stake, will be US$2.23 billion, giving Alibaba a 10.32% stake in Focus Media and making it the second largest shareholder next only to the founder Jiang.
Focus Media was established in Shanghai in 2003, which concentrated on building a marketing network by installing poster frames, and afterwards digital screens, in office buildings, residential buildings and public transportation stations as well as selling pre-roll ads in cinema screens across China.
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