IPO Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

EXCLUSIVE: Kit Harington is about to start production on his next drama for HBO and no — we’re not talking about the Jon Snow sequel.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce and media group, unveiled a top to bottom corporate restructuring that it says is intended to “unlock shareholder value and foster market competitiveness.”  The group, which has a current market capitalization of $228 billion, will split itself into six divisions of differing sizes. Each unit will have a CEO and a board of directors and can pursue independent fund-raising or even IPOs, when they are ready. At present Alibaba has its shares and ADR shares listed in Hong Kong and New York. Some parts of its media business also have their own Hong Kong share listing Alibaba Pictures. (And there is a healthcare business with yet another share quote.)

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel isn’t making many predictions or taking sides as the WGA deadline approaches.

Former China high-flyer Jack Ma’s influence is being further cut, as the Ant Group company he cofounded said he is reducing his voting rights at the financial technology firm as it restructures in line with a regulatory crackdown.

valued at $3 billion. However, this is the company’s second attempt at an IPO after a previously scheduled reverse merger with SeaChange International valued at $5 billion was terminated in June due to market volatility.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief After more than a decade of losses, Chinese video streamer iQiyi Tuesday unveiled another improved quarter. But its problems are scarcely in the rear-mirror and it simultaneously announced that it will raise a further $500 million of capital. Revenues in the April to June 2022 period, the second quarter of iQiyi’s financial year, dropped by 13% to RMB 6.66 billion. Net losses for the quarter weighed in at RMB214 million. That was a massive reduction compared with the RMB1.40 deficit recorded in the equivalent quarter in 2021. But it also represented a return to loss after recording a maiden first quarter profit – RMB169 million – in the January to March period.

said in July that app downloads and usage have increased as rival creator-driven social platform TikTok has come under increased scrutiny both in the United States and internationally. Triller counts celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Kevin Hart, Billie Eilish and Justin Bieber among its users.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKakao Piccoma, a Japanese online animation firm, has reportedly pushed back its plans for a share listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, previously indicated for December this year. The company hopes that the delay will help it hold on to a $6 billion valuation.The company is jointly owned by Kakao, the Korean tech and messaging giant, and Kakao Entertainment, with shareholding respectively 73% and 18%. Piccoma raised finance last year though a private share sale that brought in Anchor Capital, valued it at JPY847 billion ($6.17 billion at current exchange rates).

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefShares of China’s Bona Film Group soared by 44% on Thursday, their first day of trading following an initial public offering on the Shenzhen stock market.The company had offered its shares for sale at RMB5.03 apiece. They quickly climbed to RMB7.24, before hitting the market’s ceiling on daily price movements. At this price, the company is valued at RMB9.96 billion or $1.47 billion.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBona Film Group, one of China’s most consistently successful private sector movie studios, is in the final stages of launching an IPO on the Shenzhen stock exchange. The company was behind last year’s “The Battle of Lake Changjin,” the highest grossing film of all time in China.The IPO move represents a return to public company status for a firm that has frequently been ahead of its time.Bona was in the early wave of Chinese companies to list their share in the U.S. and achieved an IPO on the NASDAQ exchange in 2010, in the hope that U.S.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe French audio streaming service Deezer made its debut on the Paris Euronext market Tuesday and immediately plunged 35% from its €8.5 opening, rising slightly to level off at around €6.2 by late in the afternoon.Earlier this year the company, which is one of the world’s largest streaming services despite a relatively low U.S. profile, merged with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) with an eye toward going public at a $1.13 billion valuation.

The steady trickle of agents leaving ICM Partners over the past nine months has grown into a stream in the last week, with dozens of reps making inquiries to other agencies and management companies as they mull their future ahead of the pending Department of Justice ruling on ICM’s proposed acquisition by CAA.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentVivendi is on track to own a 57.35-percent stake in Lagardère, the French media, publishing and travel retail conglomerate, following a public tender offer which took place May 27 to June 9. If approved by the anti-trust board, Vivendi will also own 47.33% of the voting rights of Lagardère.

Special purpose acquisition companies—known as SPACs—have been all the rage in the world of investment for the last two years, and they’ve made a mark in the media space, but is the trend slowing down?

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorAs Endeavor marks the first anniversary today of its debut on the New York Stock Exchange, the company deserves credit for doing a lot of things right.The stock has stayed above its IPO price of $24 for most of the past 12 months. The company has generated enough topline revenue gains amid tough economic conditions to demonstrate that its divisions have room to grow.But in other ways, the company led by Ari Emanuel looks to become harder to sell in the future if Endeavor wants to stay a public entity.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorMeta, the social giant formerly known as Facebook, beat Wall Street estimates for earnings in the first quarter of 2022 — but fell short on the revenue front — as it reported its slowest revenue growth as a public company.For Q1, Meta reported revenue of $27.9 billion, up 7% year over year. That’s the company’s lowest topline growth since its IPO in 2012.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese TV producer Linmon Media has filed an application for an initial public offering in Hong Kong. It is the third time that the eight-year-old company has sought a stock market flotation.The heavily-redacted draft prospectus, sponsored by Morgan Stanley and CICC, does not reveal how much fresh capital the company aims to raise, nor the company’s anticipated valuation.

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel’s 2021 compensation reached $308.2 million, at least on paper, thanks to the company’s initial public offering last April.

Media and technology sector consultant David Carde has filed suit against Endeavor for “breach of implied in fact contract” and “unjust enrichment”, alleging that the powerful talent, sports and events company stole his detailed analysis that led to the company’s successful $10.3 billion IPO in the spring of 2021. In the suit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Carde said that he was not given credit or payment for an analysis that he sent to Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel in 2019 after Endeavor’s failed IPO, which the consultant believes was crucial to the success of the company’s successful IPO effort.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterA media consultant claims in a new lawsuit that Endeavor stole his unsolicited ideas on how to pitch itself to Wall Street, and that his concepts are single-handedly responsible for saving the company from ruin.David Carde, who describes himself as a consultant in the media and technology sectors, alleges that in September 2019 his attorney emailed an 11-page analysis to Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel and to Ari Greenburg, the president of WME. He apparently never received a response.At the time, Endeavor was making its first effort to launch an IPO.

No one is ever going to say that Ari Emanuel doesn’t play rough, but a new lawsuit filed today accuses the Endeavor boss of having some very sticky fingers in his well compensated desire to turn his 2019 IPO dreams into a 2021 reality.

Smart-TV maker Vizio, which had its IPO nearly a year ago, reported fourth-quarter results below Wall Street expectations, with revenue slipping 14% from the same period in 2020.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese video streamer iQiyi cut its losses in 2021 to RMB6.2 billion ($968 million), compared to RMB7.0 billion in 2020 and said that recent cost cutting measures were quickly bearing fruit. But its latest regulatory filing also revealed that subscriber numbers continue to fall on both a quarterly and annual basis.The NASDAQ-listed company said that gross revenues for the 12-months to December 2021 were RMB30.6 billion ($4.8 billion), representing a 3% increase on 2020.

TPG, owner of CAA and 30% stakeholder in DirecTV, is on course to raise $1 billion when its stock begins trading Thursday on the Nasdaq at $29.50.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorTPG, the massive private-equity firm whose holdings include CAA, filed to go public.TPG proposed in its IPO filing to raise $100 million, but that’s with the caveat that the figure is only an estimate used to calculate the registration fee. The company said it intends to apply to list its common stock on NASDAQ under the symbol “TPG.”Overall, TPG has investments in more than 280 companies.

TPG, the private equity giant and owner of CAA, announced plans to go public and list its common stock on the Nasdaq under the symbol ‘TPG.’

Private equity firm TPG, the majority owner of talent agency CAA, has filed to go public via an initial public offering. The company will trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker “TPG.” Along with CAA, TPG’s other entertainment and media investments include Spotify, STX Entertainment, Vice Media, Fandom, Entertainment Partners and Cirque du Soleil.

Meme stock engine and message board giant Reddit moved a step closer to a public offering, launching the process this week via a confidential filing with the SEC.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorReddit, the popular internet discussion platform valued at more than $10 billion, said it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement with the SEC for a proposed initial public offering.Reddit announced the IPO filing Wednesday and had previously said it was contemplating going public.

Robert Marich As Hollywood constantly looks to novel forms of funding, the special purpose acquisition company or SPAC, has found new popularity over the past couple of years.