Alibaba agrees on acquisition deal with south china morning post

Dec 17, 2015 Alibaba Group Holding Ltd recently agreed to a $266 million deal to acquire the South China Morning Post and other media assets of SCMP Group Ltd.

The deal effectively transfers control of the 112-year-old English language newspaper from Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok to Chinese billionaire Jack Ma.

As Hong Kong’s leading English-language newspaper, the South China Morning Post is reputed for reporting issues and topics that are considered sensitive in mainland China, where many news reports are heavily censored.

Therefore the sale of the company has raised questions over the future for its editorial independence.

In a letter to readers, Alibaba’s Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai dismissed suggestions that Alibaba will compromise the newspaper’s editorial independence. However, he added that the world needed a plurality of views when it comes to the coverage of China.