A subsidiary of internet group Baidu has agreed to invest RMB1.01bn ($160m) in China-based smart television producer Coocaa, according to a stock exchange filing today.
The Baidu subsidiary will also buy shares in Coocaa from one of its existing investors, Kujin Shenzhen, whose stake will be cut from 10.3% to 8.7%, while Baidu will hold an 11% share in Coocaa once both transactions have closed.
Coocaa was spun off from consumer electronics manufacturer Skyworth Digital, which will still own 64.3% of the company once the Baidu investment has been completed.
The company develops and producers internet-connected TVs but has agreed to divest its hardware business to Skyworth by May 2018, in return for all rights to its intellectual property. It will also form a long-term services agreement with Skyworth.
The deal comes after another China-headquartered internet group, Tencent, paid $44m for a 7.7% stake in Coocaa in June 2017. Baidu’s online video streaming spinoff, iQiyi, owned a 4.6% share of Coocaa prior to the latest transaction having invested $22.5m in 2016.
Baidu has already been somewhat active in the smart television hardware sector, having formed a partnership with smart TV producer TCL Multimedia Technology in 2013. Tencent invested $66m in Shenzhen Thunderbird Network Technology, a spinoff of TCL, in July 2017.
– Photo courtesy of Coocaa.