Tencent and JD.com invest in LeEco's TV offering
Chinese Tech giants Tencent and JD.com are among the investors in LeEco’s television unit.
Both firms have invested around $48mn apiece in a 2.6% stake each in the business. Other investors included Suning and TCL, which are both said to have invested similar amounts.
LeEco is a Chinese conglomerate and the founder of Le.com, its TV unit which is currently in debt having encountered cash-flow issued from late 2016.
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Le.com will remain the biggest shareholder of the TV unit, which is officially called Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp, reportedly keeping a 33% stake.
It is possible that the struggling company tried to do too much too fast, having diversified among other things into smartphones, sports entertainment and electric vehicles. It announced earlier this year that it needed serious investment.
For its part, JD.com hopes that the investment will help accelerate its online sales via TV screens.
Tencent already had an existing partnership with Leshi, which involves Leshi TV distributing Tencent-owned TV and video content.
As a whole, the deal is said to total $318mn from corporate investors with more funds bring raised through debt-to-equity swaps.
