The startup and tech media domain is seeing a major move today. Nikkei, the Japanese media behemoth that owns the likes of Financial Times among others, has officially announced its majority stake acquisition of DealStreetAsia. The terms of the transaction remain undisclosed.
With a established presence in the financial news and coverage domain, Nikkei is seeing this deal as an enabler, that will help it to deepen its coverage of the fast-growing Asian startup ecosystem and tech industries.
Nikkei bought DealStreetAsia shares from existing investors SPH Ventures, North Base Media, Alpha JWC, K2 VC and SGAN, as well as from angel investors such as Paytm CEO and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and prominent American investor Jim Rogers. Indian business daily Mint, published by the Hindustan Times, will remain a minority shareholder.
DealStreetAsia runs an online publication that mainly tracks deal-related news focused on private equity, venture capital and startups. It has full-time correspondents in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and India.
Nikkei owns the Financial Times and runs the Nikkei Asian Review, an English-language news publication focused on Asia. The Japanese media group has about 1,500 journalists worldwide and 37 foreign editorial bureaus, with a combined digital and print circulation of 4 million, including the FT.
Nikkei’s partnership with DealStreetAsia will have “a strong focus on developing the editorial offering at Nikkei Asian Review, a key product in our global strategy,” said Naotoshi Okada, president and CEO of Nikkei.
The group also aims to leverage DealStreetAsia’s content to strengthen offerings from scoutAsia, a joint venture engaged in corporate news and data services launched by Nikkei and the FT.
The deal follows Nikkei’s 2015 acquisition of the FT for 844 million pounds ($1.3 billion), the biggest-ever overseas acquisition by a Japanese media company.
