Credit:Visual China

Meituan announced that it has entered into the agreements of share purchase and equity transfer to acquire the entire interest in an AI startup Light Year Group. Meituan will pay about US$233.67 million in cash, including a payment of US$28 million to a previous investor HongShan, a spinoff of venture capital giant Sequoia, and assume liabilities of RMB366.92 million, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Thursday. Meituan will inherit about US$285 million of net cash owned by Light Year. Upon completion of the agreements, the Ai firm will become Meitan’s wholly-owned company.

Light Year is engaged in research and development of large language models (LLMs), which empower the popular generative AI products including ChatGPT. The startup was born with much attention in China’s tech sector as it was founded by Meituan’s co-founder Wang Huiwen, who invested in US$50 million as a controller and revealed US$230 million of subscription funds from the leading venture capital obtained in February.

In a statement last Saturday, Meituan suddenly disclosed that Wang resigned as the non-executive director due to personal health. Future of Wang’s AI firm turned more uncertain. When Wang realized he had to quit all the jobs for he was surely not in good health, he talked with his team and investors about the health issue, and contacted with four companies, including Tencent, ByteDance, Meituan and Kuaishou, to work on a variety of possible solutions, according to GeekPark, a Chinese tech news media outlet.

The recent takeover of Light Year suggests that Meituan, led by Wang’s ally, will hold his legacy and step up exploration into AI. Wang and Meituan CEO Wang Xing are classmates at Tsinghua University and used to live in one room, where one of them slept at the top bunk and another at the bottom. After graduation, the duo co-founded Meituan and Xiaonei Network, a Facebook-like social media later renamed to Renren. In an open letter released following Wang Huiwen’s announcement of retiring from Meituan in late 2020, Wang Xing called his partner “a lifelong friend who can have collision of thoughts and soul conversations with me”.   

Wang Xing’s action speaks even louder. He announced that he decided to join in Light Year’s Series A round of funding and serve as a board director in March, a month right after the startup’s inception.  “The AI ??model made me not only excited for the upcoming huge productivity that it creates, but also worries about its future impact on the whole world,” Wang posted at Tencent’s social media WeChat. “Wang (Huiwen) and I have been together on the road of entrepreneurship for nearly two decades. Since he is determined to embrace this big wave, I must support.”

Meituan’s board doesn’t expect the acquisition would have any material financial impact on the earnings, assets and liabilities of the company.The latest financial report showed Meituan has enough firepower to do a multi-million-dollar deal.   Meituan held cash and cash equivalents of RMB26.9 billion and short-term treasury investments of RMB84.5 billion as of March 31.

The quarter ended March saw Meituan revenue increased 26.7% year-over-year (YoY) to RMB58.6 billion, and the operating loss for its New Initiatives, a segment including the community group buying platform Meituan Select and the online fresh grocery marketplace Meituan Grocery, continuously narrowed to RMB5.0 billion, with a 40.5% YoY decrease. The company vowed to continue to implement the "Retail + Technology" corporate strategy, leverage technology to bring new advancements and growth opportunities, fulfill its mission that "We help people eat better, live better", and create more value for all the participants in itsecosystem.

本文內(nèi)容來源:鈦媒體英文站

本文系作者 Li_Dan 授權鈦媒體發(fā)表,并經(jīng)鈦媒體編輯,轉載請注明出處、作者和本文鏈接
本內(nèi)容來源于鈦媒體鈦度號,文章內(nèi)容僅供參考、交流、學習,不構成投資建議。
想和千萬鈦媒體用戶分享你的新奇觀點和發(fā)現(xiàn),點擊這里投稿 。創(chuàng)業(yè)或融資尋求報道,點擊這里。

敬原創(chuàng),有鈦度,得贊賞

贊賞支持
發(fā)表評論
0 / 300

根據(jù)《網(wǎng)絡安全法》實名制要求,請綁定手機號后發(fā)表評論

登錄后輸入評論內(nèi)容

快報

更多

13:11

市場監(jiān)管總局:著力提升對網(wǎng)絡不正當競爭行為的常態(tài)化監(jiān)管水平

13:11

市場監(jiān)管總局:防治大型企業(yè)等經(jīng)營者拖欠中小企業(yè)賬款

13:10

南下資金凈買入港股超50億港元

13:09

市場監(jiān)管總局:綜合運用各類反不正當競爭措施,著力防治平臺經(jīng)濟、光伏、鋰電池、新能源汽車等重點行業(yè)和領域“內(nèi)卷式”競爭

13:07

高鐵軌交概念午后異動,中鐵工業(yè)等多股漲停

13:03

光纖概念持續(xù)走強,長飛光纖5天3板續(xù)創(chuàng)歷史新高

12:44

恒鋒工具:距離“鋒工轉債”停止轉股日僅剩半個交易日

12:33

豐田2月份全球銷量為737,134輛,同比下降3.3%

12:24

商務部:將推出優(yōu)化離境退稅2.0版措施,讓境外旅客購物更便利更實惠

12:19

柬埔寨國會通過《反電信網(wǎng)絡詐騙法》草案

12:15

保利發(fā)展59億競得上海中山公園一宅地,成交樓面價77697元/平

12:09

倫鋅日內(nèi)漲超2%,報3177.08美元/噸

12:05

港股午評:恒生指數(shù)跌0.93%,恒生科技指數(shù)跌1.70%

11:58

中國將在長江水下開高鐵,沿江高鐵總投資超5000億元,帶動上下游行業(yè)增加值增長近1.5萬億元

11:48

世界最大直徑高鐵盾構機“領航號”歷經(jīng)23個月安全掘進,成功“上岸”

11:37

A股午評:三大指數(shù)早盤漲跌不一,貴金屬板塊持續(xù)走強

11:34

國內(nèi)期貨主力合約多數(shù)上漲,集運歐線漲近6%

11:26

滬金主力合約日內(nèi)漲幅擴大至2%,現(xiàn)報1012.30元/克

11:25

水利部長江委:今年汛期長江流域來水量偏枯

11:15

富時中國A50指數(shù)期貨轉漲,此前跌超1%

掃描下載App