China's richest man Wang Jianlin has made news once again with his company, the Dalian Wanda Group, announcing the acquisition of Dick Clark Productions, the Golden Globe Awards producer, for S$1.38 billion (US$1 billion).
Wang has made statements in the past expressing his interest in lapping up key US entertainment banners and he is known to have made no distinction between one or the other but said he's interested in "all of them."
Here are 8 key points:
1. Wang has said his Wanda conglomerate, which started out as a property developer in China, aims to control 20 percent of the global box office revenues by 2020. Wang says he's chiefly interested in buying entertainment and sports assets in the US and Europe amid projections of tardy growth in Chinese entertainment sector.
2. In January 2016 the Chinese billionaire made history by acquiring a controlling stake in US film studio Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion. Wanda became the first Chinese company to own a major Hollywood studio with the acquisition of the maker of films like "Jurassic World", Godzilla" and "Pacific Rim". Wanda had earlier lapped up AMC Entertainment Holdings, which is the second-largest cinema chain in the US. Another Wanda acquisition in the entertainment industry was World Triathlon Corp, owner of the "Ironman" franchise.
3. "My goal is to buy Hollywood companies and bring their technology and capability to China," Wang told Reuters in an exclusive interview in September. He said that after completing the acquisition of two top of the line non-production film companies - each worth above $1 billion - his next target would be the "Big Six" movie studios of the US.
4. There were reports in July that the Wanda Group had approached Viacom Inc for acquiring its stake in Paramount Pictures. But Wang clarified that it's not only Paramount his empire is interested in. "We are interested not only in Paramount, but all of them. If one of the Big Six would be willing to be sold to us, we would be interested ... Only the six are real global film companies, while the rest are not. If we are to build a real movie empire, this is a necessary step," Wang said.
5. Wang presides over the sprawling Dalian Wanda Group, which has footprint in real estate, entertainment and sports. Asia's second-richest person made the right calls as he diversified his property behemoth into entertainment. Wanda's entertainment unit, Wanda Cultural Industry Group, reported a 57 percent rise in revenues in the first six months of this year.
6. Wanda Group is among the world's biggest commercial property developers and has 149 signature Wanda Plazas in China. Wang is also building the ambitious, $8 billion movie studio, the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis. He is also reportedly pushing China Eastern Airlines to start daily flights between Los Angeles and Qingdao by the time the studio becomes operational in 2018.
7. Wanda has a stake in Spanish football club Atletico Madrid, and it bought up Swiss sports marketing firm Infront Sports & Media AG.
8. The property magnate beat Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma to become China's richest man this year. According to the annual Hurun rich list, Wang had a personal fortune of $32.1 billion. The 62-yearold multi- billionaire served the People's Liberation Army for 16 years before venturing into business.
