China-based entertainment and new media provider Linktone announces the acquisition of Indonesian online news portal Okezone. Linktone acquired Okezone from PT Media Nusantara Citra (MNC), the company’s indirect majority shareholder. Okezone claims to be Indonesia’s third most popular news and entertainment website. While only serves in Indonesian, Okezone is said to be growing rapidly in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Japan and United States. Currently Okezone is having over 100 reporters and editors. The amount of acquisition is not diclosed.
Surprisingly, the Chairman and CEO of Linktone is actually the owner of MNC Group too, Hary Tanoesoedibjo. So it feels more like internal reorganization, rather than being acquired by outsiders. There must be some repositioning of Okezone on bringing it to regional level. The assumption is supported by the completion of Linktone’s new company, PT Innoform, that will facilitate the distribution of MNC-owned contents and pay TV channels to market outside Indonesia. Okezone will be the perfect vehicle to cater the online contents.
Moreover, the board agrees to relocate Linktone’s principal office from Shanghai to Singapore. We could safely assume that Southeast Asia will be major focus for Linktone in the future. Linktone provides entertainment-oriented telecom value-added services and content to mobile users over the second generation (2G) and 2.5G mobile telecommunications networks in China and Indonesia, as well as the third generation (3G) mobile telecommunications network in Indonesia. It’s a public company and has already listed in NASDAQ.
