China’s answer to Amazon‘s Twitch — the wildly popular streaming site where gamers broadcast themselves — is the powerful duopoly of DouYu and Huya.
Now internet giant Tencent, which owns a controlling stake in both, is pushing for them to merge into a firm that would be worth some $10 billion.
Tencent confirmed the long-rumored plan by issuing public letters to Huya Inc. and DouYu International Holdings Ltd on Monday, suggesting the two combine through a stock-for-stock merger.
It paved the way for the push in April when it agreed to buy $810 million worth of shares in Huya from Joyy Inc by September 9, in a deal that will take its equity in the company to 51% and its voting stake to 70.4%.
NYSE-listed Huya and Nasdaq-listed Douyu are fierce corporate rivals that have cornered about 80% of the game live-streaming market between them, according to MobTech. Huya mostly engages in video game and esports streaming while Douyu is more diversified across live-streaming modes.
But the merger would create a company so large it could attract scrutiny from China’s anti-monopoly regulators.
– This article originally appeared on Caixin Global.
