Deals
Besties? Why Alibaba, Tencent Are Teaming Up in $15 Billion Deal
- Longtime rivals Jack, Pony Ma join forces for second time
- Deal poses threat to China's Baidu as O2O market expands
Alibaba-Backed Meituan Said to Merge With Dianping
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Jack Ma and Pony Ma, whose business rivalry dates back more than a decade, are starting to look like the best buddies of China’s Internet.
Jack, founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and Pony, founder of Tencent Holdings Ltd., are joining forces for the second time this year by combining two startups they’ve financed separately. Alibaba-backed Meituan.com and Tencent-backed Dianping.com, which have been competing in offering local services online, said Thursday they would merge. Under their agreement, Wang Xing, chief executive officer of Meituan, and his counterpart at Dianping, Zhang Tao, will run the new company as co-chairmen and co-CEOs.