马云媒体帝国若影若现

2015年，中国电商巨头阿里巴巴集团经历了相当不平凡的一年。在一年多之前，这家公司创出了全球最高募资纪录，但由于市场对中国经济增速放缓存在担忧，阿里巴巴集团的股价下跌了25%左右。

不过，这并没有阻止住阿里巴巴前进的步伐。消息人士最新透露，阿里巴巴集团及创始人马云当前正考虑收购位于香港的《南华早报》。

本月初，《中国日报》曾报道称，阿里巴巴集团正考虑从嘉里集团手中收购南华早报集团的控股股权。不过彭博社最新报道称，收购南华早报集团的并不是阿里巴巴集团，而是该公司创始人马云。彭博社援引消息人士的话称，“谈判已进入预付款阶段，”预计双方最快将于本周宣布这一交易，但不会公布收购金额。马云当前的个人净资产约为220亿美元。

如果马云最终真的收购了《南华早报》，那无疑将和亚马逊CEO杰夫•贝索斯的做法异曲同工。

2013年，贝索斯曾以个人名义出资2.5亿美元收购了《华盛顿邮报》。当时，该报社部分员工和读者一开始对贝索斯的收购感到惊讶，但是在收购完成之后，《华盛顿邮报》不仅改善了财务状况，还受益于它与亚马逊金牌会员的捆绑政策，在数字领域扩展了市场。

《南华早报》曾归属于新闻集团，一度是全球最赚钱的报纸之一。1993年，马来西亚富商郭鹤年通过旗下嘉里传媒买下南华早报集团的控制权并持有至今，目前，郭鹤年约控制集团73.99%的股权。在过去的几年中，《南华早报》的订阅用户和营收一直在持续下滑。2013年，其利润下滑25%之后，该公司的股价曾终止交易。而在最近半年时间里，《南华早报》已有包括总编辑在内的35名员工离职。

几乎以肯定，如果马云收购了《南华早报》，他肯定也会像贝索斯一样，把自己的经营理念和构想输入到这家公司当中。这也许会有起死回生的功效，但在香港本地市民看来，无论该报纸是被阿里巴巴集团所收购，还是被马云个人纳入麾下，都并非积极信号。原因在于，马云与内地政府关系过去亲密。

实际上，这已经不是马云及其阿里集团首次投资媒体。从2013年入股新浪微博开始，阿里系力量已经投资了包括科技媒体虎嗅、36氪，财经媒体第一财经、商业评论，综合媒体无界、封面，影视媒体文化中国、华谊兄弟、光线传媒，在线视频媒体优酷土豆等众多媒体公司，其媒体帝国已若影若现。（财富中文网）

Alibaba, the Chinese conglomerate founded by Jack Ma, has had quite a year—it went public a little over a year ago in the largest initial public offering ever recorded, with a value of more than $25 billion. Since then, the share price has declined by about 25% on concerns about the weak Chinese economy, but Alibaba BABA 1.70% has not stopped growing. And now, according to a number of reports, either the company or Ma are in talks to acquire the South China Morning Post.

Earlier this month, China Daily reported that Alibaba was in discussions to acquire SCMP Group, the company that publishes the South China Morning Post, from majority shareholder Kerry Group, a Malaysian conglomerate.

But a more recent report from Bloomberg News, says that two unnamed sources told the financial news service that Ma, not Alibaba, is in discussions to buy the Hong Kong-based newspaper. Bloomberg describes the talks as “at an advanced stage.” The sources said that a deal of unknown value could be announced as early as this week. Ma’s net worth is estimated at $22 billion U.S.

If the Alibaba founder does acquire the Morning Post—which at one time was the most profitable newspaper in the world—he would be following in the footsteps of other billionaire tech moguls such as Jeff Bezos, the Amazon AMZN 1.58% founder and CEO who acquired The Washington Post for $250 million in 2013. Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes also bought the venerable U.S. magazine The New Republic, although his ownership has not been without controversy.

Some Washington Post staffers and fans were initially taken aback by the Bezos acquisition, but since the purchase, the paper has improved its financial health and has even expanded its online presence, in part through deals that bundled access to the Post with Amazon Prime memberships.

But like Bezos, Ma will have to come up with some bundling and/or revenue-generating ideas of his own if he buys the Morning Post, because the once-powerful paper has seen better days.

Once owned by News Corp., the Morning Post was sold in 1993 to Malaysian financier Robert Kuok, via his holding company Kerry Group, and has seen its revenue and readership slide substantially in the past few years. In 2013, after SCMP reported its earnings had fallen by more than 25%, its stock was suspended from trading. Most recently, over the past six months, more than 35 staffers left the newspaper —including the editor-in-chief.

Regardless of whether the Morning Post is bought by Ma or Alibaba, the deal may not be looked on positively by some Hong Kong residents.