Alibaba interested in partnering Sony on movie franchises

Hong Kong

ALIBABA Group Holding Ltd showed interest in partnering Sony Corp on movie franchises including Ghostbusters when billionaire Jack Ma met Hollywood executives in October, e-mails revealed by hackers show.

Asia's largest Internet company also considered investing in Pixels, a 3-D computer-animated comedy starring Adam Sandler, and intends to produce about 10 movies a year, according to messages to Michael Lynton, chief executive officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.

Sony was the only studio where Mr Ma met executives in person during Alibaba's whirlwind tour of Hollywood, with actor Jet Li and others in his team of advisers talking to production houses to learn about co-investment in movies, the e-mails show. Alibaba is hunting for films and TV shows to compete against Tencent Holdings Ltd in China's online video market, which could be worth 40 billion yuan (S$8.46 billion) by 2017, according to IRe…