Chinese streaming firm DouYu terminates US$5.3b merger with Huya

[BENGALURU] DouYu International Holdings said on Monday it had terminated its US$5.3 billion deal with Huya, two days after China's market regulator blocked Tencent Holding's plans to merge the country's top two videogame streaming sites.

China's State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) on Saturday said it would block the deal on antitrust grounds, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

Tencent first announced plans to merge Huya and DouYu last year in a tie-up designed to streamline its stakes in the firms, which were estimated by data firm MobTech to have an 80 per cent share in a market worth more than US$3 billion.

Tencent is Huya's biggest shareholder with a 36.9 per cent stake and also owns over a third of DouYu, with both firms listed in the United States, and worth a combined US$5.3 billion in market value.

US-listed shares of DouYu were down 2 per cent premarket, while those of Huya were down about 1 per cent.

The deal termination also comes amid an ongoing government crackdown on Chinese tech companies.

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REUTERS