Photo Credit: Ximalaya
Tencent Music Entertainment completes its acquisition of Chinese audio platform Ximalaya in a $2.7 billion cash-and-stock deal.
Tencent Music Entertainment has announced the completion of its full acquisition of Chinese audio platform Ximalaya in a deal valued at around 18.6 billion yuan ($2.7 billion). The deal sees Ximalaya shareholders (including Tencent Holdings, Baidu, and Sony Music Entertainment) and employee stock ownership plan participants receive up to $1.26 billion in cash and around 175 million Tencent Music Class A shares.
On May 12, China’s market regulator approved the deal with five conditions, including requirements not to raise prices, reduce the proportion of free content, or enter exclusive licensing arrangements. The acquisition took nearly a year to complete, and further strengthens Tencent’s position in China’s audio market by expanding beyond music streaming into podcasts, audiobooks, and long-form audio content.
The process kicked off back in April 2025, when Tencent was reported to be in advanced negotiations to acquire Ximalaya. They formally announced the transaction in a filing dated June 10, 2025. But the deal passed the final regulatory hurdle last week, when China’s market regulator granted its conditional approval on Tuesday.
“The reason why we [pursued] the Ximalaya deal is because, for the management team and for the whole company, we always believe in the value of long-form audio,” said Tencent Music Entertainment Chairman Cussion Pang. “Long-form audio is a very important content form. To us, it’s already played a complementary role to our existing music business.”
A listing application filed in 2024 reported Ximalaya’s monthly active users as of 2023 at 303 million. The platform pursued IPOs multiple times between 2021 and 2024, including filings in the U.S. and Hong Kong, but these were all withdrawn or shelved.
In July 2021, China’s regulatory body fined Tencent 500,000 yuan ($77,000) and gave the company 30 days to give up its exclusive licensing deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group in China. Those restrictions applied to recorded music, while the new conditions extend similar restrictions to the overall audio category, which includes audiobooks and podcasts.
