If Hollywood handed out an award for film financing, it would go to Alibaba founder Jack Ma.<\/p>\n
Studio heads are anticipating an influx of investment dollars from Asia, thanks to the Chinese e-commerce giant, which is poised to pull off the biggest public stock sale in history on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Japan’s Softbank \u2014 which owns more than a third Alibaba Group Holdings and is sitting on a large pile of cash as a result \u2014 has been visiting the bamboo-decorated executive suites of film studios with an eye toward winning a role in the movie business, sources said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Japanese have started to take an interest,\u201d said one source. \u201cThey’ve talked to Jeffrey Katzenberg’s DreamWorks Animation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Softbank has held early stage talks with at least three other studios, Relativity, Lionsgate and Legendary Entertainment, according to sources familiar with the discussions.<\/p>\n
A spokeswoman for DreamWorks said the firm couldn’t comment on speculation. Relativity and Legendary declined to comment, while Lionsgate didn’t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
A major player in Japan’s mobile market, Softbank also owns 70 percent of No. 3 wireless player Sprint. The company is hunting for content partnerships that can strengthen Sprint against larger rivals Verizon and AT&T.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Softbank, run by Japan’s richest man, Masayoshi Son, is talking to Alibaba about how they might jointly approach Hollywood from both an investment and content acquisition standpoint.<\/p>\n
Alibaba’s Ma is interested in creating the \u201cNetflix of China\u201d by acquiring streaming rights to shows and films, in particular in geographic territories where Netflix doesn’t have much of a foothold, said one person familiar with talks.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoftbank and Alibaba are both looking at investing,\u201d said a top Hollywood executive. \u201cThey are getting aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Son’s $20 million investment in Ma’s Alibaba has turned into $55 billion windfall just a decade and a half later. Given their lucrative history, it makes sense for them to pursue investment opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cMashayoshi Son and Jack Ma haven’t engaged [directly] yet, but the two companies are trying to get smart,\u201d said a source.<\/p>\n
Clearly, Softbank has money to burn \u2014 and the movie business can easily help spend it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHollywood has a way of sniffing out the dumb money,\u201d said one source.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Softbank appears intent on driving deeper into the media business. Last year, the Japense tech and telecom made an $8.5 billion bid to acquire Universal Music Group from Vivendi, which rebuffed the offer.<\/p>\n
Softbank already has articulated a strategy to get deep into the video gaming business, according to one source. Last year, it acquired Finland-based game maker SuperCell for $1.5 billion.<\/p>\n
Softbank wasn’t immediately reachable for comment.<\/p>\n
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