As per recent reports, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, plans to spend about $5 billion buying back stock from its shareholders. This comes as the company has faced several setbacks in its journey to becoming publicly listed, including the economy back in China and regulatory issues in the United States.

ByteDance Buying Back Stock

Reports suggest that ByteDance will be offering $160 per share to current holders, which is the same amount it offered to its employees for its restricted unit stocks last month. This concerted effort seems to imply that the company is tightening the reins before a possible public listing.

Still, the company does not seem to have a definite deadline for buying back the stocks or pursuing a public listing. If ByteDance does succeed in buying back the $5 billion worth of shares, it will be valued at about $268 billion. While this is impressive, it is reportedly 10% less than what it was valued at just last year.

The company has also recently taken steps to wind down its gaming division. It launched its Nuverse gaming brand four years ago with a plan to enter the gaming space. At the time, ByteDance had hoped to compete with giants in the market like Tencent and invested billions of dollars in this venture.

This included paying $4 billion for Moonton, a mobile gaming company, in 2021 and is now looking to sell the company. Nuverse did have some success with titles like Crystal of Atlan but this wasn’t enough. ByteDance confirmed last month that it was cutting hundreds of jobs in its gaming division and while it will not fold up entirely, it will scale down operations.

For the shareholders who are being offered a buyback, this could be beneficial. Those who bought into the company early can make a profit from their shares. And considering the fact that ByteDance’s public listing seems a good while away, shareholders might not get another chance to sell for a long time.

It is also worth noting that the company’s reduced valuation and cutting back on its gaming division means that this is the best price they can get. Some shareholders might choose to cash out now while others might want to hold on to their assets.

After all, ByteDance still owns one of the biggest social media apps on the planet. It has faced some regulatory setbacks in the US, including plans to ban TikTok altogether, but has come out on top.

Regardless of how the buyback situation unravels, it is clear that ByteDance is gearing up for some structural changes over the next few months, the results of which will be interesting to see.

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Japanese gaming giant Sega Sammy Holdings Inc (TYO: 6460) has announced it has made a generous offer to acquire Rovio Entertainment Oyj (HEL: ROVIO), the developer of the much acclaimed Finnish video gaming giant. As reported by CNBC, the deal is worth approximately $776 million and it accounts for a 19% premium from the company’s share closing price before the proposed acquisition was announced.

Sega Sammy valued the company’s stock at 9.25 euros per share, with  1.48 euros on the options. The duo of Sega Sammy and Rovio have a lot of complementary components and features in common and they are some of the most iconic game development outfits in the world and have earned a high reputation for their innovations.

Sega Sammy considers the Rovio-owned Angry Birds as a title it can build on to chart its international expansionary drive.

“Among the rapidly growing global gaming market, the mobile gaming market has especially high potential, and it has been SEGA’s long-term goal to accelerate its expansion in this field,” said Sega Sammy’s Group CEO, Haruki Satomi, in a statement.

The offer being made to acquire the Angry Birds maker comes as one that the company’s board appears satisfied with.

Angry Birds is “loved across the world,” he said. “I am confident that, through a combination of both companies’ brands, characters, fanbase, as well as corporate culture and functionality, there will be significant synergies created going forward.”

The Angry Birds character is not just a global brand, its role has expanded into different media. The Angry Birds game has been downloaded more than 5 billion times, showing how popular and revered it is around the world. With the game within the bigger Sega Sammy entity, the best of innovations are on track to be unraveled.

Sega Sammy and Rovio Games, Embracing Diversity

While the key initiatives bordering on the plans of Sega Sammy for the Angry Birds maker are yet to be fully revealed, it can be deduced that the game will be incorporated into the consoles of the company.

Commenting on the prospects of the two brands, Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, the Chief Executive Officer of Rovio said;

Red, the lead character in Angry Birds, and Sonic the Hedgehog were “two globally recognized and iconic characters made by two remarkably complementary companies, with a worldwide reach that spans mobile, PC/console, and beyond.”

The history of Sega which dates back to the 1960s and its successes in the gaming world in the 20th century remains one of its biggest milestones for sustainable growth. Sega Sammy was formed in 2004 when both Sega and Sammy merged to become an entity. Its deep knowledge of the market might account for why it is the favorite to acquire Rovio despite different offers from other market giants.

The deal to acquire Rovio remains one of the biggest the combined entity has inked since their rebirth. Shares of Sammy Sega are down 4.17% while Rovio is up 17.81% on the news.

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The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has agreed to merge with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to form a publicly-traded combat sports company. According to reports, the new company will be run by a talent and media holding company and UFC parent Endeavor Group Holdings.

The WWE deal comes months after news first emerged that the popular wrestling promotion sought a buyer. The Vince McMahon-controlled company has a current market value of $6.79 billion, although the deal valued the wrestling promotion at $9.3 billion.

The deal is expected to close near the end of the year and is subject to regulatory approval.

Details of Merger

The WWE-UFC merger would see Endeavor Group CEO Ari Emanuel preside over the combined company as chief executive. Emanuel will also retain his CEO position at the original Endeavor Talent Agency/William Morris Agency-merged company. Meanwhile, WWE’s McMahon will serve as executive chairman of the wrestling promotion, while current UFC president Dana White will also remain in that role. Furthermore, Endeavor president and chief operating officer Mark Shapiro will function as executive chairman of the new company. Lastly, WWE CEO Nick Khan will retain his position as president.

Pursuant to the deal, the merger will comprise 11 people, with six appointed by Endeavor and five by WWE. Although the new company’s name will be announced later, the merger will reportedly trade under the stock ticker TKO.

Endeavor Group will take a 51% controlling stake in the combined company, with the remaining 49% going to WWE’s shareholders.

WWE shares fell in premarket trading following the deal’s announcement, while Endeavor’s shares climbed.

The WWE decision to merge with the UFC comes a day after the wrestling promotion concluded its annual WrestleMania. The premier 2-day, pay-per-view event was a spectacle that drew tens of thousands of ardent fans to Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium. While WrestleMania was ongoing, bankers and executives from both sides of the merger were applying the deal’s finishing touches.

The newly-merged combat sports company is worth more than $21 billion, with stakeholders expecting that it would rise further. According to inside sources, the value of rights for live events such as wrestling and MMA will continue to appreciate. As Shapiro put it:

“Must-watch TV is a rarity these days. And unicorns like the UFC and WWE will be heavily in demand.”

WWE & UFC Merge to Offer All-Inclusive Scripted & Real Competitive Fights

By merging WWE with the UFC, Endeavor gains control of two of the biggest combat sports promotions with strategically esoteric offerings. With the UFC, the holding company appeals to fans who crave authentic, brutal, spontaneous, and unscripted mixed martial arts bouts. However, acquiring WWE also allows Endeavor to offer scripted and dramatic competitive fighting to fans who crave such.

It is also worth noting that there are already crossover athletes between both combat promotions. For example, current WWE superstars Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey also previously competed under the UFC banner. The duo were one-time UFC champions in their respective weight classes and have also held WWE championships numerous times.

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Access to finance remains a key growth constraint for small businesses, with data showing a $330 billion financing deficit for the small enterprises that make up 90% of Africa’s businesses.

This is the gap that Kenya’s embedded finance fintech Pezesha seeks to bridge as it expands into Nigeria, Rwanda and Francophone Africa following a $11 million pre-Series A equity-debt round led by Women’s World Banking Capital Partners II with participation from Verdant Frontiers Fintech Fund, cFund and Cardano blockchain builder Input Output Global (IOG). The round also included a $5 million debt from Talanton and Verdant Capital Specialist Funds.

The fintech’s new growth strategy follows its plan to power its embedded finance offering beyond its current markets including Uganda and Ghana, to bridge the financing gap affecting millions of micro, small medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across these markets.

Founded in 2017 by Hilda Moraa, Pezesha has built a scalable digital lending infrastructure that allows both traditional and non-traditional finance institutions to offer working capital to MSMEs.

“The opportunity and impact in solving working capital problems for SMEs is huge. [We are] solving the root cause, which is information asymmetry issues, to ensure quality and responsible borrowing. Pezesha solves this through our robust API driven credit scoring technology,” Moraa, also the CEO, told TechCrunch.

The fintech works with partner companies such as Twiga and MarketForce, which integrate its credit scoring APIs in their platforms to enable their customers get real time loan offers.

Pezesha said it is currently working with over 20 partner companies that have enabled it to extend loans to over 100,000 businesses to date. It expects this number to grow before the end of the year as an additional 10 companies integrate with its infrastructure. The fintech is able to extend loans of up to $10,000 at single digit interest rates, and a repayment period of one year.

Pezesha plans to create a $100 million financing opportunity each year for businesses by tapping local and international banking institutions, high net-worth individuals and decentralized finance.

“We are building for the future and this means tapping new innovations for additional liquidity that allows us to offer affordable loans to SMEs,” said Moraa, a two-time founder, who started Pezesha after successfully exiting Weza Tele in 2015.

Charles Hoskinson, the co-founder of IOG and Cardano, while commenting on their investment in Pezesha said in a statement that, “Facilitating the movement of capital into emerging markets to support economic growth and job creation is a core promise of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Our vision is centered on using technology to make it easier for people across the globe to borrow and lend to each other in a regulated way. This investment in Pezesha is an important milestone, and we’re excited to be a part of their growth story.”

The IOG’s investment into Pezesha follows an earlier announcement that the two companies had partnered to build a peer-to-peer financial operating system for Africa.

Moraa said that working with strategic partners like Cardano will open up the debt liquidity market and offer the affordable capital critical for the growth of all sectors of the economy.

The fintech plans to open up more lending opportunities for women entrepreneurs who continue to be locked out by the formal banking sector.

“Pezesha is dedicated to solving Africa’s working capital problem through its robust lending infrastructure, and this investment will allow them to deepen the range of financial products offering especially to women owned MSMEs,” said Christina “CJ” Juhasz, the chief investment officer of Women’s World Banking Asset Management.

Pezesha did not reveal how much it has raised in the past, but Moraa noted that 20% of its initial pre-seed investment in 2017 was from local angels. The fintech, which raised seven figures last year, counts Seedstarts, GreenHouse Capital and Consonance Investment Managers, among its several investors.

“We have the right business model, are profitable, and continue to pursue the kind of investors that are aligned with our goals and values,” Moraa said.

Facebook Parent Meta may soon allow its users to create and sell non-fungible tokens (NFT) as it is trying capitalise on the digital collectible craze, reported Financial Times. Teams at Facebook and Instagram are designing features that will let users to display their NFTs on their social media profiles, and also help them create the collectible tokens.

In the meantime, the price of Bitcoin was down by 0.41 per cent and was trading at $42,084.95 at 5:00 pm, while its dominance in the crypto market is currently at 40.13 per cent, down by 0.10 per cent in the last 24 hours.

Ethereum (ETH) was trading at $3,144.10, with a rise of 0.96 per cent in the last 24 hours, while Binance Coin (BNB) was up by 0.32 per cent over the same period and was trading at $463.80. Solana (SOL) up by 1.30 per cent to $137.56 and Cardano (ADA) was down by 4.77 per cent to $1.35.

Meme Coins

All major meme coins such as Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogelon Mars (ELON), and Samoyedcoin (SAMO) have shown a minimal change in the last 24 hours.

Dogecoin was up by 0.91 per cent while trading at $0.1648 at 5:00 pm. Rival Shiba Inu was up by 0.99 per cent and was trading at $0.00002789, Dogelon Mars fell by 042.61 per cent and was trading at $0.000001202, while Samoyedcoin was trading at $0.01838 and recorded a rise of 1.67 per cent.

Overall Scenario

The global crypto market cap was $1.99 trillion, registering an increase of 0.62 per cent in the last 24 hours, while the total crypto market volume was $49.91 billion, down by 39.39 per cent.

NinjaFloki (NJF) became the biggest gainer, recording a rise of 714.17 per cent; it was trading at $0.000009534 at 5:00 pm. On the other hand, En-Tan-Mo (ETM) witnessed maximum loss, falling 88.76 per cent; it was trading at $0.001957.

Latest Update

Viacom18’s Youth, Music and English Entertainment (YME) cluster will soon step into the digital space of NFTs with the announcement of the NFT marketplace Fullyfaltoonft.com. The marketplace will go live on February 14, 2022, and offer digital art conceptualized and created by the team that brings to life brands such as MTV, Vh1 and Comedy Central in India, according to press statement.

“The global media and entertainment industry has recognised the power of NFTs. As one of the world’s largest media markets, India is uniquely positioned to be at the focal point of this ‘Web3 revolution,” said Anshul Ailawadi, Head, Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Viacom18.

Moreover, Russia’s central bank on Thursday proposed banning the use and mining of cryptocurrencies in Russian territory, citing threats to financial stability, citizens’ wellbeing and its monetary policy sovereignty, according to various media reports.

ByteDance, the company behind the trending short videos application, TikTok is working towards challenging Zukerburg’s Meta Universe in the up-and-coming metaverse industry. According to an announcement from ByteDance earlier this month, the company has begun to establish manifold changes, starting from laying down formal structures that will distinguish categories of employees based on their departments. This restructure came as an attempt to gain global recognition in other arenas after achieving exceptional success with TikTok.

Is ByteDance Following Facebook’s former growth strategy to Replace it?

While TikTok has established its dominance in the short video applications sphere, however, ByteDance has greater ambitions, one of which is to overpower former Facebook, and now Meta platform and take its place on the throne of Web3. ByteDance plans to continue building upon TikTok’s revenue-generating capabilities, and at the same time, use that success to expand into the Western markets with a broader suite of apps and services. One could speculate that ByteDance is following Facebook’s growth strategy of setting up the base with one core application, exactly like Facebook did in the early 2000s. Later on, using the revenue gains and market confidence from that one app to further branch out, which is similar to what Facebook did by acquiring WhatsApp and Instagram, along with becoming a single sign-in source for other services.

“ByteDance’s overseas layout is not only limited to the short video industry, but also includes some upstream news and music platforms…ByteDance has great ambitions for the overseas markets, and its competition with Facebook has become more apparent.”, Ashley Dudarenok, a China marketing expert and founder of digital marketing agencies Alarice and ChoZan told Wired.

When it comes to TikTok’s success there is no doubt that the application has outperformed itself despite backlash from Chinese regulators. Last month, the viral short video application entered the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) market with the launch of its first-ever NFT series “TikTok Top Moments”. The series immediately gained a positive response from the community and became a big hit. It will be exciting to see what is next on TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance’s checklist.

Digital Currency Group (DCG), the parent company behind Grayscale investments and Coindesk has raised the second largest funding in crypto history with a $700 million raise. The funding round was only second to FTX crypto exchange’s mammoth $900 million raise earlier this year. The latest funding round set DCG’s valuation at $10 billion, making it one of the richest crypto companies.

*Crypto Conglomerate Digital Currency Group Raises $700 Million in Investment Round at $10 Billion Valuation

*Digital Currency Group Investment Round Is Second-Largest in Crypto Sector

*Digital Currency Group Owns CoinDesk, Grayscale, Genesis

— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) November 1, 2021

The funding round was led by Softbank and saw participation from Google’s Capital G and Ribbit Capital as they try to gain more crypto market exposure beyond Bitcoin. DCG’s latest funding round came out of the blue given the firm has only raised $25 million since its inception six years ago.

“We’re the best proxy for investing in this industry,” Barry Sibert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, told CNBC in an interview. “We were looking for the type of backers that could be, and hopefully will be with, with us on this journey for the next couple of decades.”

DCG’s crypto custody venture Grayscale, the world’s largest digital custody service provider is also looking to convert its premier Bitcoin offering into an ETF. The Bitcoin trust fund is currently valued at around $50 billion.

Crypto Funding Continues to Soar Through the Sky

2021 hasn’t been just the year for the crypto market, it has been even more prominent for crypto companies as they have raised billions in funding in the first three quarters of 2021. Several crypto startups have attained a unicorn status as well and the size of funding rounds has also increased by nearly 10X.

Until 2021, $100 million funding rounds topped the list but FTX crypto exchange changed it all with a mammoth $900 million raise. FTX raised another $420 million in October to attain a $25 billion valuation, making it one of the most valuable private crypto exchanges.