Rakuten Set to Acquire Its Second Video Streaming Site Viki

Kara Swisher at AllThingsD reported that Rakuten is set to acquire Singapore-based video site Viki for $200 million. The acquisition was revealed in an interview with Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani who has led the retail company further into the content and publishing field with an investment in Pinterest, and the acquisition of e-book platform company Kobo as well as Spanish video rental company Wuaki.

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Bloomberg Adds to the Rumored Merger Plan Between XL Axiata and Axis

A report from Bloomberg today raises again the often circulated rumor of a merger between Malaysia owned XL Axiata, one of Indonesia’s top three mobile carriers, with Axis, one of the smaller ones, owned by Saudi Telecom and Malaysia’s Maxis. Our sister site Trenologi reported on the rumor about a month ago.

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Sometimes a Bootstrapped New Startup Can Acquire a Larger Competitor

Earlier today The Next Web reported that Singapore-based bill-splitting startup BillPin has acquired BillMonk, its largest and perhaps oldest competitor. BillMonk had been one of the longest serving sites which provide a way for people to easily keep track of group expenses and lends, having been founded in 2005. BillPin itself is only six months old. Most Indonesians might not be aware of both these companies but they certainly address a need that’s commonly found anywhere and the acquisition itself is an interesting move.

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[Updated] SITTI and Ice House Sitting on a Tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G

Ice House, the software development company set up by former Yahoos may have acquired SITTI, or at least has made some sort of a talent arrangement with the company that once made an open challenge to Google*. An email we received described the relationship as having Ice House talents powering up the SITTI engine. It may not be an acquisition but it begs the question of whether Ice House will have time to work on other client projects, although we are actually hearing word of an acquisition.

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[Manic Monday] Why The Universal Music Purchase Of EMI May Turn Out To Be A Good Thing

The music industry was abuzz late last week regarding the approval from the European Commission and the US’s Federal Trade Commssion, regarding the planned purchase of EMI’s recording arm by the already-dominant Universal Music Group International. Many groups, including indie bands and indie labels, have stated opposition to the deal from the start, saying that Universal will have too much power in the market, and of course articles here and there have claimed that this is the day that the music died.

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Bouncity Sold to Game Publisher Qeon (UPDATED)

We finally get confirmation that location based service Bouncity has been sold to game publisher Qeon for undisclosed amount. ~~The previous owner, PhaseDev, is now focusing on the other two services under its management, Wayang Force and Tiket, while buzzing around with new stealth stuffs~~. According to source close to this matter, the Bouncity’s deal is closed on June before two of its key players, Kevin Osmond and Richard Fang, departing. Osmond and Fang are now collaborating to create consulting gig named Weekend Inc.

Qeon itself is a new player in game publishing industry. Its current product is Shadow Company, a First Person Shooter (FPS) online game that was launched in April. While Bouncity has some gamification process in the service, we are still not quite sure about the future of Bouncity under Qeon management. Qeon is part of MidPlaza group and having tight relationship with Biznet.

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News Portal Okezone is Acquired by Linktone

China-based entertainment and new media provider Linktone announces the acquisition of Indonesian online news portal Okezone. Linktone acquired Okezone from PT Media Nusantara Citra (MNC), the company’s indirect majority shareholder. Okezone claims to be Indonesia’s third most popular news and entertainment website. While only serves in Indonesian, Okezone is said to be growing rapidly in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Japan and United States. Currently Okezone is having over 100 reporters and editors. The amount of acquisition is not diclosed.

Surprisingly, the Chairman and CEO of Linktone is actually the owner of MNC Group too, Hary Tanoesoedibjo. So it feels more like internal reorganization, rather than being acquired by outsiders. There must be some repositioning of Okezone on bringing it to regional level. The assumption is supported by the completion of Linktone’s new company, PT Innoform, that will facilitate the distribution of MNC-owned contents and pay TV channels to market outside Indonesia. Okezone will be the perfect vehicle to cater the online contents.

Moreover, the board agrees to relocate Linktone’s principal office from Shanghai to Singapore. We could safely assume that Southeast Asia will be major focus for Linktone in the future. Linktone provides entertainment-oriented telecom value-added services and content to mobile users over the second generation (2G) and 2.5G mobile telecommunications networks in China and Indonesia, as well as the third generation (3G) mobile telecommunications network in Indonesia. It’s a public company and has already listed in NASDAQ.

OkeShop Acquires Global Teleshop

Two large electronic products distribution companies finally unite through acquisition. OkeShop (which has Trikomsel – TRIO as its official trade name) acquires 80% of Global Teleshop’s shares to the amount approaching US$100 million. The fund to finance this acquisition came from the sale of shares. The purchased Global Teleshop’s shares belonged to Trilinum, while the remaining 20% is still owned by Global Perkasa Mandiri.

Previously, OkeShop and Global Teleshop had an alliance since the end of December 2010. Combination of both distribution networks will have more than 1100 outlets all over Indonesia. OkeShop will also be taking over three subsidiaries that are currently owned by Global Teleshop. Both OkeShop and Global Teleshop are distributors and retailers of various leading mobile phone brands targeting in the mid-to-high-end, including BlackBerry and Nokia.

Interesting thing is, Global Teleshop is also an Apple Authorized Reseller selling a range of Apple products to areas outside Jakarta. It’s likely that OkeShop will develop the Apple reseller network to reach a wider audience

About the Synergy Between Bakrie Telecom and Sampoerna Telekomunikasi

Several days ago, Bakrie Telecom (BTEL) and Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia (STI) announced a collaboration in which STI would acquire 10% of BTEL shares (worth $90 million) and in return, BTEL receives 35% of STI shares which is currently owned by Sampoerna Strategic and Polaris with an option to be the largest shareholder of STI in the next 3 years. Business entity will be synergized under BTEL.

Michael Sampoerna as President Director of Sampoerna Strategic, owner of STI, cited by Kompas, stating that the reason for collaborating with BTEL is to increase its competitiveness in order to expand in the data communications infrastructure, which will become a trend in the future. In other words, rather than making a costly investment in this area (and Sampoerna is not sure that they would gain profit), it is better to go with other entity that is “more secure”.

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