HK portal stumps up $11m for Taiwan media group

<p>TAIPEI: Hong Kong portal Tom.com has acquired Sharp Point </p><p>Publishing, Taiwan's largest Chinese-language youth magazine and book </p><p>publisher, for HK$85.3 million (US$10.9 million). </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Sharp Point owns several titles and has established a strong brand among </p><p>Taiwan's teenage segment. It publishes nine monthly and four bi-monthly </p><p>magazines, with a combined circulation of more than 330,000 in 2000. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Sharp Point also has a book publishing division with 3,800 titles, </p><p>covering as many as 25 areas of interest including Japanese comics. Its </p><p>monthly print run was more than 300,000 last year. The company's revenue </p><p>totalled NT$474.8 million (US$13.8 million) last year, up </p><p>from $324.7 million the previous year. Sharp Point's president, </p><p>Michael Huang, said the company's "goal is to bring our successful </p><p>franchise to China". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The acquisition is the latest addition to Tom.com's print media assets, </p><p>and will allow content sharing between Tom.com's network of portals and </p><p>its offline businesses. The move is also in line with Tom.com's </p><p>aggressive cross-media expansion strategy. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>