According to ChinaStarMarket, smartphone maker Black Shark was recently forced to launch a new round of layoffs. The publication also went on to say that these layoffs came after Tencent gave up on a deal that would’ve seen the company acquire Black Shark for roughly $375 million.
ChinaStarMarket explained that Black Shark’s virtual reality business unit was hit the hardest by these layoffs. In fact, insiders said that 60% of Black Shark’s VR employees were let go as a result of these layoffs.
Earlier this year, rumors began to swirl that Tencent was going to acquire Black Shark. Once this deal had gone through, Black Shark was expected to transition from manufacturing phones to making virtual reality devices, However, 21Jingji reported that Tencent gave up on the deal due to regulatory concerns, instead opting to invest in Black Shark rather than acquire the company outright.
Black Shark is a gaming subsidiary brand of Xiaomi that was launched in 2018. As recently as this past May, the company’s CEO reportedly said that Black Shark is still looking for funding as well as a new potential acquisition deal.
(All information was provided by PingWest, TechNode, and Wikipedia)
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