By Fanny Potkin and Kane Wu
SINGAPORE, July 9 (Reuters) – Chinese gaming and internet company Tencent is in talks to become Manus’ largest shareholder as investors seek alternatives after Beijing ordered Meta to unwind its $2 billion acquisition of the AI startup, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.
The Financial Times first reported Tencent’s talks earlier in the day.
Tencent, together with Manus’ original investors, including ZhenFund and HSG, are planning to buy the company back from Meta for no less than $2 billion, said one of the sources and a third person briefed on the matter.
Tencent, Manus, Meta and the two investment firms did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
(Reporting by Fanny Potkin and Kane Wu in Singapore and Preetika Parashuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Muralikumar Anantharaman)