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New York Federal District Court Dismisses Investor Lawsuit Over Tencent Music IPO

By Stan Soocher
May 01, 2021

China-based titan Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) has been expanding its international reach for the past several years. With online music, live-streaming and karaoke services, TME's 2020 revenues were $4.5 billion (live-streaming and karaoke accounted for 72% of this) with a market capitalization of $51.8 billion. As part of its expansion, TME and its parent company Tencent Holdings now own a 20% equity stake in Universal Music Group and 10% of Warner Music Group in the United States.

In December 2018, TME launched a U.S. initial public offering (IPO). But the IPO resulted in an investor's class action suit alleging TME violated federal securities laws. This is part of a trend of increasing such securities suits against foreign companies, though the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York recently dismissed the investor claims in Gordon v. Tencent Music Entertainment Group, 19-CV-5465 (E.D.N.Y. 2021).

In the lawsuit, the plaintiff Theresa Gordon alleged TME and its co-defendants violated the federal Securities Act, the Securities Exchange Act, and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations. This included TME's alleged omission of material facts in its IPO Registration Statement in violation of §11 of the Securities Act, 15 U.S.C. 77k(a).

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