Tencent CEO Pony Ma. Photo credit: Techcrunch on Flickr, under Creative Commons license

Chinese tech giant Tencent has reached a deal to acquire Iflix, a Malaysia-based video streaming company that primarily serves the Southeast Asian markets. According to reports, Tencent will continue the Iflix brand name for at least 6-12 months after the acquisition and is expected to retain the majority of the company’s staff. Although having raised about $350 million in funding, Iflix has lost money heavily and recently saw the departure of two of its co-founders from the company entirely. In April, when both co-founders resigned, Iflix laid off more than 50 of its employees.

Iflix is said to have been targeting an initial public offering on the Australian Stock Exchange to raise more funding before the coronavirus outbreak struck and halted its plans. Under Tencent, Iflix can presumably further its cause, even though its sale to the company seems more like a fire sale than an intently planned acquisition. Financial terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed. Public filings indicate Iflix has accumulated losses of $379 million since its inception.

Tencent’s acquisition of Iflix notably comes on the heels of reports of the company looking to take-over Chinese streaming service iQiyi. Unlike Iflix, iQiyi is a publicly-traded company and has a market cap (as of writing) hovering around $17 billion.