Baofeng head Feng detained 
2019-07-30
Baofeng Group, which offers smart TV and media-playing services, said in a statement yesterday that its president and owner Feng Xin has been detained by police for “suspected crimes.”
When the company made its debut on the Shenzhen stock market in 2015, Baofeng’s share price surged to 327.1 yuan (US$48) from an IPO price of 7.14 yuan.
Yesterday, its share price fell 10 percent to 5.67 yuan, compared with the ChiNext market’s 0.3 percent gain.
The statement did not give any details of the case but it is thought to relate to a merger and acquisition made in 2016.
That year, Baofeng said it was paying 5.2 billion yuan to acquire international sports marketing and media rights firm MP&Silva, which held several international broadcasting rights for soccer and other sports. 
But MP&Silva went bankrupt two years later. Baofeng was then sued by a subsidiary of China Everbright Group, which funded the acquisition.
The unsuccessful acquisition was one example of Baofeng’s aggressive expansion in the so-called DT domain, referring to data and technology. It invested heavily in sports, virtual reality and smart TV businesses but met little success. 
Baofeng is expected to report losses of 230-235 million yuan in the first half. It made losses of 1.09 billion yuan in 2018.
