On August 17, 2015, Tencent Holding Limited completed a $50 million investment in Canadian messaging app, Kik. Kik is a popular app among 13 to 24 year-olds in North America and has 240 million registered users.
Tencent is the $200 billion Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. arch-rival and owner of WeChat, a Chinese social messaging platform that Kik has aspirations to become. This transaction is a strategic partnership to help the start-up win mobile messenger supremacy. The funding will be used primarily to grow the Kik team and to expand offerings on the app.
Osler acted for Tencent with a team comprised of Chad Bayne, Simon Leith (M&A), Joanna Fine (Privacy) and Colin Kelly (Employment & Labour).