Spending $200 million to become Forbes' second-largest shareholder, Binance's business footprint expanded

Binance's business landscape has once again ushered in an update, becoming the second largest shareholder of forbes, a world-renowned media.

On the morning of February 10, 2022, Eastern Time, Forbes announced a $200 million strategic investment from Binance, a world-renowned cryptocurrency and blockchain infrastructure provider.

In an interview with the media, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said that with the development of Web 3 and blockchain technology and the maturity of the crypto market, media is an important part of consumer education in the ecosystem. Look forward to Forbes' digital initiatives and the development of a new investment insight platform.

According to Forbes news, Binance's strategic investment of 200 million yuan was carried out in accordance with the previous private investment (PIPE) subscription agreement.

In August 2021, Forbes announced that it would complete its listing through a merger with Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Magnum Opus. The combined company will continue to be led by the current management team and will retain the Forbes name, which, upon completion of the transaction, will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "FRBS" and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.

At that time, Forbes announced that it had received a $400 million private investment (PIPE) from top institutional investors, and Binance fulfilled the $200 million it promised under the agreement.

Binance insiders revealed to this reporter that it is currently the second largest shareholder of Forbes. The reporter learned that at present, forbes' largest shareholder is still Intuitive Whale Media Investments.

"Forbes is committed to unto the mystery of the event and will continue to provide news about blockchain technology and emerging digital assets," said Mike Federle, CEO of Forbes, "Through Binance's strategic investments, we now have the experience and resources of one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges and one of the most successful blockchain innovators." Forbes is becoming a news platform for readers interested in the emerging world of digital assets, and with Binance's help, we are poised to become a true leader in the field." ”

As part of the deal, Binance Chief Communications Officer Patrick Hillmann and Bill Chin, head of Binance Labs, Venture Capital Division and Incubator, will be on the Forbes Board of Directors this quarter after the successful completion of the business consolidation transaction.

According to foreign media reports, before finalizing the investment in Forbes, there were also communications in two or three media. Previously, Zhao Changpeng served as the technical director of Bloomberg, an internationally renowned financial information company.

Zhao Changpeng said in an interview: "Forbes as a century-old media (founded in 1917), I hope to help them enter the WEB 3.0 era. Our investments don't undermine the independence of the media, we don't get involved directly in the news business, what we do is we have to integrate the advantages into their business, and the two are relatively independent. ”

"We've been questioned about it before, but it's going well so far." Zhao Changpeng further said. He pointed out that when Binance spent hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire the cryptocurrency market website CoinMarketCap website in 2020, it was questioned whether CoinMarketCap would lose its impartiality and independence, and at present, CoinMarketCap is still the head of the encryption industry data website.

In the past two years, Binance's business territory has been expanding continuously, and in addition to building a crypto ecological empire, it has continuously involved in investment in traditional fields.

In the crypto space, invest in wallets, DeFi, privacy protection, security, CeFi and payments, data analytics tools, underlying infrastructure, communities, entertainment, and NFTs. In the field of CeFi and payment, FTX, CRED, Swipe and other nearly 10 products; in the field of privacy protection, oasis Labs, etc.; DeFi invested in more than 10 products such as PancakeSwap and Bakery Swap; and invested in Products such as Certix in the field of security, which is a head project in various fields.

This is mainly due to Binance Labs and Binance Smart Chain initiatives, which support innovative and promising projects in the industry.

In traditional areas, the main investment in technology tracks, including blockchain, artificial intelligence, 5G and other areas related to new infrastructure. Zhao Changpeng was also once listed on various wealth rankings and rich lists, and Binance also continuously listed unicorn companies.

Earlier, Zhao Changpeng said in an interview with China Times: "Binance's ecological map is not particularly perfect, there are many areas that do not have the ability to do it now, binance is still more in the field close to the financial industry to promote." ”

Editor-in-Charge: Meng Junlian Editor-in-Chief: Ran Xuedong