After a series of early unsuccessful attempts, TikTok rival Triller finally became a public company.
Completed merger with Hong Kong financial services company colornew Triller Group, Inc.. It was listed on the Nasdaq exchange on Wednesday (October 16).
As of noon ET, shares of Triller Group (ticker ILLR) were trading at $4.45 Each share fell approx. 20% from its opening price $5.60. The share price soared to $6.52 before pulling back.
Triller Group’s current share price is approximately $705 million – much lower than $4 billion That’s what Triller and AGBA were targeting when they announced their merger last spring.
The new Triller Group operates two main businesses: Triller Corp. and AGBA Group Holding Limited.
Under the terms of the all-stock merger, Triller shareholders receive 70% shares of outstanding common stock of the combined company, while AGBA shareholders receive 30%.
The listing marks the culmination of Triller’s years of efforts to go public, including a proposed SPAC and Haibian Internationalthe initial target valuation is US$5 billion2022.
When that plan failed, the company then planned a direct listing, which it said would be “the largest creator IPO in history.”
But that also failed to materialize, and the company launched another bid in 2023 before announcing a merger with AGBA in April 2024.
According to plans announced at the time, Triller co-founder Bobby Sarnevisht Named CEO of Triller Corp., also Bob Diamond Will serve as Group Chairman and AGBA Chairman Wu Yonghui Appointed Group CEO. Recently, the companies announced that Sarnevesht will also serve as a director of the combined company.
Triller Group said in a statement on Tuesday that it would reveal details about “future leadership, strategy and goals” on October 22.
Both Triller Group companies were showing signs of financial strain ahead of the merger.
AGBA is a Hong Kong-focused financial services company that claims 400,000 Customer reported Annual increase of 55.8% Revenue falls in first half of 2024 as commissions fall sharply, attributes to ‘recession’ [in China] and out-migration from Hong Kong.
In the years leading up to the merger, Triller was hit with a series of lawsuits over non-payment of music licensing fees on its platform, including one in 2022 sony musicaccusing the company of using “millions of dollars” of music without authorization. The lawsuit was settled in 2023, but Triller then faced another lawsuit, this one from universal music group Music licensing fees were allegedly not paid.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year, ahead of its planned initial public offering, Triller revealed it owed music rights holders $23.6 million in unpaid fees. The company has raised more than $420 million from investors, less than 1 million US dollars Cash and cash equivalents on hand.
As part of a merger plan approved by shareholders in September, Triller Group has 50 million The company’s shares “are used to resolve certain future legal and financial obligations of Triller.”
At current market prices, these stocks are worth $222.5 million.global music business
