Iconic American Companies Owned by Chinese Investors

Headquarters: Venice, Los Angeles
Bought By: Tencent Holdings Ltd
Headquarters: Shenzhen, China

Taking a picture with a silly filter has never been so popular thanks to Snapchat. The company was founded by Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy in 2011, but neither one would have realized how popular it would become. At the moment, Snapchat is valued at over $20 billion.

Back in 2017, Tencent extended its reach to Snapchat, too. The tech giant poured in over $2 billion for a 10% stake in the company, hoping to see a tidy return from its investment. On the flip side, Tencent used its tech expertise to develop the augmented reality Snapchat uses even further.

Headquarters: Dallas, Texas
Bought By: Dalian Wanda Group Corp Ltd
Headquarters: Beijing, China

Starplex never had the same power in the industry as AMC did, with only 34 locations across America. As a result, many Americans never set foot in a Starplex theater because there just weren’t any around. The chain was bought by AMC in 2015 for $175 million, with many locations turned into AMC Classics.

As we discussed earlier, AMC Theaters is largely controlled by the Dalian Wanda Group Corp Ltd. As Starplex faded into obscurity when the last of the theaters were changed over to AMC in 2017, the company was swallowed by AMC and Dalian to become another cog in the machine.

Headquarters: Santa Monica, CA
Bought By: Hunan TV
Headquarters: Changsha

Lionsgate has been making movies since 1997, producing hits like The Hunger Games, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, American Psycho, and more. In 2015, Lionsgate and Hunan brokered a $375 million deal that saw the Chinese company dunging 25% of Lionsgate’s projects for the following three years.

Movies that benefited from the arrangement included Now You See Me 2, Age of Adeline, Gods of Egypt, and many other titles.  “This agreement reflects our strategy of teaming with entrepreneurial partners to expand our global operations in key markets while underscoring our commitment to a business model that mitigates risk,” said Lionsgate in a statement.

Headquarters: Gothenburg, Sweden
Bought By: Geely Auto
Headquarters: Hangzhou

Volvo may be a Swedish-born company, but it has history in America. AB Volvo sold Volvo cars to Ford in 1999, but ten years later the business would change hands again. This time, it was Chinese company the Geely Holding Group that came knocking.

Geely bought Volvo for $1.68 billion. The company has remained owned by them ever since. The union proved fruitful. Within 5 years, Volvo was back on top, selling 5 million cars for the first time in its operating history. Together, Geely and Volvo have continued to make strides and grow the brand.

Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
Bought By: Didi Kuaidi
Headquarters: Beijing

Lyft and Uber have been rivals for many years, which is why Lyft’s partnership with Chinese company Didi Kuaidi was made all the sweeter. The two companies struck a deal in 2015, joining forces to share riders at home and overseas.

Didi put in $100 million in a bid to help both companies become stronger in the battle against Uber. Interestingly, Didi is backed by Tencent and Alibaba, making it a force to be reckoned with in China already. At the time, Didi had triple the presence in China as Uber did, making it a super strong contender.