Clive Ng
Encyclopedia
Clive Ng is a media sector financier
Financier
Financier is a term for a person who handles typically large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. The term is French, and derives from finance or payment...

 and executive. He has focused primarily on Asian business opportunities and has been instrumental in several joint-venture partnerships between American companies and Asian firms, particularly during the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 and e-commerce boom of the late 90s and early 2000s. He has also been a founding shareholder in Asian new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...

 firms such as MTV Japan
MTV Japan
MTV Japan is the Japanese version of the cable television network based in Japan. It is a subsidiary of MTV Networks, and was launched on December 24, 1992. It can be viewed on cable television, SKY PerfecTV!, SKY PerfecTV! e2 and IPTV.-History:MTV originally was a music block on JORX-TV from 1989...

 and E*TRADE Asia.

Currently, he is founder and Executive Chairman of China Cablecom Holdings.

Career

Ng's work in Asian media began in the mid-1990s, as a proliferation of satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

 space and a spate of programming piracy
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...

 during this time inspired huge efforts by many mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...

 firms, most notably Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

's News Corp., to develop presences in Asian media markets.

Wilton Group, PLC

Working as deputy chairman of Wilton Group, PLC, a former consumer goods distribution firm based in London, UK, that transitioned to media and entertainment investment and finance, Ng spearheaded the company's entry into Asian media markets.

In a 1994 joint-venture partnership with Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

–based Shaw Brothers Ltd (formerly Shaw Media Corp. and owners of Shaw Brothers Studio
Shaw Brothers Studio
The Shaw Brothers Studio , owned by Shaw Brothers Ltd., was the foremost and the largest movie production company of Hong Kong movies.From their distribution base in Singapore where they founded parent company Shaw Organization in 1924, and as a strategic development of their movie distribution...

, Hong Kong's largest film production company), Ng's Wilton team financed the establishment of a Chinese-language satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...

 channel for Chinese-speaking communities in Europe called Chinese Channel. It was the first European network of its kind, broadcasting programs primarily produced by Hong Kong Television Broadcasting Ltd, the world's largest Chinese-language entertainment producer at the time.

Later in 1994, Ng acquired for Wilton a 20% stake in the Asian interests of Denver-based cable television operator United International Holdings (now Liberty Global), with which Ng had worked previously while managing a Denver investment fund. He then set up a joint venture
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...

 between UIH and United Artists Theatres, then the United States’ largest movie theatre operator, to open a series of cineplexes in key cities in Asia. The first was in the Bugis Junction
Bugis Junction
Bugis Junction is an integrated development located at Victoria Street, Middle Road and North Bridge Road in Bugis, Downtown Core Planning Area in Singapore. The development consists of a shopping mall, an office tower and the InterContinental Singapore Hotel...

 shopping mall in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, followed by six other locations.

Pacific Media, PLC

In the late 90s, Wilton Group became Pacific Media, PLC. Ng was appointed CEO in 1999, when the company was experiencing a period of financial turmoil. Soon after his appointment as CEO, Ng negotiated an investment deal with Hong Kong Supernet, an Asian Internet provider, that precipitated a 1.89m HKP surge in pre-tax profits, greatly bolstering the financial health and reputation of the company.

Upon being named CEO, Ng transformed Pacific Media into a "shell" company and used it to invest in new Asian Internet ventures beginning in 2000. He secured financing from American investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston
Credit Suisse First Boston
Credit Suisse First Boston was the former name of the banking firm Credit Suisse.-History:In 1978, Credit Suisse and First Boston Corporation formed a London-based 50-50 investment banking joint venture called the Financière Crédit Suisse-First Boston...

, and set forth a £70 million plan.

Asiacontent.com

One major result of these "shell" investments was the acquisition of internet company Asiacontent.com, which went public during the bursting of the dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...

 in April 2000 to become one of the first Asian IPOs
Ipos
In demonology, Ipos is an Earl and powerful Prince of Hell who has thirty-six legions of demons under his command. He knows and can reveal all things, past, present and future...

 to be listed on NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...

.

Prior to going public, in January 2000, Ng, with funding from Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...

, led Asiacontent into a joint venture with NBC Internet Inc (or NBCi), then the Internet arm of the American television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...

 NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

, to create a series of websites in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Malaysia and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 that would combine search engine
Search engine
A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. Search engines help to minimize the time required to find information and the amount of information...

 functionality, news feeds and shopping links into sites similar to those of Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...

, the worldwide leader at the time. This came on the heels of similar successful NBCi ventures in Italy and France.

Under Ng's tenure as Chairman of Asiacontent, the company also entered into many other major joint ventures in Asian media markets, and Asiacontent soon became the largest distributor of global content in Asia.

Among the partnerships were:
  • DoubleClick
    DoubleClick
    DoubleClick is a subsidiary of Google that develops and provides Internet ad serving services. Its clients include agencies, marketers and publishers who serve customers like Microsoft, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Motorola, L'Oréal, Palm, Inc., Apple Inc., Visa USA, Nike, Carlsberg among others...

     Inc., an Internet advertising
    Advertising
    Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

     network which sold online advertising space to marketers. The venture formed a new company, DoubleClick Asia, in an effort to capitalize on a late-90s Asian Internet advertising boom.

  • MTV
    MTV
    MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

     Asia, the television network
    Television network
    A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...

    's Asian arm, and MTVi Group, its interactive division. The partnership with Ng's Asiacontent created new Chinese
    China
    Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

     and Korea
    Korea
    Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

    n web presences for MTV
    MTV
    MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

    .

  • CBS Sportsline, which joined with Asiacontent to create a network of sports-related websites throughout Asia, including Singapore
    Singapore
    Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

     and Korea
    Korea
    Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

    .

  • CNET
    CNET
    CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...

     and Asiacontent produced a series of Asian-language CNET
    CNET
    CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...

     sites across the region.

  • Licensing agreements to bring E!Online and France's Fashion TV
    Fashion TV
    Fashion TV is an international fashion and lifestyle broadcasting television channel. It was founded in France in 1997 by its Polish-born president Michel Adam Lisowski, Fashion TV is the only 24/7 international TV network exclusively dedicated to fashion, beauty, glamour and style and has become...

     to Asia.


Toward the end of 2000, amid the souring tech economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...

, Ng and Asiacontent Chief Executive Chris Justice expanded the company with an Internet solutions arm called Asiacontent Solutions, which offered web development
Web development
Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet or an intranet . This can include web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development...

 and content management
Content management
Content management, or CM, is the set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. In recent times this information is typically referred to as content or, to be precise, digital content...

 services for the Asian web presences of companies such as Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

, Hachette Filipacchi, and L'Oréal
L'Oréal
The L'Oréal Group is the world's largest cosmetics and beauty company. With its registered office in Paris and head office in the Paris suburb of Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, it has developed activities in the field of cosmetics...

.

In the years after the bursting of the dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...

 and ensuing stock market
Stock market
A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...

 turmoil, Pacific Media soon became financially troubled. Media firm MediaXposure then invested $20 million in the flagging company in 2003 to keep it operational through the first quarter of 2004. In late 2006, after Pacific Media had regained its financial stability, Ng resigned from Pacific Media's Board of Directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

 to pursue other interests.

8 Holdings

After leaving Pacific Media, Ng formed his own investment
Investment
Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...

 holding company
Holding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...

, 8 Holdings, which specialized in mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...

 of Asian media companies. In 8 Holdings' largest deal, Ng joined in 2005 with Harlan Kleiman, former head of programming for US cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

 network HBO, to coordinate investors in the acquisition of Chinese television advertising company China Media Network by Metaphor Corp. Ng was named CEO of Metaphor Corp. as part of the acquisition.

Investment in Feature Films

Ng has also invested in major motion pictures directed by Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...

, including 1993's Heaven & Earth, the final in Stone's trilogy of films focused on the Vietnam War; and 1994's Natural Born Killers
Natural Born Killers
Natural Born Killers is a 1994 crime/black comedy film directed by Oliver Stone about two victims of traumatic childhoods who became lovers and psychopathic serial killers, and are irresponsibly glorified by the mass media...

.

China Cablecom

Clive Ng is Founder and Executive Chairman of China Cablecom Holdings, a joint-venture provider of cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

 services in the People’s Republic of China. The Company was founded in October 2006 and was approved for listing onto the NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...

 Capital Markets on July 30, 2008.

In September 2007, China Cablecom gained operating rights of the Binzhou
Binzhou
Binzhou is a prefecture-level city in northern Shandong province, People's Republic of China. Sitting on the northern bank of the Yellow River with two arms extended to the southern bank, Binzhou borders the provincial capital of Jinan to the southwest, Dezhou to the west, Zibo to the south,...

 Broadcasting network in Binzhou, Shandong Province. China Cablecom entered into a series of asset purchase and services agreements with a company organized by State Owned Enterprises (“SOE”), owned directly or indirectly by local branches of China’s State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television
State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television
The State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television is an executive branch under the State Council of the People's Republic of China...

 (“SARFT”), in five different municipalities to serve as a holding company of the relevant businesses.

Pursuant to the terms of an agreement and plan of merger, Jaguar, a special purpose acquisition company merged with and into China Cablecom Holdings, Ltd., its wholly owned British Virgin Islands
British Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...

 subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...

, for the purpose of re-domesticating Jaguar to the British Virgin Islands on April 9, 2008. This merger was the first of its kind for a US public company.

In May 2008, China Cablecom issued convertible notes with a principal value of $43,175,000 along with 1,524,994 shares of ordinary shares to a number of investors. China Cablecom also announced its achievement of “Foreign Private Issuer” status, for purposes of the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the company declared its entrance into a framework agreement with Hubei Chutian Broadcasting and Television Networks Co., Ltd., a local state-owned enterprise owned by the Hubei branches of SARFT. This act established a cable TV operation joint venture.

On June 18, 2008, China Cablecom announced the completion of the first phase, of its framework agreement with Hubei
Hubei
' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...

 Chutian Broadcasting and Television Networks Co., Ltd., to acquire a 60 percent economic interest in Hubei Chutian Video & Information Network. This consummation secured over 800,000 additional paying subscribers for China Cablecom. Phase two would represent an additional 800,000 paying subscribers and is pending further due diligence and execution of definitive agreements.

On October 9, 2009, the Company underwent comprehensive restructuring
Restructuring
Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs...

 of its outstanding debt obligations with holders of it Hubei assets and of its debt securities and majority holders of its ordinary shares. The restructuring strengthened the Company's balance sheet by reducing the overall principal amount of its long-term debt obligations and eliminated cash interest obligations on the new debt securities issued in exchange for its outstanding notes. Simultaneous to the restructuring, China Cablecom announced placement of $ 33 million in senior secured notes used to satisfy the Company’s remaining obligations to the Hubei SOE under its amended framework agreement.

External links

  • Clive Ng at ZoomInfo
    ZoomInfo
    ZoomInfo is a vertical search engine focused on people, companies, and the relationships among them.-Overview:Zoom Information Inc. was founded by Jonathan Stern in 2000 as Eliyon Technologies. The company’s investors include Venrock Associates and Vulcan Capital.The site powers people searches for...

  • China Cablecom Holdings
  • China Broadband Inc

  • Media of the People's Republic of China
    Media of the People's Republic of China
    Media of the People's Republic of China primarily consists of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. Since 2000, the Internet has also emerged as an important communications medium....


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