Source | APPSO
Wang Xing succeeds Wang Huiwen! Meituan acquired Light Years away with a wholly-owned investment of about 2.1 billion yuan.
This afternoon, Meituan announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it has completed the acquisition of 100% of the shares of domestic and foreign entities light years away, with a purchase price of approximately 2.065 billion yuan.
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According to Meituan, the total value of the acquisition is US$234 million, with RMB 367 million in debt and RMB 1 in cash. After the completion of the transfer agreement, Meituan will hold 100% of the equity of Light Years Beyond Group.
In February of this year, Wang Huiwen, who retired from Meituan for more than two years, posted on Moments that he would build "China's OpenAI", invested 50 million US dollars to establish an AI company light years away, and posted a "hero post" to recruit AI talents.
After the establishment of Light Years Beyond, it quickly obtained the A-round financing personally participated by the former "comrade-in-arms" Wang Xing, and served as a director.
Wang Huiwen and Wang Xing are classmates, friends, and business partners. They were roommates at Tsinghua University. In 2010, Wang Huiwen sold his start-up company and led his team to join the start-up Meituan.
After Wang Huiwen founded Light Years Beyond, Wang Xing said in his circle of friends: "The AI model makes me excited about the huge productivity that will be created, but also worried about its future impact on the entire world. Lao Wang and I are on the road to entrepreneurship I have been with him for nearly 20 years, and since he is determined to embrace this big wave, I must support him.”
However, 4 months after the establishment of Light Years Away, Wang Huiwen announced that he would leave his post due to illness. It is reported that Wang Huiwen has been diagnosed with depression and has been admitted to the hospital for treatment, and will not be able to continue to hold his current position in the short term to lead the team light years away.
The announcement issued by Meituan on the evening of June 25 stated that due to personal health reasons, Wang Huiwen proposed to resign as a non-executive director of the company, a member of the nomination committee of the company's board of directors and an authorized representative of the company. This is the second time Wang Huiwen has left Meituan.
Light Years Beyond is committed to promoting the realization of AGI inclusiveness. After its establishment, it has attracted many top experts and entrepreneurs in the field of AI to join. According to sources, the current team size of Light Years Beyond is about 70 people.
Meituan said that after the completion of the merger, it will continue to support the Lightyear team to continue to explore and research in the field of large models.