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Deals and Investment - June 19, 2018

S’African billionaire buys LA Times for $500m

Soon-Shiong

South African-born billionaire, Patrick Soon-Shiong, has officially purchased the LA Times for $500m (R6.8bn), promising to rebuild The Times and to bring stability to a newsroom.

Patrick Soon-Shiong will immediately become the executive chairman of the California News Group and plans to relocate most of the 800 employees to El Segundo before the end of July.

He is so dedicated to rebuilding The Times that since March, he has taken a crash course in media with the help of high-profile news professionals.

Patrick Soon-Shiong was in born July 29, 1952 in Port Elizabeth. His parents are Chinese immigrant and fled from China during the Japanese occupation in World War II. He is also a surgeon, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.

He founded Abraxis BioScience, the maker of the drug Abraxane and he sold the company to Celgene in 2010. In January 2013, he founded another biotech company, NantOmics, to develop cancer drugs based on protein kinase inhibitors. According to Forbes, he has an estimated net wealth of $7.5bn.

 

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