Report: Alibaba Plans to Sell Gaming Brand Lingxi Interactive in Deal Valued at 7-9 Billion Yuan
N.R. Finch
Alibaba plans to sell its gaming unit Lingxi Interactive (灵犀互娱) at a 7–9 billion yuan valuation, having approached 37Games, Century Huatong and others. The move extends Alibaba's ongoing retreat from non-core assets to concentrate resources on e-commerce, cloud and AI.
What is Lingxi Interactive, and why sell it?
Lingxi's revenue has long depended on **a single title — *Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Strategic Edition***, consistently among China's top-grossing mobile games.
Yet the studio never incubated a second breakout hit; the business has shifted from a growth story to a steady cash-flow asset.
This means → it makes money but has limited upside — exactly the kind of asset that goes on the block when a conglomerate tightens its focus.
Why is Alibaba making this call now?
Since Eddie Wu (吴泳铭) became group CEO, Alibaba has set "user-first, AI-driven" as its core strategy, calling the next three to five years a critical window for AI infrastructure investment.
Joe Tsai (蔡崇信) has publicly said the group was spread too thin and must channel capital and management bandwidth into the most strategically valuable areas.
In plain terms = from selling Intime and Sun Art to the reported Lingxi deal, the logic is consistent: anything outside e-commerce, cloud and AI is up for sale — freeing cash and headcount for the three main lanes.
Who are the buyers, and what do they want?
People familiar with the talks say potential acquirers include 37Games (三七互娱), Ruyee (中国儒意), Century Huatong (世纪华通) and Giant Network (巨人网络), along with a private-equity consortium.
Buyers are drawn not to the "Alibaba brand halo" but to Lingxi's market-proven, stable cash generation and mature operating infrastructure.
This reflects a structural shift in China's gaming industry: user growth has plateaued, and spending billions to gamble on a new title now looks riskier than acquiring a proven, revenue-generating asset outright.
What does this deal mean for Alibaba?
If the transaction closes at roughly 8 billion yuan, it reads more as efficient resource recycling than a forced strategic retreat.
Gaming's synergy with the group's e-commerce, cloud and AI core has been declining steadily — selling it frees not just cash but management attention.
In plain terms = for Alibaba, this is not cutting losses — it is clearing the shelf so every remaining business connects to AI and cloud.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.