Lamigo Monkeys’ management yesterday confirmed that the club are being sold to Japan’s Rakuten, saying that a news conference would be held today with representatives from the Tokyo-based e-commerce firm to make an official announcement.
The Japanese-language sports daily Sankei Sports was the first to break the news, reporting that the negotiations over the sale were successful.
The parties are in the process of reaching a deal, said Monkeys general manager Justin Liu (劉玠廷), son of club founder Liu Pao-yu (劉保佑), adding that more details about the transaction would be announced with the Rakutan representatives today.
Justin Liu has kept the league informed about the ongoing negociations, Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) secretary-general Fong Sheng-shien (馮勝賢) said.
CPBL commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) is to attend the news conference today, given the importance of the sale, Fong added.
Management needs to submit sale paperwork to the league and there are several procedural hurdles to jump through, Fong said, adding that the sale could not be finalized until the league’s executive council approved it.
The league’s rules about changing team ownership and adding a shareholder differ, Fong added.
In June, the Monkeys won the CPBL championship, their 13th. They set a record as the nation’s only professional baseball team to win five consecutive titles.
Despite the team’s success, the public was shocked to hear from club management in July that it was looking for a buyer after sustaining losses of NT$1.6 billion (US$51.61 million) over the past 16 years.
According to sports experts, the Japanese e-commerce group is to acquire the team for NT$330 million, a low price to pay for a multinational corporation that can earn about NT$285 billion in sales revenue per year.
However, the price that the group reportedly offered was below market value, the experts said, adding that Rakuten likely offered to become a club shareholder and let Justin Liu continue as manager.
Rakuten owns a professional baseball team in Japan, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, and a professional soccer club, Vissel Kobe, in the J1 League.
In 2016, the group beat out other international firms in signing the soccer club Barcelona to a four-year, US$235 million agreement that allows Rakuten to put its name on the front of the side’s jerseys. Rakuten also secured a deal to have a patch with the company brand on the jerseys of the Golden State Warriors.
Next month, Rakuten is to sponsor NBA overseas warmup games between the Toronto Raptors and the Houston Rockets in Japan’s Saitama Prefecture, which would be a first in sports history for an East-Asian country.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
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