BEIJING, May 12 (TMTPOST) — Chinese tech giant Tencent has reportedly given up its plan to acquire Black Shark Corporation.

Reports of Tencent planning to acquire Black Shark Corporation have started to circulate on the Internet since January. However, Tencent might have aborted the acquisition plan due to the inability to get further progress.

Black Shark Corporation is a Chinese tech company that specializes in the research and development of gaming smartphones and gaming devices. Established in 2017, the company was funded by Xiaomi and started by former employees of Coolpad and Huawei, etc. As of 2019, Black Shark Corporation had around 200 employees.

Tencent confirmed that it has already invested in Black Shark Corporation but declined to comment on the report of the termination of the acquisition plan, the Paper reported, quoting sources familiar with the matter.

The Paper reported earlier in January that Tencent was planning to acquire the company. The industry speculated that Tencent intended to further penetrate the metaverse industry with the acquisition of Black Shark Corporation.

Black Shark Corporation’s CEO Luo Yuzhou hinted on multiple occasions that the company has been exploring VR and AR.

Luo said on Weibo that Black Shark Corporation focuses on hardware for virtual games. “Black Shark bridges the gap between gamers and virtual games with hardware. AI can create new things or even construct a new dimension by learning about the physical world,” Luo said. “Perhaps we would be able to see many interesting virtual realities in the future. It is Black Shark’s mission to provide a better user experience for gamers and bridge the gap between them and the virtual world.”

Black Shark Corporation has rolled out eleven smartphones by far and maintained its leadership in the gaming smartphone sector. The company has filed over 470 patent applications, more than 270 of which have been approved and recognized.