The good folks at Dark Horse Entertainment have partnered with a Chinese company known as Vanguard Visionary Associates. This particular company is based in Hong Kong, and it appears as if Dark Horse chose to partner with Vanguard for the sake of gaining access to the Chinese market.
We should point out that this is more than just a simple partnership. According to the CEO of Dark Horse, Mike Richardson, he will retain a large chunk of the company after this deal after a "large investment into a number of areas, including a stock purchase,... a development fund and a film fund, investment in the publishing and product divisions, and expansion of our retail efforts."
Now, as for the chairman of Vanguard Visionary Associates, he’s called Stanley Cheung. He was once the chairman of Walt Disney Company in Greater China, but today, he has joined the board of Dark Horse Entertainment and will be in the midst of making decisions.
For those who might not be aware of some things, Dark Horse Entertainment is the owner of Dark Horse Comics, Dark Horse Studios, and the retail chain, Things From Another World. Interestingly enough, each establishment will receive major investments as part of the deal.
Many might be wondering why Richardson allowed this deal to go through. Well, from what we have stated above, it’s all about accessing a new market, but not only that, he said he "did this deal to accelerate company growth. Nothing like cash and new markets to help with that task."
China has over 1 billion people, and access to even a fraction of that number should be more than good enough to secure future growth in the business. Time will tell if this plan pays off, and whether or not the current trade war between the USA and China will make things difficult.