Alpha Animation and Culture Company LTD., parent company of Auldey Toys North America who distributes Sky Rover Voice Command Helicopter, Wave Racers, and produces the children’s animated TV show Super Wings, have acquired 100% shares of U17.com, China’s premier platform for original comics and animations.

Alpha, one of the largest animation and entertainment businesses in China, has years of experience in operating and creating value from animation. U17.com, the largest online platform in China for the creation and publication of Internet comics, is committed to converting animations, films, games, and other full-fledged entertainment products on its platform through this partnership.

The transaction will incorporate U17.com into Alpha’s Anime, Comic, and Games (ACG) platform, which is expected to become the growth engine for Alpha’s “pan-entertainment” ecosystem. The marriage of the two companies, valued at RMB 904 million (about $141.2 million US), will be the largest merger and acquisition deal in the Chinese animation history.

The U17.com website brings an average of 40 million hits a day and it has close to 7 million registered users and over 40,000 comics created by 20,000 cartoonists.

U17.com unveiled Plan U, the business plan for its next phase of development. Plan U will include the ambitious target of increasing the number of professional comics and cartoonists on the platform by tenfold; and, more importantly, U17.com’s plan to introduce a much-improved revenue sharing scheme to its considerable base of freelance authors, who may see their income from their creations doubled, tripled, or more.