Next Media
In 2012, the Next Media Group withdrew from the Taiwan market and sold its Taiwan operations, including Apple Daily, Sharp Daily, Next Weekly and the Next TV cable network. In 29 November, investors including Want Want China Times group president Tsai Shao-chung, Formosa Plastics Group chairman William Wong and Chinatrust Charity Foundation chairman Jeffrey Koo, Jr, signed a contract with the Next Media Group in Macau. Tsai Shao-chung is the son of Tsai Eng-meng, the chair of the Want Want Group, who owns China Times, one of the largest newspapers in Taiwan, and has acquired 60% of the second largest cable TV services on the island. Tsai Eng-meng had made a controversial comment in an interview with Washington Post, stating that reports about massacre in the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989 were not true. If the Next Media buyout deal were approved by the Taiwan Government, Want Want Group would control nearly 50% of Taiwan's news media. Fearing that Tsai's pro-Beijing position and the media monopoly would hurt media freedom and democracy, protesters campaigned to urge the Taiwan Government cancel the Next Media sale.