Chinese antitrust regulator to block Tencent merger

China's antitrust regulator is set to formally block Tencent Holdings's plan to merge the country's top two videogame streaming sites, Huya and DouYu.

According to three people close to the matter who spoke to Reuters on Monday, Tencent failed to gather sufficient remedies to meet the State Administration of Market Regulation's requirements on giving up exclusive rights, said two of the people.

Tencent is Huya's biggest shareholder with a 36.9% stake and also owns over a third of DouYu, with both firms listed in the United States and worth a combined $6bn in market value.

The internet giant recently withdrew the merger application for antitrust review and refiled it after SAMR told the company it could not complete the review of the merger within 180 days since its first filing, one of the three soruces and a separate person said.

Tencent is also awaiting approval to take private search engine Sogou. The SAMR will take a decision by the end of July, one of the persons told Reuters.