(Yicai Global) Jan. 3 -- Beijing Bytedance Technology, the parent of news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, intends to buy some patent rights from Smartisan Technology, a phonemaker and Bullet Messenger-backer, to develop educational equipment. 

Bytedance's plan to acquire some of Smartisan's intellectual property rights is not to help the latter to overcome its difficulties but to prepare for an expansion into intelligent hardware, International Financial News weekly newspaper under the People's Daily reported yesterday, citing the potential buyer. Bytedance did not add details about the chosen direction toward education tech. 

Smartisan, known for its hammer silhouette-style insignia, delayed its deliveries of the latest Nut R1 in August, citing a bottleneck in production, and in November again for its air humidifier, postponed till this month. The Chengdu-headquartered firm has met with at least two of its suppliers in court last year, and the latest case froze its bank account and forced it to pay CNY4.5 million (USD654,400) to Sound Solutions International in late December. 

If the price is right, Bytedance may consider buying all of Smartisan's patents, because the latter's  situation is not optimistic so its smart hardware is priced lower, said Zhang Shule, an industry pundit, adding that the deal would fit the content provider's strategy for business expansion.

A Chinese court ordered Smartisan's shareholders to stick to their equity from Dec. 27 last year to Dec. 16 in 2020, without disclosing any details of their holdings, according to business data website Tianyancha. 

Editor: Emmi Laine