The news that a Chinese textile company - Ningxia Zhongyin Cashmere - is getting involved in the deal to buy Chinese game publisher Shanda Games might raise some eyebrows.
After all, the equivalent deal in the US would be something like Gore-Tek outfit W.L. Gore deciding to buy into EA.
Yet, for watchers of the Chinese market, this sort of M&A activity from non-gaming publicly-owned companies has been happening fairly regularly over the past 12 months.
Odd expansions
In some cases, the deals seem to make no sense. Examples include hotel management, pipe manufacturing, and apparel companies apparently buying game companies.
Sometimes these are officially stated to be reverse listings, giving the game companies the ability to get on Chinese stock exchanges in a cheap manner, albeit at the risk of confusing outside observers and raising rumours of insider dealings and inflated valuations.
There's also sentiment that the markets are a closing opportunity for game companies.
However, Mark Natkin, MD of Chinese-focused market consultancy Marbridge Consulting, cautions that in many cases, the moves do make sense.
"Many Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed companies in traditional industries, seeing the surge in growth in China's mobile gaming industry, see acquisition of a mobile gaming firm as a good bet for propping up earnings," he states.
"As listed companies, with good access to capital, they can help the acquired gaming companies better afford adaptation rights (from films, online novels, TV dramas, and other popular content), and also fees for licensing other domestic or foreign developers' games.
"This is something which has become an increasingly important source of competitive advantage in China's mobile gaming space."
Nevertheless, here are our favourite 'weird' Chinese M&A deals so far.
Click here to view the list »