The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 6-9. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba Sets IPO Price Range Of $60-$66, To Raise Up To $24.3 Bln (Chinese article)
SAIC: E-Commerce Firms Face Fines Up To 500,000 Yuan For Fake Transaction Reporting (Chinese article)
China Mobile (HKEx: 941) Completes Purchase Of 18 Pct Of Thailand’s True Corp (HKEx announcement)
China AutoRental To List In HK On September 19, Raise Up To $468 Mln (Chinese article)
LightInTheBox (NYSE: LITB) Settles Class Action Lawsuit (PRNewswire)
Volume grows in foreign complaints over antitrust probes
The volume continues to get louder in the growing chorus of multinationals complaining they are being unfairly targeted in a recent wave of antitrust probes by Beijing, prompting China to reply that domestic companies are also being targeted. The latest headlines have the American Chamber of Commerce in China finally breaking its silence on the matter, joining its European counterpart in voicing its concerns that western firms are being singled out for probes over anti-competitive behavior. Meantime, China has held a couple of high-profile media events to defend its approach, and now is turning up its campaign with new reports of domestic firms that are also being punished for anti-competitive behavior. Read Full Post…
Officials at the 2 main regulators probing foreign firms for anti-competitive behavior are turning up their public relations machine to defend their actions, even as they also turn up the pressure on Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in one of the highest profile investigations. I remarked last week how unusual it was when the secretive State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) held a rare press conference to defend a series of probes that have targeted Microsoft, along with global smartphone chip giant Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) and many major auto makers. (previous post) Now the equally secretive National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the other antitrust regulator, is launching its own initiative by granting an unprecedented newspaper interview to discuss the matter. Read Full Post…
Despite disappointing progress in China’s plan to put hundreds of thousands of new energy vehicles on its roads by next year, American electric car maker Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) has made remarkable progress despite its late arrival to the market. The company has won its strong initial results though a smart combination of savvy marketing and initiatives to encourage building of necessary infrastructure to support its buyers.
The latest of those initiatives saw Tesla last week announce a partnership with Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), China’s second largest mobile carrier, to install charging stations at hundreds of Unicom outlets nationwide. (English article) As a result of these and other efforts, Tesla has been the lone player so far to succeed in China’s broader consumer market, an area that will be critical to achieving Beijing’s goals. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 2. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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VNOs Enter Silent Period, Sign-Ups Total Just 300,000 After 3 Months (Chinese article)
SAIC Seeks Written Explanation In Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Probe Within 20 Days (Chinese article)
Huawei, Alipay Introduce First Domestic Fingerprint Payment Standard (Chinese article)
Phoenix Publishing & Media (Shanghai: 601928) To Acquire 10 Pct Of PPTV (English article)
China’s Li Ning (HKEx: 2331) Stumbles From Gold Medal Spot To No Man’s Land (English article)
It’s become a sort of rite of passage for CEOs of major tech firms to visit China after moving into their job, which looks set to happen again with a September trip to Beijing set for Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) new top executive Satya Nadella. Tim Cook traveled to China just 6 months after taking the reins from Steve Jobs as Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO in 2011, and has visited the country several times since then. Even Twitter’s (NYSE: TWTR) CEO Dick Costolo visited Shanghai earlier this year, just months after the social networking giant’s New York IPO, despite saying earlier that China wasn’t a market where his company could do business. (previous post) Read Full Post…
China’s anti-monopoly regulator wants to set the record straight: Reports that Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is being probed for monopolistic behavior related to its Windows operating system and Office suite of products are incomplete. In fact, the US software giant is also being probed for monopolistic behavior related to its Internet Explorer web browser, and its media player product.
Perhaps this clarification doesn’t sound that strange to anyone outside China, but it’s actually quite unusual coming from the highly secretive State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC). The regulator is one of 2 government agencies conducting a wide range of recent anti-trust probes into mostly foreign firms, raising concerns among multinationals and western governments that they are being unfairly targeted by Beijing for such probes. Read Full Post…
After saying little or nothing about its wave of anti-competitive probes against some of the world’s top firms, China is finally breaking the silence with its justification for actions that have targeted everyone from software giant Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) to leading US car maker General Motors (NYSE: GM). The justification is coming via the state-owned English-language newspaper the China Daily, and argues that such investigations are common in the west and aren’t targeted against foreign firms. This long-overdue explanation also hints that Beijing may be worried about a potential action by the US and European Union, who may be preparing to complain to the World Trade Organization (WTO) that Beijing discriminates against western companies. Read Full Post…
A widening web of anti-trust investigations has snared one of China’s biggest overseas investors, with word that General Motors (NYSE: GM) has become the latest foreign company to be probed for monopolistic practices. News of this particular investigation shows that no one is exempt from such probes, since GM is one of China’s oldest and largest foreign investors in the automobile sector and is quite chummy with longtime partner SAIC (600104), one of Shanghai’s largest companies. Thus by potentially punishing GM, China’s anti-monopoly regulator would also be punishing a leading Shanghai company, hurting its profits and potentially slowing its growth and future investment from GM. Read Full Post…
Beijing’s recent campaign against foreign tech firms is picking up more momentum, with word that security software makers Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) and Kaspersky Lab have been banned from selling to government agencies. The move continues a trend that has seen Beijing take similar moves against software from Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and hardware from IBM (NYSE: IBM) over worries that their products could compromise national security.
Meantime in another ominous sign for foreign tech firms, a government ministry that conducts anti-monopoly investigations is warning Microsoft not to interfere with its ongoing probe of the company. Industry watchers will note that the warning from the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) comes as an unrelated trial gets set to start for a British-American couple being charged with interfering in a bribery probe into British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (London: GSK). Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on August 5. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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