TOP NEWS
* Chinese tech titans Baidu Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. are set to become major shareholders in Foxconn Industrial Internet Co. Ltd., the smart factory unit of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. The three internet conglomerates received 21.78 million shares each, joining 20 strategic investors that were granted 590.8 million shares, or 30% of the total offering size. The Foxconn unit is preparing to raise 27.1 billion yuan in a Shanghai listing. The allotments to Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu are worth 300 million yuan each based on the IPO price of 13.77 yuan, and have a lock-in period of three years.
* Swiss Re AG said it ended discussions with SoftBank Group Corp. about the latter potentially making a minority investment in the reinsurer. Discussions between the two were said to have stalled in recent weeks due to disagreements on the size and price of the stake that SoftBank would take in Swiss Re, as well as on how much control SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son would get over the reinsurer's management.
PAN-ASIAN NEWS
* South Korea, Japan and China will work together to expedite the commercialization and standardization of 5G networks, as well as reduce roaming fees among the three countries, The Korea Herald reports.
JAPAN
* Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., the research and development arm of Fujitsu Ltd., said it developed a network control technology that protects against cyberattacks on internet of things devices installed in on-site environments.
* SoftBank Corp., the mobile unit of SoftBank Group, will begin selling Sony Corp.'s Xperia XZ2 smartphone, equipped with 4K HDR video recording capabilities, from May 31 in Japan.
* Rakuten Securities Inc., the online trading unit of Rakuten Inc., launched an Artificial Intelligence-based chat box dedicated to pension plans. The new service will be available to users of LINE Corp.'s messaging app.
SOUTH KOREA
* KT Corp. will expand its information and communications technology partnership with African countries, following the successful completion of its nationwide 4G LTE network project in Rwanda. The telco also introduced its public-private partnership blueprint for constructing nationwide public LTE networks in Africa.
* In other KT news, the company introduced an AI-enabled application programming interface for its corporate cloud service Ucloud Biz, ZDNet Korea reports. The new interface is powered by KT's AI platform GiGA Genie.
* LG Uplus Corp. launched a new unlimited data roaming plan, priced at 13,200 South Korean won per day, for 37 countries including Japan, China and the U.S.
CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN
* NIO, a Shanghai-based electric vehicle startup backed by Tencent Holdings, has filed confidentially for an initial public offering in the U.S., people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News.
* Hangzhou Dace Investment Co. Ltd. will spend 5 billion yuan to make movies and TV dramas in Chongqing, a city in southwest China, according to People's Daily.
* OPPO Electronics Corp. Vice President Wu Qiang was appointed to lead the company's international marketing team, 36Kr reports. Wu has worked at OPPO for 12 years and was responsible for marketing in mainland China.
INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA
* India's telecom department may soon approve Idea Cellular Ltd.'s proposal to increase foreign direct investment to 100% in the company, senior officials told The Economic Times. The approval would pave the way for the clearance of the proposed merger between Idea Cellular and Vodafone India.
* Ola is shifting to a holding company structure in a bid to boost the Indian ride hailing company's valuation and improve the management of its businesses, people familiar with the matter told Mint.
* Indian online ticketing platform BookMyShow appointed Albert Almeida COO – Non Movies. In this newly created role, he will lead the expansion of the company's non-movie verticals such as theater, sports, concerts and events.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
* Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission plans to grant digital TV operators a moratorium on license fee payments. According to Matichon, Thai digital TV operators are facing financial problems from expensive fees and dwindling revenue due to viewers switching to online platforms.
* PT Link Net Tbk, operator of Indonesian internet and cable TV company PT First Media Television, is partnering with 21st Century Fox Inc. unit Fox Networks Group to add Fox programming to its content offerings, Industry reports.
* Jakarta-based telco PT Hutchison 3 Indonesia filed an application with the central bank of Indonesia for an electronic money license and an e-wallet license for its e-commerce business, Indotelko reports.
* In a bid to diversify its business, GrabTaxi Holdings Pte. Ltd. launched a beta version of its on-demand food delivery service in Singapore. GrabFood will also be available in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines within this quarter.
* Beginning next month, the Thai government will start using the LINE messaging app to disseminate PR information to civil servants and state enterprise employees, Manager reports.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
* Spark New Zealand Ltd. is in talks with the government over potentially expanding the outward-facing intelligence agency's Cortex malware disruption defense, Scoop reports.
FEATURED NEWS
Conference Chatter: Streaming video experts grapple with interactivity challenges: In an age when "YouTube star" is seen as a top career choice by young people, many over-the-top streaming platforms are still figuring out the right mix of interactive and social elements to incorporate in their content.
MarketWeek: Comcast, Disney fall amid fight for Fox, CBS-National Amusements battle rages: Several big media companies underperformed the broader S&P 500 Index during the week ended May 25 amid M&A and corporate governance developments.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Multichannel Trends: April 2018 cable systems sales summary: The cable system sales summary lists monthly deal data for the U.S., including basics, homes passed, total value, value per sub and per home passed and cash flow multiples.
Joji Sakurai, Nicole Shiwon Kim, Frances Wang, Kevin Osmond and Wil Hathaway contributed to this report. The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. Hong Kong time. Some external links may require a subscription. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.
