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Chinese news app eyes US IPO; Singapore starts public hearing on fake news

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Chinese news app eyes US IPO; Singapore starts public hearing on fake news

TOP NEWS

* Chinese news and video aggregation app Qu Toutiao is considering a U.S. initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News. The Shanghai-based company, reportedly one of China's largest startups, is eyeing a valuation of up to US$3 billion from the share sale, the sources said. Qu Toutiao may list as early as 2018.

* Singapore started a landmark public hearing on how to fight fake news, Reuters reports. The city-state set up a panel to consider possible measures to control fake news, including drafting legislation. The panel drew 164 written responses from the public, which is reportedly the highest number of reactions received by a committee on any issue.

JAPAN

* NEC Corp.'s unit NEC Corp. of America Inc. partnered with a privately held venture-funded company Vidyo Inc. The move will bring embedded video to NEC's cloud-based offerings in North America, including endpoints and vertical solutions, and to enable emerging biometric security and other use cases.

* Rakuten Inc. said that it would acquire all of the common stock and class stock of the Asahi Fire & Marine Insurance Co. Ltd. through a tender offer. The total of 16.8 million shares of Asahi Fire & Marine Insurance were offered in a takeover bid.

SOUTH KOREA

* LG Uplus Corp. will exclusively provide Ultra HD broadcast circuits for 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia to three major terrestrial networks. The telco will connect the International Broadcasting Center in Moscow and its broadcasting center in Anyang with 500Mbps undersea fiber optic cables.

* Alticast Corp. renewed its intellectual property license deal with TiVo Corp., which covers the patent portfolio of Rovi Corp., a TiVo company, for the delivery of video services to South Korean entertainment industry players such as IPTV, cable and direct-to-home platform providers.

* SK Group announced plans to invest 80 trillion South Korean won to create 28,000 jobs in the new industries including semiconductors, 5G and information and communication technology businesses during a meeting with the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN

* Chinese investors want relaxed rules on tech IPOs and would be interested in investing in such domestic listings, Reuters reports, citing the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Most investors are reportedly in favor of reducing the financial threshold for IPOs or accepting dual share classes.

* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.-owned AliMusic and NetEase Inc.'s NetEase Cloud Music reached a cross-licensing deal for music copyrights allowing users to access more songs from both music platforms. The two companies aim to improve the structure for music copyrights, and plan to further cooperate in the future. Meanwhile, Shenzhen-listed Zhongnan Red Cultural Group Co. Ltd. disclosed in the interactive platform of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that its shareholder, Mango Cultural Creativity Investment Fund, participated in a funding round in Netease Cloud Music.

* Sun Hongbin resigned as chairman of Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp. Beijing due to career arrangement. The Shenzhen-listed company halted trading given the excessive volatility in recent trading days, quoting stock prices rising 10% and 6.98% for two consecutive days in the company statement.

* Alibaba Group Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai joined the group led by e-commerce billionaire Michael Rubin that is seeking to buy the National Football League's Carolina Panthers, people familiar with the deal told Bloomberg News.

* China Mobile Ltd. will build 100 5G base stations in Suzhou this year, The Securities Times reports, quoting local media. The city in southeastern Jiansu Province was named by China Mobile and China Telecom Corp. Ltd. as part of the first batch of cities for 5G development, with the companies targeting 5G commercialization by 2020.

INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

* The Indian parliament's Standing Committee of Information Technology is asking the government to allocate 4G spectrum to BSNL and MTNL "at the earliest" to help the state-run telcos compete and thrive in the market, Press Trust of India reports. The committee believes that BSNL and MTNL "will lose the data market, if they are not given 4G services soon."

* Bharti Airtel Ltd. is believed to be considering a higher stake sale in its direct-to-home arm Bharti Telemedia Ltd. to raise funds to compete with Reliance Jio, just after Airtel's board approved the transfer of a 19% additional stake in Bharti Telemedia to its wholly owned unit Nettle Infrastructure Investments Ltd., people familiar with the matter told The Economic Times (India). Nettle now owns 44% of Bharti Telemedia, up from 25%.

* Verizon Communications Inc.'s Indian unit expanded its Secure Cloud Interconnect footprint in India, adding Amazon.com Inc.'s Amazon Web Services Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s Azure to its SCI partners available to multinationals based in the country, which already include Alphabet Inc.-owned Google Inc.'s Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud, HP Inc., IBM Cloud and Salesforce.com Inc., The Economic Times (India) reports, citing a statement.

* Wipro Ltd. agreed to divest its hosted data center services business to Ensono for US$405 million. Wipro will transfer eight data centers and more than 900 employees of its hosted data center services business to Ensono.

* Videocon d2h intends to voluntarily delist its American depositary shares from the Nasdaq Global Market and to deregister with the SEC, in connection with its amalgamation with Dish TV India Ltd. The last day of trading of the Videocon d2h ADSs on Nasdaq is expected to be on or about April 4, and the delisting of the Videocon d2h ADSs from Nasdaq is expected to take effect on or about April 5.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

* Digital football business Dugout agreed to acquire News Corp.'s mobile and online platform ballball, which caters to the fastest growing football markets in Southeast Asia. The acquisition will create a new Dugout entity to be called Dugout SE Asia. Parent company Dugout will be the majority shareholder of Dugout SE Asia, while News Corp. will also have a stake in the new entity. Senior News Corp. executive Simon Greenberg will sit on the board of Dugout SE Asia.

* Thai mobile operator Total Access Communication Public Co. Ltd., or Dtac, announced that Lars-Åke Norling, CEO and a director of the Telenor ASA unit, has resigned from his roles effective Sept. 1 or upon the appointment of a successor. Norling will also be resigning as chair of the board of Malaysian telco Digi.com Bhd. and as Digi's chair of the remuneration committee once a replacement is identified.

* PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk entered into a strategic partnership with PT Mega Media Indonesia, the operator of a subscription-based broadcaster, Orange TV, as reported by the Indonesian Ministry of State-Owned Enterprise.

* Telekom Malaysia collaborated with the Ministry of Education Malaysia in a strategic partnership for the government's digital education transformation program. TM will provide digital solutions for students and teachers in Malaysia, which include high-speed broadband connectivity, interactive smartboards and smart devices.

* The board of Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission disagreed with the ruling of the Central Administrative Court to have the regulator return the 1.5 billion baht bank guarantee statement or an equivalent sum to Thai TV Co. Ltd., Matichon reports. The NBTC will submit an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court within the next three weeks.

* True Internet Data Center Co. Ltd. opened a new data center in Thailand called True IDC East Bangna with an investment of 5 billion baht, Krungthep Turakij reports.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* Dentsu Inc.-owned Dentsu Aegis Network Ltd.'s New Zealand unit announced the appointment of Pete Sinclair as head of Amnet, DAN's programmatic business, and Nick Woon as head of digital operations, where he will lead all digital advertising operations.

FEATURED NEWS

The Program Guide: Global edition: Disney orders 'Star Wars' series; Apple preps 1st animated show: Walt Disney ordered a live-action series based on the "Star Wars" film franchise for its upcoming direct-to-consumer streaming platform, while Apple commissioned its first animated series.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Economics of TV & Film: Broadcast pilot orders fall again for 2018-2019 season: As original content flourishes and competitors seem to enter the space daily, broadcast networks ordered fewer pilots for next season with the total dropping to 70, a 10-year low.

Economics of Networks: Nielsen universe estimates highlight a potential stall in subscriber erosion: March Nielsen universe estimates show VSP adoption starting to mitigate the effects of cord-cutting.

Nozomi Ibayashi, Nicole Shiwon Kim, Emily Lai, Wil Hathaway and Kevin Osmond 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.