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Huawei's computer strategy; Hitachi merger; SoftBank's MadeiraMadeira investment

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Huawei's computer strategy; Hitachi merger; SoftBank's MadeiraMadeira investment

TOP NEWS

* Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. will step up its presence in the global market for computer hardware as the U.S. government heightens its scrutiny of the Chinese company's 5G network and smartphone business, Asia Times reported. To support the strategy, Huawei will invest an additional US$1.5 billion toward computer architecture and software, according to Deputy Chairman Ken Hu.

* Hitachi Ltd. plans to combine its Hitachi Consulting Corp. and Hitachi Vantara Corp. businesses to lead the company's digital solutions expansion. The combined unit will operate under the Hitachi Vantara name, starting in January 2020. Hitachi Global Digital Holdings Chairman Toshiaki Tokunaga will lead the combined company as CEO and chairman.

* SoftBank Group Corp.'s SoftBank Innovation Fund led a US$110 million funding round for Brazilian internet retailer MadeiraMadeira. The transaction included participation from existing investors and new investor Light Street Capital Management LLC, DealStreetAsia reported.

PAN-ASIAN

* Facebook Inc. is making changes to the way it handles extremist groups and hate organizations on its platform and Instagram LLC. The social media giant said it expanded the way it uses automated techniques and machine learning to ban more than 200 white supremacist organizations and removed over 26 million pieces of content related to global terrorist groups. The initiative has been expanded to Australia and Indonesia.

* China Mobile Ltd. and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. led the launch of the Open Test and Integration Center initiative, a collaboration that aims to facilitate original equipment manufacturers and open source products and solutions to be functionally compliant to the specifications of the O-RAN Alliance. Also included in the collaboration are China Telecom Corp. Ltd., China Unicom, Intel Corp., Lenovo Group Ltd. Inspur Software Co. Ltd. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. O-RAN Alliance seeks to encourage openness in the radio access networks.

JAPAN

* LINE Corp.'s financial technology arm LINE Pay, Mercari Inc.'s mobile wallet Merpay, NTT Docomo Inc. and KDDI Corp. have signed a letter of intent to team up on cashless transactions in Japan. The four companies will jointly promote the introduction of their respective services to stores and businesses.

* Mike Muller, co-founder and chief technology officer of SoftBank-owned chip designer ARM Holdings PLC, is retiring at the end of September. According to Bloomberg News, it is still unclear who will replace Muller, who has been ARM's chief technology officer for nearly 20 years.

* NTT Docomo teamed up with Fujitsu Ltd., NEC Corp. and Nokia Corp. to achieve multivendor interoperability across a variety of 4G and 5G base station equipment compatible with the international standards of the Open Radio Access Network Alliance.

SOUTH KOREA

* South Korea dropped Japan from a list of countries receiving fast-track approvals in trade, a response to a similar move by Tokyo to downgrade Seoul's trade status amid a tense diplomatic dispute, The Associated Press reported. The move comes a week after South Korea filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over Japan's move to tighten export controls on key chemicals Korean companies use to manufacture semiconductors and displays.

* DREAMTECH Co. Ltd. said it supplied fingerprint recognition sensors to Samsung's Galaxy Fold smartphone, Digital Daily reported. The sensor is located on the side of the phone, making it easy for users to unlock naturally as they unfold the phone.

GREATER CHINA (MAINLAND CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN MARKETS)

* China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television announced a new batch of approved online games. Baidu Inc., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and NetEase Inc. saw their games included in the list.

* Ericsson said its smart factory in the Chinese city of Nanjing is now operational. Ericsson will use Nanjing's advanced offerings, including modernized production processes, cellular internet of things, Industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence tools to rapidly grow its business and revenues in China.

* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. hired two scientists in the field of vision technology research to join its AI Labs, KrASIA reported. Chen Ying, former chief engineer at Qualcomm Inc., will become chief scientist of artificial intelligence and edge computing. Tan Ping, a tenured associate professor at Canada-based Simon Fraser University, will become chief scientist of vision technology.

INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

* PCCW Ltd. unit PCCW Global Ltd., Orange SA and PEACE agreed to deploy a new submarine cable, which will link France to Pakistan through a single landing point in Marseille by 2021.

* Amazon.com Inc. announced that its virtual assistant Alexa now supports Hindi and Hinglish. Through the update, users can interact with Alexa in Hindi or Hinglish, and the digital assistant will be able to respond in the same language. The new feature is available on all Echo voice-controlled smart speakers.

* Indian education technology company BYJU'S issued new sets of warrants worth 39 million Indian rupees to media publisher Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd., also known as The Times Group, Inc42 reported. Prior to the August transaction, The Times Group held 5 equity shares and 5 warrants.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

* Thailand-based satellite operator Thaicom PCL sold its subsidiary Cambodian DTV Network Ltd. to Quality TV Shopping Co. Ltd. for US$800,000, Prachachat reported. The deal still needs regulatory approval.

* Anschutz Entertainment Group, a sports and live entertainment company based in the U.S., announced that it would establish a regional headquarters in Singapore. The company named Matthew Lazarus-Hall as senior vice president of AEG Presents LLC in the Asia-Pacific region.

* Malaysian mobile carrier DiGi Telecommunications Sdn. Bhd. partnered with Cyberview Sdn. Bhd. to set up a laboratory for academicians, businesses and developers to test 5G technology use cases, The Star reported. The laboratory will begin operations Oct. 1.

* True Corp. is collaborating with China Mobile to accelerate the telco's adoption of 5G technology in Thailand, Prachachat reported.

* Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. launched a news tablet app for its Malay newspaper Berita Harian, The Straits Times reported. The app, which allows readers to access e-paper editions of Berita Harian, will be preloaded on the latest Samsung Tab A, a 10.1-inch Wi-Fi tablet.

* Delta Capital Myanmar led the latest fundraiser for Myanmar-based internet service provider Frontiir Co. Ltd., DealStreetAsia reported, citing a statement.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* Facebook announced three new products as part of its growing Portal family of smart home gadgets: Portal, Portal Mini and Portal TV. The redesigned Portal has a 10-inch HD display, while Portal Mini features an 8-inch display for video calls, displaying photos and watching videos. Portal TV adds smart video calling to screens at home. Now available for preorder in the U.S., the Portal lineup is also coming to Australia and New Zealand.

FEATURED NEWS

Apple's new gaming service to battle subscription fatigue in crowded market: Apple Arcade stands to benefit from Apple's music and app sales expertise, but analysts said whether the new service can break out in an increasingly crowded mobile gaming market remains unclear.

5G Focus: Huawei's potential sale; Ericsson's partnerships; rollout in Hungary: 5G Focus is a weekly global roundup of notable 5G trials, launches, use cases and major equipment supply contracts. It also features in-depth analysis of strategies, expansion plans, business models and other related initiatives.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Economics of Internet: Profile: Amazon Prime Video (Japan): Amazon utilizes a bundle of benefits to entice consumers to become Prime members, which drives e-commerce. We estimate Prime Video as well as Prime Now have materially enhanced Amazon Prime membership since their launch in Japan in 2015.

Joji Sakurai, Hyegyu Park, 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.