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Tencent invests US$632M in Douyu; Grab nears deal for Uber's Southeast Asia biz

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Tencent invests US$632M in Douyu; Grab nears deal for Uber's Southeast Asia biz

TOP NEWS

* Tencent Holdings Ltd. invested US$632 million in Chinese livestreaming platform Douyu, just days after Douyu competitor HUYA Inc. revealed plans for an initial public offering in the U.S., China Money Network reports.

* Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab is close to finalizing a deal to buy Uber Technologies Inc.'s business in the region, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News. Under the terms of the proposed agreement, Grab will acquire Uber's business in certain markets in Southeast Asia while Uber will take a stake in Grab.

PAN-ASIAN NEWS

* Uber founder and ex-CEO Travis Kalanick announced in a tweet that he is launching 10100, an investment fund focused on investments in real estate, e-commerce and emerging technologies in China and India.

* Fox Networks Group Asia is adding 14 new channels to CABLE TV in Hong Kong, including STAR Chinese Movies, SCM Legend, FOX Family Movies, FOX Action Movies and FOX Sports, World Screen reports.

JAPAN

* Fuji Television Network Inc. will co-produce a new anime series with "Pokemon Go" developer Niantic Inc. The two companies will produce an animation of "Ingress," the augmented reality smartphone game where "Pokemon GO" was based. The animated series will air in October.

* Yahoo Japan Corp.'s Z Corp. will invest ¥1 billion in OpenStreet, a unit of SoftBank Group Corp. affiliate SB Innoventure Corp., with plans to enter the bike-sharing business. The deal is expected to be completed by early April.

* Tokyo-based smartphone marketing advertising agency CyberZ Inc. and video game developer Cygames Inc. will launch an esports competition in May, The Nikkei reports. The matches will be aired on CyberAgent's online TV Abema TV.

SOUTH KOREA

* Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is shutting down some of its smartphone content-related services, Yonhap News Agency reports. The company's Story Sharing service in the Galaxy Gallery app will no longer be available starting March 27. In January, the company also retired its in-app data backup and restoration services for Samsung Cloud.

* Kakao Corp. plans to expand its artificial intelligence chatbot technology to various areas, including finance and music, Herald Economy reports. The company will also release an assistant bot that manages various chatbots, as well as provide an open platform for outside developers to create chatbots.

* CJ Group's entertainment business CJ HelloVision is venturing into the smart energy market by launching Power Cloud, an information and communications technology-based service to increase the efficiency of electric power. According to Maeil Business Newspaper, the company also plans to expand into the smart home energy management sector.

CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN

* Foxconn Technology Co. Ltd., formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., has won approval for a China listing of one of its subsidiaries, Reuters reports. Foxconn has been aiming to list its unit Foxconn Industrial Internet Co. Ltd. on the Shanghai Stock Exchange to help fund projects in smart manufacturing, cloud computing and 5G solutions. Details of the IPO were not disclosed.

* Tongcheng-Elong Holdings Ltd., a Chinese travel company backed by Tencent Holdings and Ctrip.com International Ltd., is planning an initial public offering in Hong Kong in the second half of 2018, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Tongcheng-Elong may reportedly raise up to US$1.5 billion in the share sale. The company intends to raise funds to compete with rivals in the budget travel market.

* Chinese video streaming app Inke lnc. is considering an initial public offering in Hong Kong after a failed attempt in 2017 to complete a back-door A-share listing in China, China Money Network reports.

* Baidu Inc. launched the Baidu Quantum Computing Institute, a quantum computing research center led by Runyao Duan of the University of Technology Sydney, China Money Network reports.

* Tencent partnered with MediaTek Inc. to launch a new innovation lab that will develop mobile games and entertainment products utilizing AI and augmented reality technologies, UDN reports.

INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

* India's National Company Law Tribunal approved the proposed merger of Bharti Airtel Ltd. with Telenor India. According to Mint, the proposed acquisition, which has already been cleared by Competition Commission of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India, stock exchanges BSE and NSE, is awaiting the telecom department's approval.

* India's National Company Law Tribunal has accepted Aircel Cellular Ltd.'s bankruptcy petition and has issued a directive that the company's directors, promoter, chairman and managing director should not leave without permission. According to The Economic Times, Vijay Iyer of Deloitte Haskins & Sells has been appointed by Aircel as insolvency resolution professional to start the resolution process.

* Reliance Communications Ltd. will challenge the Bombay High Court's dismissal of its plea to challenge an arbitration court's order restraining the sale or transfer of the Indian telco's assets, The Economic Times reports.

* The National Company Law Tribunal ordered Reliance Infratel Ltd., the tower subsidiary of RCom, to delay the sale of its assets until March 13, Mint reports.

* Aircel is holding discussions with investors for financing, as well as with a key vendor to keep its network running, two people familiar with the developments told The Economic Times. Aircel is also negotiating with Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio for intra-circle roaming pacts.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

* Telekom Malaysia inked a memorandum of understanding with Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. to accelerate fiber broadband network reach.

* Celcom Axiata Bhd., a unit of Malaysian telco Axiata Group Bhd., plans to allocate up to 1.3 billion Malaysian ringgit for capital expenditure this year, The Edge Markets reports. Celcom CFO Jennifer Wong said that the 2018 CapEx, which is lower than the 1.5 billion ringgit it spent in 2017, will be used to enhance its network infrastructure and for digitization of its business.

* The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission found discrepancies in the registration details of about 1.6 million prepaid users following a data verification exercise, The Star reports.

* The interim board of Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission postponed the spectrum auction for 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands, Krungthep Turakij reports. The auctions are expected to be scheduled once a new board is elected.

* Thailand's Revenue Department will submit a tax bill to the Ministry of Finance seeking to impose value-added taxes on goods sold to consumers by global e-commerce operators, The Nation reports.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* The Australian government will auction 125 MHz of spectrum in the 3.6 GHz band for new 5G services in metropolitan and regional Australia. The Australian Communications and Media Authority is expected to start the auction in October, Computer World reports.

FEATURED NEWS

Washington Watch: Congress weighs role of 2 federal agencies in broadband deployment grants: As the U.S. government looks to promote broadband deployment and free up more spectrum for wireless operators, two federal agencies that typically work together on these issues are finding more opportunities for cooperation, but also conflict.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Economics of Internet: Profile: HOOQ (Singapore): Backed by Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and Singtel, SVOD provider HOOQ has initially focused on rolling out in emerging markets where the latter's affiliates are present.

Global Multichannel: China broadband market outlook: fiber to boost revenue growth despite low ARPUs: China constitutes the world's largest fixed-line broadband market, with 350.4 million residential and corporate subscribers at year-end 2017 reported by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Nozomi Ibayashi, Nicole Shiwon Kim, Frances Wang, Ed Eduard 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.