TOP NEWS
* Several Chinese tech giants, including Tencent Holdings Ltd., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc., suspended cooperation with the National Basketball Association Inc. or removed content and products related to the league following a tweet from a Houston Rockets executive in support of the Hong Kong protests. Shortly after Tencent suspended the broadcast of NBA preseason games in China, Alibaba and JD.com took down all Houston Rockets-related items from their online shopping platforms, according to CNBC. Chinese smartphone maker Vivo Communication Technology Co. Ltd. also suspended all cooperation with the NBA, Reuters reported.
* Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is evaluating its role in Megvii Technology Ltd.'s planned initial public offering after the U.S. government added the Chinese facial recognition software developer to its Entity List, Reuters reported, citing an emailed statement. Megvii declined to comment on Goldman's statement but said it was in close contact with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange about its IPO plans and would continue to monitor developments.
* U.S. Senator Marco Rubio is requesting the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to conduct a full review of Beijing ByteDance Technology Co. Ltd.'s acquisition of Musical.ly Inc., a California-based video-sharing platform it later rebranded as TikTok, over potential national security risks due to TikTok's alleged censorship of content deemed sensitive by the Chinese government.
* Chinese surveillance video producer and software maker Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd. said recent U.S. sanctions will impact its revenues but not its profits.
JAPAN
* SoftBank Group Corp.-owned ARM Holdings PLC is looking to return to the public markets by 2023, Reuters reported, citing CEO Simon Segars. The 2023 relisting target was set by SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son.
* Netflix Inc. ordered a 10-episode anime series from Japanese director Masaaki Yuasa titled "Japan Sinks 2020," Vulture reported. The show will premiere in 2020.
* Dentsu Inc. announced that it acquired the overseas media rights, excluding Japan and China, to Japanese professional soccer competition Meiji Yasuda J1 League from 2020 to 2022. Dentsu, which has been J.League's marketing partner since 2014, intends to contribute to the league's expansion abroad through overseas broadcasts.
* NTT Docomo Inc., the mobile unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., launched a translation app targeting tourists. The app is available in 12 languages.
SOUTH KOREA
* LG U+ committed to investing up to 222 billion won over the next three years to support its suppliers, Yonhap News Agency reported. Under an agreement with the Korea Commission for Corporate Partnership, the telecom operator will co-develop new technologies with its smaller partners, help suppliers develop and test their own technologies and provide additional funding to smaller suppliers.
GREATER CHINA (MAINLAND CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN MARKETS)
* The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is rethinking its relationship with Chinese artificial intelligence startup SenseTime Group Ltd. after the U.S. government put the company on a trade blacklist over alleged human rights violations, Bloomberg News reported.
* Tencent plans to invest US$500 million in Hillhouse Capital Group Holdings Ltd.'s Chinese drugstore business, The Information reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
* In more Tencent news, the company acquired a 16% stake in Pathea Games for an undisclosed sum, KrASIA reported, citing Chinese media outlet Caijingtuya. Based in the U.S. and China, Pathea Games develops titles for PC, console and mobile.
* Chinese online gaming company Century Huatong struck an agreement with Migu, a China Mobile Ltd. subsidiary that provides digital content products and services, to collaborate in areas including cloud-based games and esports.
INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA
* India's telecom department allocated spectrum in the 3400 Mhz to 3600 Mhz band range to Vodafone Idea Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. to allow the mobile carriers to demonstrate country-specific 5G technology-based use cases with their vendor partners during the India Mobile Congress event starting Oct. 14, The Economic Times (India) reported.
* Bharti Airtel said its wholly owned submarine cable subsidiary Network i2i Ltd. priced an offering of US$750 million 5.650% subordinated perpetual securities. The company plans to use the offering's proceeds for refinancing, investments in subsidiaries and general corporate purposes.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
* The government of Thailand is planning to enforce measures that could forcibly tax e-commerce transactions made over online platforms such as Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc., the Bangkok Post reported Oct. 9, citing Thai revenue department principal adviser Pinsai Suraswadi.
* IFlix Sdn. Bhd. appointed Kevin Liu as chief technology officer of ads to oversee the company's programmatic strategy and lead an engineering team specifically dedicated to the advertising business. Before joining the Malaysia-based video-streaming platform, Liu led product architecture at FreeWheel, a Comcast Corp.-owned provider of comprehensive ad platforms.
* Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission plans to appoint 10 to 15 board members to the new 5G national steering committee by the end of next week, Kaohoon reported. The board will include people from the industry and commerce ministries, the NBTC and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.
* In more NBTC news, the Thai regulator aims to have a new satellite license regime up and running in 2020 to allocate the rights of the country's 50.5 east orbital slot, Prachachat reported. The NBTC will hold a public forum on Oct. 21 to discuss satellite license rules, allocation criteria and opening Thailand's satellite market to foreign companies.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
* New Zealand-based telecom operator Chorus Ltd. named JB Rousselot as its new CEO, effective Nov. 20. He replaces Kate Mckenzie, who is stepping down from the company's board on Nov. 19 but will stay on in a transitional role until Dec. 20. Rousselot was most recently chief strategy officer at NBN Co Ltd.
* U.S. communications company ViaSat Inc. established two maintenance, test and integration facilities in Australian cities Canberra and Newcastle to provide service and support capabilities to the Australian Defense Force.
FEATURED NEWS
Hopes for a deal dwindle as US, China prepare for latest round of trade talks: The U.S. and China appear to be far from a deal as they prepare for the 13th round of trade talks in Washington on Oct. 10.
Netflix's crown grows heavy in the UK: The streamer increased U.K. content spend and prices in the face of increased competition from rivals including Disney and Apple.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Wireless Investor: Small cell growth slows on FCC backlash: After a period of rapid small cell deployment, activity in the sector now faces headwinds in the form of lawsuits and public outcry.
Joji Sakurai, Frances Wang and Patrick Tibke 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.
