TOP NEWS
* Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. countersued rival chipmaker GlobalFoundries Inc. in the U.S., Germany and Singapore for alleged patent infringement. The Apple Inc. supplier accused GlobalFoundries of infringing 25 of its patents covering various chipmaking technologies. TSMC wants an order for GlobalFoundries to stop making and selling chips that infringe on the patents.
* Tencent Holdings Ltd. is acquiring a 29% stake in Norwegian game developer and publisher Funcom SE for an undisclosed sum. Under the deal, the Chinese internet giant will buy all the shares held by Funcom's biggest shareholder, KGJ Capital AS.
* Youdao, an e-learning unit of NetEase Inc., filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, which intends to list under the symbol DAO on the New York Stock Exchange, set a placeholder amount of US$300 million to indicate the size of its offering.
* Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.'s latest efforts to convince the U.S. government to reverse a ban on its telecom network equipment may have little impact, analysts said.
JAPAN
* SoftBank Group Corp. and Indian hotel startup OYO struck a deal to jointly purchase an 80% stake in Japanese rental apartment operator MDI Corp. According to a source cited by Nikkei Asian Review, the transaction is worth over US$100 million.
* KDDI Corp. tapped Ericsson as a primary 5G vendor in Japan. Ericsson will supply radio access network equipment to KDDI, which plans to launch its first commercial 5G services in March 2020.
* NTT Docomo Ventures Inc. invested an undisclosed sum in U.S. cloud storage service provider Wasabi Technologies Inc. NTT Communications Corp. also launched the Wasabi Object Storage service in a tie-up with Wasabi Technologies.
SOUTH KOREA
* Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. was selected by Japanese telco KDDI as one of its 5G telecommunications equipment suppliers, Yonhap News Agency reported. The contract amount is speculated to be worth about 2.3 trillion won over the course of five years.
* Korea Fair Trade Commission sent a report to SK Telecom Co. Ltd. after reviewing the company's proposal to merge its fixed broadband subsidiary SK Broadband with local cable TV operator t-broad Holdings Co. Ltd., ZDNet Korea reported. Once the telco submits its reply to the report, the regulator will hold a plenary session to approve the merger.
* KT Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding with Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. to develop and commercialize 5G technologies for construction automation, ET News reported.
* Facebook Inc. renewed its network usage contract with KT Corp. and signed a new one with Sejong Telecom Inc., Digital Daily reported.
GREATER CHINA (MAINLAND CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN MARKETS)
* 36Kr Holdings Inc., a Chinese platform that offers new economy-focused content, filed for an initial public offering in the U.S. The Beijing-based company, which plans to trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, set a US$100 million placeholder amount to indicate the size of its offering.
* Despite being sued by Huawei for intellectual property infringement before its debut on China's Nasdaq-style tech board, smartphone-maker Shenzhen Transsion Holdings Co. Ltd. soared on its first day of trading and closed 64.4% higher than its IPO pricing, TechNode reported.
* In accordance with Huawei's rotating chairman system, Xu Zhijun assumed the position of rotating and acting chairman of the company on Oct. 1. During his term, Xu will be the company's top leader and head the board of directors and its executive committee until March 31, 2020. Xu currently is deputy chairman of the board.
* Authorities in Guangdong province took down 5,817 apps and 222 webpages in an internet safety inspection covering internet data centers, cloud computing platforms and app stores, The Paper reported.
INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA
* Bharti Airtel Ltd. is looking to raise about US$750 million via overseas bonds to refinance debt and fund the expansion of its 4G network, people familiar with the matter told The Economic Times (India). The amount may go up to US$1 billion depending on investor response.
* Vodafone Group PLC is seeking a two-year moratorium on the payment of spectrum-related dues by its Indian joint venture Vodafone Idea Ltd., The Economic Times (India) reported, citing sources. Vodafone executives reportedly met top officials of the Indian Department of Telecommunications to appeal for relief, citing financial stress at Vodafone Idea.
* SoftBank Vision Fund LP is hiking its stake in Indian logistics service provider Delhivery Pvt. Ltd. to 25.72% via a secondary transaction, DealStreetAsia reported, citing paper.vc.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
* Indonesian streaming platform Vidio is partnering with Estonia-headquartered mobile technology company Fortumo OU to launch a direct carrier billing service. Under the new offering, customers of PT Indosat Tbk, XL Axiata and PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk can charge their payments for Vidio Premier to their mobile operator invoice.
* StarHub Ltd. completed the cable-to-fiber migration for its TV and broadband services. The company said the switch to fiber will provide customers with higher broadband speeds and enhanced TV experience.
* Thai telco TrueMove H is teaming up with Samsung to offer free Premier League football content to all users of Samsung Galaxy handsets via the True ID video-on-demand platform, Manager reported.
* Singtel's cybersecurity arm Trustwave launched Trustwave Fusion, a cloud-native platform that connects Singaporean enterprises and government institutions to a security cloud composed of Trustwave's portfolio of products and security services.
* Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission paid 820 million baht in compensation to two BEC Multimedia-owned digital TV stations that handed in their licenses as part of a government buyback scheme, Prachachat reported. The two stations, 3 SD and 3 Family, stopped broadcasting Sept. 30.
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
* Southern Cross Cable Network secured regulatory approval for Telstra Corp. Ltd. to become a 25% shareholder of the company. As a result of the transaction, Spark New Zealand Ltd.'s shareholding in Southern Cross will be reduced to approximately 40% from 50%. The company also received clearance to start building its NEXT undersea cable, an extension of the existing Southern Cross cable ecosystem that is expected to be the lowest latency path from Australia and New Zealand to the U.S.
* DTN, a U.S.-based provider of insights, analysis and decision-support solutions, acquired Australian private weather service Weatherzone from Nine Entertainment Co. Holdings Ltd. Following the deal, Weatherzone founder and board member Mark Hardy will rejoin the business as managing director.
* Uniti Group Ltd. closed the acquisition of LBNCo Holdings Pty. Ltd. and its subsidiaries in a cash-and-stock deal. The Australian operator completed the issuance of about 9,384,755 fully paid ordinary shares, together with a net cash payment of about A$88.6 million, to settle the transaction.
* SKY Network Television Ltd. appointed former Sky Ltd. executive Neil Martin as global CEO of its online rugby network RugbyPass Ltd., and named RugbyPass founder Tim Martin as executive chairman. The appointments follow SKY Network's purchase of RugbyPass in August.
FEATURED NEWS
5G Focus: Huawei's licensing; demos in Malaysia; T-Mobile's Dutch trials: 5G Focus is a weekly global roundup of notable 5G trials, launches, use cases and major equipment supply contracts. It will also feature in-depth analysis of strategies, expansion plans, business models and other related initiatives.
FEATURED RESEARCH
Global Multichannel: Global markets update — South Korea: The South Korean multichannel market is experiencing upheaval as two of the three incumbent telcos have submitted their applications to acquire some of their cable competitors to accelerate growth.
Nozomi Ibayashi, Myungran Ha, Emily Lai, Kevin Osmond 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.
