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Tencent, Spotify confirm stock swap; China Telecom to break Philippines duopoly

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Tencent, Spotify confirm stock swap; China Telecom to break Philippines duopoly

TOP NEWS

* As expected, Spotify AB and Tencent Holdings Ltd. subsidiary Tencent Music Entertainment Group agreed to buy equity stakes in each other. Tencent Music Entertainment and Spotify will buy new shares representing minority equity stakes in each other for cash. Tencent will also invest in Spotify through secondary purchases.

* State-run China Telecom Corp. Ltd. may become the Philippines' third telco, Reuters reports, citing government officials. China reportedly selected China Telecom to invest in the Philippines after an invitation by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte during a Nov. 16 bilateral meeting. The government is now looking for a local player that will partner with the Chinese telco on a 60-40 basis.

* Uber Technologies Inc. agreed to form a joint venture with Singaporean taxi services provider ComfortDelGro to leverage their operational and technology solutions. The S$562 million agreement, which is currently pending regulatory approval, will grant ComfortDelGro a 51% stake in Uber's car rental business in Singapore.

* SoftBank Group Corp., through its Vision Fund, is looking to invest about $300 million in U.S.-headquartered food delivery startup DoorDash, Recode reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The potential deal, however, could still collapse.

JAPAN

* Sharp Corp. will seek the Japanese government's help to work with rival Japan Display Inc. and form "a Japan alliance" in OLED next-generation display technology to better compete with South Korean rivals Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and LG Display Co. Ltd. The two Japanese companies plan to start producing OLED panels in 2018 or later.

* Sharp CEO Tai Jeng-wu said that the company's affiliated Apple Inc. lens supplier Kantatsu Co. Ltd. will file for an initial public offering in 2019, The Nikkei reports.

* Moreover, Sharp will have co-CEOs following its recent return to the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei Asian Review reports. Sharp President Tai Jeng-wu, who came from the company's Taiwanese parent Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., reportedly said that they were considering transitioning to a co-CEO system "to nurture the next president."

* Japan-backed investment fund Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, or INCJ, plans to turn itself into a holding company in a bit to fortify governance as well as promote investment in startups, Kyodo reports. INCJ would integrate state-backed investment funds into it.

* Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC sold more than 70.6 million PlayStation 4 consoles worldwide as of Dec. 3. Also, more than 617.8 million copies of PS4 games have been sold at retail stores globally and through digital downloads on PlayStation Store, the company said. Sony also sold 2 million PS VR headsets and 12.2 million PS VR titles.

* Amazon Japan G.K. launched Twitch, a free game streaming platform, for members of its Prime subscription service to lead gamers to its online shopping website via the growing popularity of video games.

SOUTH KOREA

* LG Electronics Inc. successfully developed an LTE-based autonomous vehicle technology, Yonhap News Agency reports. Titled L2X, the technology enables vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, and vehicle-to-person communication. The company recently announced a plan to invest 28.5 billion South Korean won to build a battery pack and motor production facility for electric vehicles in Michigan.

* KT Corp.'s music content business unit Genie Music Corp. signed a distribution deal with YG Entertainment, ZDNet Korea reports. Under the deal, Genie Music will distribute recent music content released from YG Entertainment, with YG's existing music content to be managed under YG Plus.

* AfreecaTV Co. Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding with local content creator Treasure Hunter Co. Ltd. to create new content for teen and female audiences and support content creation infrastructure, ZDNet Korea reports.

CHINA, HONG KONG AND TAIWAN

* Twitter Inc.'s managing director in Asia-Pacific Maya Hari told Caixin that the company is not looking for ways to break into China, where it is banned, but is currently focusing on building its advertising business by working with Chinese companies targeting global markets.

* Baidu Inc. and QUALCOMM Inc. unit Qualcomm Technologies are partnering to optimize Baidu's DuerOS artificial intelligence system for smartphones on the Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platform, including the upcoming Snapdragon 845 mobile platform, to provide an AI voice and smart assistant solution for global smartphone and Internet of Things devices.

* ZTE Corp.'s Italian unit plans to invest €500 million in the country over the next five years, Telecompaper reports, citing Il Sole 24 Ore. The Chinese company earlier revealed plans to build its European 5G hub in Italy as well as 5G deals with Wind Tre SpA and Enel SpA unit Enel Open Fiber SpA.

* Chinese wireless sensor manufacturer Shenzhen Friendcom Technology Development Co. is planning to invest 1 billion yuan on building an IoT industrial base, with construction to start in 2018, Yicai Global reports, citing a statement. The news comes amid China's plans to invest 3.68 trillion yuan on IoT research and development by 2020.

* Honda Motor Co. partnered with Beijing-based AI startup SenseTime group Ltd. to co-develop level-four self-driving cars. Under a five-year agreement, the two companies will also work on robotic technologies.

* Richard Li, son of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, denied reports that he had invested in or is working with U.S.-based advanced mobility company Faraday Future, Yicai Global reports, citing Sina Finance.

* China Unicom partnered with U.S.-based telecommunications tech company CertusNet to explore opportunities in areas including machine learning, big data and cloud computing based on network functions virtualization and software-defined networking, C114 reports.

* California-based THX Ltd. opened China's first all-THX certified cinema in Zhuhai, a city in the country's southern Guangdong province.

INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will invest about $200 million in Bigbasket, the largest online supermarket in India, Bloomberg reports. Once approved by antitrust officials in India, Alibaba's investment would represent a roughly 25% stake in the company.

* Bharti Airtel Ltd. entered into a deal with India's telecom department and Universal Service Obligation Fund to provide mobile services to about 2,100 villages and national highways in the country's northeastern states of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, The Economic Times (India) reports. The USOF will invest 16.1 billion rupees to support Airtel in the project.

* Eros International Plc, a Bollywood production and distribution company, is shifting away from box office dependence and focusing on online video streaming instead, Mint reports, citing Eros Group CEO Jyoti Deshpande. About 25% of Eros' overall revenue comes from Eros Now, its digital platform, with the company expecting that the share will increase to 75% in three years.

* An anonymous whistleblower, who made allegations of impropriety against former Infosys Ltd. CEO Vishal Sikka in the Panaya acquisition and severance payout to former CFO Rajiv Bansal, is seeking action from India's market regulator Sebi and the U.S. SEC to dismiss the settlement overture from the Indian tech giant and prosecute the board and management instead, Times News Network reports.

* Uber agreed to settle a civil lawsuit filed against the U.S.-based ride-hailing giant in June for improperly obtaining medical records of a sexual assault victim, Reuters reports, citing a U.S federal court ruling. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

* Indonesia-based information communication and technology company PT Metrodata Electronics Tbk will merge two of its subsidiaries, PT Logicalis Metrodata Indonesia and PT Packet System Indonesia, to streamline its operation, Indotelko reports. Both companies operate in broadband network and infrastructure system integration.

* Zero Mobile, an Australia-headquartered mobile virtual network operator, launched its services in Singapore by leasing Singtel's physical mobile network, The Straits Times reports.

* HOOQ Indonesia plans to add more local content and will offer Indonesian movie "Ayat-Ayat Cinta 2," Kontan reports.

* Alibaba-backed Southeast Asian e-commerce company Lazada Group SA said it will serve as an authorized online reseller of Apple products across Southeast Asia.

* Takorn Tantasith, the current secretary general of Thailand's National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, has been nominated as a member of Thailand's Election Commission, Prachachat reports. If approved by the National Legislative Assembly of Thailand, Tantasith will have to leave his post at the NBTC.

* Total Access Communication Public Co. Ltd. has been summoned by the NBTC on Dec. 12 to discuss the technical glitch that led the telco to bill one of its customers 400 million Thai baht, and the 50,000 unused Dtac SIM cards seized by customs at the Thai-Cambodian border, Thairath reports.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

* ComScore Inc. is winding down its Australia and New Zealand operations seven years after establishing a Sydney office, Mumbrella reports. The reduction in workforce is part of the company's recent announcement to cut staffing levels and exit certain geographic regions to decrease global costs and more effectively align resources to business priorities.

* The Australian Taxation Office listed News Corp Australia Pty. Ltd., FOXTEL and Dentsu Aegis Network among corporate tax evaders in the country, Mumbrella reports.

* Telstra Corp. Ltd. is losing another senior executive with Cynthia Whelan, group executive for new business, leaving the company to join Scentre Group. Whelan is also the chair of Foxtel and Telstra Health, and a director at Telstra Ventures, according to The Australian.

FEATURED NEWS

MarketWeek: M&A, executive shakeups drive media stocks with mixed results: Investors considered M&A deals among TV networks and theater stocks, as well as a high-profile executive shake-up, as broad markets slumped and rebounded and some companies made headlines during the week ended Dec. 8.

FEATURED RESEARCH

Global Multichannel: Improving affordability, pay DTT rollouts boosting Africa's multichannel market: With TV households increasing at a 4.2% CAGR from 2016 to 2026, Africa is the fastest-growing regional TV market, which, coupled with low multichannel penetration, presents strong investment opportunities in the media sector.

Economics of TV & Film: Viacom's filmed entertainment arm still has an operating loss, but improving: Viacom released its latest financial results on Nov. 16, and its filmed entertainment segment continued to have a significant growth in revenue when compared to 2016, but costs are also rising.

Nozomi Ibayashi, Nicole Shiwon Kim, Frances Wang, Kevin Osmond and Wil Hathaway contributed to this reports. The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. Hong Kong time. Some external links may require a subscription.