Foxconn Announces Purchase of Belkin, Wemo, and Linksys (androidpolice.com) 80
Foxconn, the Taiwan-based company best-known for manufacturing Apple products announced that one of its subsidiaries (Foxconn Interconnect Technology) is purchasing U.S.-based Belkin for $866 million in cash. "Belkin owns a number of major brands, including Linksys and Wemo," notes Android Police. From the report: The buyout would make Foxconn a major player in consumer electronics, instead of just a contract manufacturing company. Belkin primarily sells phone/tablet accessories, but also manufactures networking equipment like routers and Wi-Fi range extenders. The company also sells a range of smart home products under the Wemo brand. According to The Financial Times, the purchase is subject to approval from the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment. In other words, there is a very real chance the acquisition could be blocked. President Trump blocked Broadcom's acquisition of Qualcomm earlier this month, based on advice from the committee.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Baja California is part of California, and Trump should invade.
Re: So Chinese buying Chinese (Score:2)
And Israel is the one true nation of Jerusalem, I suppose? Do you think maybe history is relevant?
Re: (Score:2)
Formosa. Former British colony. Until 1999
Another proud product of the US educational System, having no shame in showing their knowledge to the world.
Re:So Chinese buying Chinese (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So Chinese buying Chinese (Score:4, Informative)
Well, no, not really. It was autonomous until the Qing dynasty annexed it in the 19th century. It was ceded to Japan in 1895, who ruled it as a colony until 1945. It was then given to the then ruling government of China, the Republic of China (which was indeed founded in 1912 with the fall of the Qing). When the ROC was defeated by the communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the ROC government fled to Taiwan where the communists couldn't get at them. For a long time, both the ROC and the communists claimed to be the legitimate government of all China and thus Taiwan was not classified as an independent nation; both sides agreed it was part of China. They just disagreed on who was the rightful rulers of China. Technically this is still the case, but in fact the ROC has not been terribly interested in claiming back China in decades. However, the communists react very violently to any suggestion that Taiwan establish itself as a independent country because they figure that as long as the argument is over who controls China they can't lose; Taiwan must eventually become theirs. Independence is a fight they could conceivably lose if they let the fight move to that ground.
Re: (Score:2)
Oops, the Qing actually annexed Formosa/Taiwan in 1683. Sorry about that.
Re: (Score:2)
it's essentially been an autonomous nation since 1912.
Wrong. Taiwan was occupied by Japan from 1895 until 1945.
The key point here though is that the ROC is an entirely separate entity to the PRC
Both the ROC and PRC accept that there is "one China" and that Taiwan is an integral part of China, and each officially claims to represent all of China. The main difference is that the PRC recognizes the independence of Mongolia, while the ROC does not.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Obama was an out-of the-blue manchurian candidate I don't think anyone expected.
Re: (Score:2)
Just an aside, the NorKs have enough artillery hidden in the mountains to burn Seoul to the ground, and we have very little in the way to stop it short of pre-emptively nuking them.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
only one mis-tweet? (Score:2)
so one mis-tweet could easily exacerbate the political situation further.
I'm going to throw in the towel now then.
Re: (Score:2)
" Former British colony. Until 1999."
American education fail right there.
I don't know why the country with the worst grasp of geography and political history is in charge of running the world.
Is Trump going to make sure this deal gets blocked (Score:1)
too?
Because this is right up there with Broadcom buying Qualcomm, but at least in that case it would've been GCHQ, not Chinese intelligence with its fingers in the pie.
Unless he refutes it, maybe my initial assumption that both China and Russia flipped both Trump and Clinton will turn out to have been true...
Re: Is Trump going to make sure this deal gets blo (Score:2, Informative)
Taiwan is not China. The gear is made on the mainland, sure, but it is an entire functioning country of its own (with quite a negative opinion of the Peopleâ(TM)s Republic). Thereâ(TM)s not a hell of a lot of difference between a Taiwanese firm making kit in China than a South Korean firm or a Japanese firm, or even a US brand, contracting out their build to China.
Re: Is Trump going to make sure this deal gets bl (Score:1, Informative)
Yeah but Donald doesn't know that. He probably thinks Taiwan is just some large city inside "Cheeiiina", where they speak the ching chang chong language and grow illegal covfefe. #muguah
Re: (Score:2)
Are you sure. No supporter of the Trump but he does seem to know what Taiwan is. It's not two weeks since he signed the US-Taiwan travel bill. Then there is the whole Trump-Tsai call and random threats to recognize Taiwan as a separate entity.
Re: (Score:2)
I trust him about as much as I trust Hillary, which is not at all, but neither was or is stupid.
Foxconn, best known for its Apple products (Score:2)
trump can just say must be made in the usa and WI (Score:1)
trump can just say must be made in the usa and then use that to win votes in WI
Parasitic Western middleman goes obsolete (Score:5, Insightful)
Time was when the said parasitic Western middleman thought he was clever by closing the factory doors back home and moving production to China, but in the long term he was only the architect of his own demise, playing into the hands of the Chinese all along.
Unfortunately such is the scale of the problem of all these like-minded smooth-talking Western businessmen who have done absolutely f*ck all but attend meetings for since the late 1970s that the populations of the US of A, Ireland, UK and pretty much the rest of Europe and North America as well have become utterly inept at making basic provisions for everyday life and are completely dependent on the Chinese for simple things like 10k through-hole resistors, matches, cotton wool buds and have therefore set the stage to allow the Chinese to come into all these countries to buy their remaining successful businesses, natural resources and real estate just so the white middle-aged smooth talking businessmen with their talk about key performance indicators can sit and their arse and do nothing for another decade or so.
Re:Parasitic Western middleman goes obsolete (Score:4, Insightful)
All because of the greed of the Western smiley businessman and the addiction to cheap disposable trinkets and electronic gadgets of the average consumer
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Don't worry. Once enough people are starving we will get competitive labor prices too.
Re:Parasitic Western middleman goes obsolete (Score:5, Funny)
Would you like to buy a period?
Re: (Score:2)
No thanks, my wife provides more than I would ever need or want.
Re: (Score:1)
Time was when the said parasitic Western middleman thought he was clever by closing the factory doors back home and moving production to China, but in the long term he was only the architect of his own demise, playing into the hands of the Chinese all along.
I'm not sure I'd use the word clever or not, but from the point of view of lining their own pockets, well, Mission Accomplished.
Capitalism optimizes around short term profit. Sure occasionally some brighter business people do focus on longer term goals, but then those people have to compete against those only interested in short term and you get this kind of self destructive behavior.
Trump argues protectionism, but the issue was never that simple, nor is Trump remotely the correct spokesman. I'm not sure
Re: (Score:2)
Chinese weak IP laws let them copy our stuff and t (Score:2)
Chinese weak IP laws let them copy our stuff and there owner ship rules make it so that they own 51% of your ideas when you turn to them for cheap labor
Re: (Score:1)
America has never followed international laws when it didn't suit them, yet Americans appear to expect other nations to follow their retarded domestic laws.
Re: (Score:2)
It's called American Exceptionalism. Look it up. Even if you don't believe in it, many Americans behave as if they do believe in it. And belief can have a real impact on the world.
Re: (Score:3)
2013 called, they want their Belkin purchase of Linksys back.
Re: (Score:2)
The Belkin Linksys was another product as evidently they kept some rights to the name after they sold Linksys to Cisco.
No Foxconn did not buy Cisco.
I think you have that backwards. Belkin bought Linksys from Cisco in 2013.
Re: (Score:1)
That is why posting as AC is useful. I can post without facts getting in my way.
Trump will allow it (Score:2)
It would be completely irresponsible to let this sale go through. Sounds just like something the Trump administration will support.
Brilliant move (Score:2)
Now Foxconn can make $2 USB cables, put them in Belkin boxes that claim that they're "low distortion", and sell them for $50 each. They'll pocket $48 in pure profit.
This was inevitable (Score:2)
makes sense (Score:2)
great... (Score:3)
crappy bug laden products are now going to be even crappier bug laden products.