Tuesday, March 05, 2024

CHINA GETS AROUND SANCTIONS
China's JCET to buy stake in flash memory facility from Western Digital

Reuters
Updated Mon, March 4, 2024 

The new SanDisk A1 microSD card is displayed at the SanDisk stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona


BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese chip assembly and testing firm JCET Group said on Monday it plans to buy an 80% stake in a Shanghai flash memory facility owned by Western Digital Corporation for about $624 million in cash.

SanDisk Semiconductor Shanghai makes products such as iNAND flash memory modules as well as SD and MicroSD components used in areas such as telecommunications, automobiles and consumer devices, JCET said in a filing.

Western Digital said last year it would spin off its flash memory business that had been grappling with a supply glut, after talks of merging the unit with Japan's Kioxia stalled.

The deal, pending Chinese regulatory approvals, will expand JCET's market share in the data storage industry, JCET said in its filing to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Buying the stake will allow JCET to enhance its partnership with Western Digital, which has been a long-term client and is expected to continue to place orders at SanDisk Semiconductor Shanghai after the transaction, JCET said.

(Reporting by Roxanne Liu, Ella Cao and Kane Wu; editing by Ed Osmond, Jason Neely and Louise Heavens)

China's Huawei and Amazon in patent licencing agreement


Reuters
Mon, March 4, 2024 

A Huawei logo is seen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Shanghai


SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - China's Huawei Technologies and U.S. tech giant Amazon said they had signed a multi-year patent licencing deal that resolves litigation between them.

Most terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Alan Fan, head of Huawei's intellectual property rights department, said the Chinese firm had ended lawsuits brought against Amazon in Germany over patented technology related to wifi and video playback.

The United States has barred Chinese telecom companies from its market citing concerns about data, and designated Huawei and ZTE as threats, requiring U.S. carriers to remove their equipment from U.S. networks.

It has also prevented U.S. firms from supplying Huawei with chips and other components, crippling its smartphone business.

Despite those tensions, the patent licence deal shows "American and Chinese companies and companies from other regions are cooperating without limitations in standards and patent licensing," Fan said.

Huawei also announced it had signed a cross-licencing patent deal with domestic smartphone maker Vivo covering communication technologies including 5G. Huawei has similar patent agreements with Chinese smartphone manufacturers Xiaomi and Oppo.

(Reporting by David Kirton; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

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