Are big Hollywood studios no longer for sale to China?
Business & Technology
Top business and technology news for March 17, 2017. Part of the daily The China Project news roundup "Credit ratings with teeth."
-
Is broken Dick Clark deal the beginning of the end of China’s Hollywood buying binge? / SCMP
News broke a month ago that Chinese conglomerate Wanda’s bid for Hollywood studio Dick Clark was under pressure, and last week it was confirmed that the deal was off. Wanda is controlled by Wang Jianlin, China’s richest man. His company’s initial proposal to buy Dick Clark came in the early fall of 2016, at the tail end of a remarkable series of overseas investments from China. That flow of money has slowed down as the Chinese government has clamped down on capital outflows, and perceptions grow that Donald Trump’s administration is hostile to foreign investment, particularly from China. Wang had publicly warned the U.S. against protectionism in both December 2016 and January 2017, but now appears to be one of the highest-profile victims of it. Others may soon follow: The South China Morning Post notes that a similarly large bid by Shanghai Film Co. and Huahua Media to buy Paramount Pictures is also running into trouble. -
Chinese pharma firms target the global market / The Economist (paywall)
Drug companies in China are quickly learning to innovate, and spending on research and development is set to rise as the government encourages the pharma industry to consolidate. The country’s drug market is expected to grow from $108 billion to $167 billion from 2015 to 2020. And though Chinese companies have had trouble acquiring large foreign pharmaceuticals in the past, Bloomberg reports that Shanghai Pharma may have a good shot at buying Stada, a German drug manufacturer worth billions. Earlier this year, the Chinese Sanpower Group made an $820 million deal to buy a U.S.-based prostate treatment firm.
- China’s Oriental Dreamworks looks set to restructure / Variety
- China’s new bitcoin rules call for identity check / MarketWatch
- China is pretending like it didn’t just raise interest rates / Quartz
- China game developers battle crackdown on content / Financial Times (paywall)
- The mobile internet is over. Baidu goes all in on AI / Bloomberg
- Competing with the Chinese factory of 2017 / MIT Technology Review
- Investing in China – all signs say yes / Seeking Alpha
- Being bullish on China is no longer an outlier view / Financial Times (paywall)
