The O Globo website reported on Saturday that Huawei is joining forces with China Mobile to buy struggling Brazilian carrier Oi, in an attempt to boost their footprint in Latin America’s largest market.  The two Chinese companies anticipate a significant growth in business once Brazil starts deploying its 5G network. Oi’s 360,000 kilometers of fiber infrastructure is seen as an attractive asset.

Oi declined to comment on the matter, while Huawei and China Mobile did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

However, on Sunday Huawei told Reuters it was not interested in acquiring struggling Oi or any other Brazilian carrier.

“Huawei has no plan or interest in acquiring Oi or any other Brazilian carrier. In Brazil for more than 20 years, the company is working with all major Brazilian carriers supplying the best products and solutions to support digital transformation in Brazil,” the company said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

It would be very strange for Huawei to invest in a telecom carrier which is traditionally its bread and butter customer!

Brazil’s largest fixed-line carrier has been struggling to turnaround its business since it filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2016 to restructure approximately 65 billion reais of debt.  Oi is also negotiating its network with Spain’s Telefonica and Telecom Italia, AT&T and another (unnamed) Chinese company.

Speculation of the bid comes as Brazil’s Senate approved a bill to update the country’s obsolete framework for telecommunications, paving the way for Oi to implement a plan to sell up to $2 billion in non-core assets. Earlier this week, Suno Notícias reported that China Mobile has filed a request to operate in Brazil and eventually acquire Oi. The country’s telecom regulatory agency Anatel said Sept. 17th it didn’t have any official information regarding the request.

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Addendum: Huawei launches new ‘Vision TV’ with 4K quantum dot color, which comes in 55″/65″/75″ sizes. Media paying attention to the fact that Huawei is adopting QD technology, which until now has been a key technology for Samsung’s TV (QLED) strategy. (ZDNet)

http://www.zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=20190920082939

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References:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oi-m-a-huawei-tech/huawei-to-join-forces-with-china-mobile-to-bid-for-brazils-oi-report-idUSKBN1W60EH

https://www.euronews.com/2019/09/22/huawei-denies-interest-in-acquiring-oi-or-any-other-brazilian-carrier