The ex partners of PUBG in India, Tencent is once again in trouble. This time not from India but from United States of America.
POST TENCENT PUBG BAN IN INDIA; TRUMP TAKES NOTICE OF TENCENT DEALINGS WITH EPIC AND RIOT GAMES
Makers of “League of Legends” and “Fortnite” are under scrutiny
The U.S. Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) has asked gaming companies including Riot Games and Epic Games to provide information on security protocols, according to a Bloomberg report. The CFIUS sent letters to Epic, Riot, “and other game companies” asking them to provide data on security protocols related to user data to the government because of their deep ties with Tencent Holdings.
GAMES WITH TENCENT TIES
Valorant and League of Legends developed by Riot Games is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, Tencent, the world’s largest gaming company, paid $400 million in 2011 for a 93% stake Riot before fully acquiring the company in 2015 .
The company holds a 40% stake in Fortnite maker Epic Games. Tencent has ownership stakes of varying sizes in video game developers and publishers around the world.
It also owns a roughly 5% stake in Activision Blizzard, the Santa Monica, California-based developer of the “Call of Duty” franchise.
Tencent is the world’s largest video game vendor, but its U.S. holdings are not limited to just the gaming marketplace. It also has stakes in
- Reddit,
- Discord
- Snapchat maker Snap Inc.
- Bluehole
- Ubisoft
- Grinding Gear Games
- Supercell Frontier
TENCENT PROFITS FROM GAMES
In its second-quarter earnings report, Tencent’s revenue from online games in both domestic and overseas markets grew by 40% in the second quarter to 38,288,000 renminbi, or $5.6 million.
Total smartphone games revenues for the quarter were 35,988,000 renminbi, or $5.3 million, while PC client games revenues were 10,912,000 renminbi, or $1.6 million.
Tencent’s American depositary receipts fell 2.4% to $66.66 at the end of Thursday’s trading session.
The focus of the CFIUS on Tencent-connected video game companies is the latest move against the Chinese conglomerate by U.S. politicians. On Aug. 7, President Trump issued an executive order prohibiting transactions with the popular WeChat app, to take effect 45 days from the date of the order. On Monday, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FLA.) sent a letter to Trump urging him to ban Tencent’s social media and messaging app QQ to the previous executive order aimed at WeChat
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