The US Department of Justice may file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple
On January 18th, according to sources cited by Bloomberg, the US Department of Justice is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple as early as March.
Anti monopoly enforcement officials claim that Apple has imposed software and hardware restrictions on its iPhone and iPad to prevent effective competition from competitors, echoing concerns raised by Spotify Technology SA, Bluetooth tracking device manufacturer Tile under Life360 Inc., and communication service provider Beeper.
According to insiders, lawyers from the US Department of Justice and Apple have met three times regarding potential lawsuits. The Department hopes to file a lawsuit in the first quarter of this year, but the timeline may be delayed as the highest antitrust officials have not yet approved the complaint.
Meituan's stock price has fallen below the issuance price, and its market value has shrunk by more than 80% compared to its peak period
On January 17th, Meituan's Hong Kong stock price fell 6.97% to close at HKD 68.75, a new four-year low. The price fell below the issuance price of HKD 69 when Meituan went public in 2018.
The current total market value of this company, which focuses on local lifestyle business, is HKD 429.3 billion, a decrease of more than 80% from its peak of HKD 2.6 trillion. Since entering 2024, Meituan's stock price has experienced a cumulative decline of 16.06%.
The continuous decline in its stock price is related to the general downturn of the Hong Kong stock market.
On that day, the Hang Seng Index closed down more than 4%, while the Hang Seng Technology Index closed down 5.58%. In addition to Meituan, many large technology stocks in Hong Kong stocks are in a downward trend, including Kwai down 6.2%, Tencent down 2.76%, Alibaba down 3.31%, Xiaomi down 4.92%, JD down 4.53%, and NetEase down 1.66%.
Apple's official flagship store, iPhone 15, offers a direct discount of 1000 yuan across all models
On January 17th, it was reported that the official flagship store of Tmall and Apple has launched a price reduction promotion for all products including phones, computers, tablets, watches, headphones, and Apple Pencil, reaching the bottom price of Apple's official channels across the entire network. On the evening of January 17th from 8pm to 31st, the Tmall Apple flagship store will offer a discount of 1000 yuan on the full range of iPhone 15 coupons, starting at 4999 yuan, which is 500 yuan cheaper than the Apple official website.
Five departments carry out pilot work on "vehicle road cloud integration" application of intelligent connected vehicles
On January 17th, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other departments jointly issued a notice on the pilot work of "vehicle road cloud integration" application for intelligent connected vehicles, with a pilot period from 2024 to 2026.
The notice states that a batch of city level application pilot projects with the same architecture, unified standards, business interoperability, safety and reliability will be built, promoting the construction of intelligent roadside infrastructure and cloud control basic platforms, improving the assembly rate of vehicle terminals, carrying out the design of the "vehicle road cloud integration" system architecture for intelligent connected vehicles, and various scenario applications, forming a unified vehicle road collaboration technology standard and testing evaluation system, Vigorously promote the industrialization development of intelligent connected vehicles.
Ctrip products will be connected to Kwai platform for the first time
On January 17, Ctrip and Kwai jointly announced that they had reached a strategic cooperation. For the first time, Ctrip will enter Kwai's local life platform, and Kwai will also provide a series of rights and interests such as flow boosting, commodity subsidies, and talent cooperation. Next, Ctrip will gradually connect the supply chain of scenic spot tickets, holiday routes and other products to Kwai. At present, users can directly book scenic spot tickets and other travel products on the Kwai platform.
Horizon's Sweet Potato Robot Company was established with a registered capital of 200 million US dollars
On January 16th, Shenzhen Sweet Potato Robot Co., Ltd. was established, with Yu Kai, founder of Horizon, as the legal representative and executive director. The registered capital is 200 million US dollars, and the business scope includes 5G communication technology services, artificial intelligence industry application system integration services, intelligent robot research and development, artificial intelligence basic software development, integrated circuit chip design and services, etc. The company is wholly owned by D-Robotics Holding Limited.
Hon Hai plans to invest $37.2 million in an Indian joint venture
On January 17th, Hon Hai Group announced in two exchange documents that its subsidiary Big Innovation Holdings Limited had originally planned to acquire 40% equity in the joint venture for $29.4 million, but the investment entity has now been changed to Foxconn Hon Hai Technology India Mega Development Private Limited, a subsidiary of Hon Hai India. The latter will invest $37.2 million in the new joint venture, holding 40% equity.
On the same day, Hon Hai also issued a statement stating that it expects to establish a chip packaging and testing outsourcing factory with Indian IT company HCL Group in India, and there may be a connection between the two.
Alibaba Health: Completed the acquisition of exclusive operating rights for Alibaba Mama's medical and health category
On January 17th, Alibaba Health announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that on November 28th, 2023, the company entered into a share purchase agreement with the seller (Taobao Holdings Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Holdings), agreeing to purchase all issued share capital of offshore holding company AJK Technology Holding Limited for a consideration of HKD 13.512 billion. The target business includes exclusive marketing review rights for Alibaba Mama's medical and health category, as well as providing value-added services. All prerequisites for the proposed acquisition under the stock purchase agreement have been met, and the delivery was made on January 17, 2024 in accordance with the terms and conditions of the stock purchase agreement.