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Foxconn Buys Belkin, Linksys, and Wemo
- swyx 9y agowould change title to "Foxconn Buys Belkin (owner of Linksys and Wemo)" to make it sound less like a buying spree interesting to attempt another China-US wireless tech acquisition. i dont think the current administration will look too kindly on this.
- adrianratnapala 9y agoI don't know enough details of this to tell you if the US government can slow it down or stop it. But in the long run, it doesn't matter. Foxconn is the company, more than any other in the world, which knows how to make computer equipment. Asian, mostly Chinese, business networks are becoming the only ones that know how to make modern computers at all. Western companies get hardware to market by having it made by those who know how to make it (i.e. Chinese partners). If the Chinese companies now want to sell things directly to consumers, there's nothing to stop them -- buying US companies might be the easiest path, but other paths exist. In no way does this mean that the Chinese are going to come and economically dominate everything. But it is hubris to imagine that holding onto companies will prevent change.
- btown 9y ago> the only ones that know how to make modern computers at all 75% of Intel's fabrication plants are still in the US, so the core of modern computing is still domestically owned and operated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_manufacturing_sites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_manufacturing_si... But for many other computer components, such as displays, it's incredibly difficult to find a U.S. firm that hasn't outsourced manufacturing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_liquid-crystal-display_manufacturers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_liquid-crystal-display...
- throwaway84742 9y agoFor some reason I thought Cisco was the owner of Linksys.
- indemnity 9y agoThey were up until 2013.
- akhatri_aus 9y agoFoxconn is Taiwanese, not Chinese.
- eric-hu 9y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn > Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Foxconn Technology Group, is a multinational electronics contract manufacturing company headquartered in Tucheng, New Taipei, Taiwan. This comment isn't too far from mistaking South Korea for North Korea.
- Hydraulix989 9y agoThat might not be so analogous. Does South Korea actually operate any businesses in North Korea? (Aside: I'm currently a legal resident of the Republic of Korea.)
- eric-hu 9y agoHyundai did until South Korea shut down the joint economic zone in North Korea to protest a rocket launch in 2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaesong_Industrial_Region https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaesong_Industrial_Region It's not a perfect analogy because China already has nukes. If they didn't, it's plausible Taiwan would do the same in the face of Chinese saber rattling.
- swyx 9y agoHaha, trust me, I'm Chinese, I know the difference. I was making a convenient generalization. By the same measure Broadcom was Singaporean but Trump didn't care.
- Fjolsvith 9y agoAll the more reason to run dd-wrt on my linksys router.