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> Who is going to prevent ByteDance from acquiring every competitive Chinese company? The US can make laws about how companies that operate in other markets ca

by nl 5y ago

> Who is going to prevent ByteDance from acquiring every competitive Chinese company? The US can make laws about how companies that operate in other markets can behave. The US can enforce those rules on any subsidiaries that operate in US markets. This isn't even uncommon - we see it in (eg) mining all the time, where corporate regulators stop overseas takeovers from occurring.

aerosmile 5y ago
This is new to me, so let's confirm just to be sure: US regulators have stopped non-US companies from acquiring other non-US companies? How would that even be regulated, purely logistically? A non-US company doesn't have to report to the US regulators any part of its non-US business.
- nl 5y ago
  If a business does business in the US then the US can (and does) make laws demanding reporting of corporate ownership. This is usually done as part of tax law. See for example https://www.internationallawoffice.com/Newsletters/Private-Client-Offshore-Services/USA/Kozusko-Harris-Duncan/Reporting-beneficial-owners-of-certain-US-companies-details-of-new-Corporate-Transparency-Act https://www.internationallawoffice.com/Newsletters/Private-C... A specific example of this kind of action: In 2016 the Obama administration block the Dutch Phillips company from selling (Dutch) Lumiled to Chinese investment companies. More recently there was the (disastrously administed) attempt to force US ownership of TikTok as well as a less well known attempt to force the sale of Grindr. https://web.archive.org/web/20170227090607/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/technology/concern-grows-in-us-over-chinas-drive-to-make-chips.html https://web.archive.org/web/20170227090607/https://www.nytim...
  - aerosmile 5y ago
    This is really informative and helpful, thank you for taking the time to share! Interesting that they use the tax law as the hook. It certainly makes me feel a lot better about our chances of staying competitive.

by nl 5y ago

aerosmile 5y ago

This is new to me, so let's confirm just to be sure: US regulators have stopped non-US companies from acquiring other non-US companies? How would that even be regulated, purely logistically? A non-US company doesn't have to report to the US regulators any part of its non-US business.

nl 5y ago
If a business does business in the US then the US can (and does) make laws demanding reporting of corporate ownership. This is usually done as part of tax law. See for example https://www.internationallawoffice.com/Newsletters/Private-Client-Offshore-Services/USA/Kozusko-Harris-Duncan/Reporting-beneficial-owners-of-certain-US-companies-details-of-new-Corporate-Transparency-Act https://www.internationallawoffice.com/Newsletters/Private-C... A specific example of this kind of action: In 2016 the Obama administration block the Dutch Phillips company from selling (Dutch) Lumiled to Chinese investment companies. More recently there was the (disastrously administed) attempt to force US ownership of TikTok as well as a less well known attempt to force the sale of Grindr. https://web.archive.org/web/20170227090607/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/technology/concern-grows-in-us-over-chinas-drive-to-make-chips.html https://web.archive.org/web/20170227090607/https://www.nytim...
- aerosmile 5y ago
  This is really informative and helpful, thank you for taking the time to share! Interesting that they use the tax law as the hook. It certainly makes me feel a lot better about our chances of staying competitive.