4 ms·

I am not familiar with Prosus but wikipedia says it's Dutch, not Chinese.

by edge17 5y ago

eynsham 5y ago
Prosus is owned by Naspers (RSA) which owns quite a lot of Tencent, so there is a Chinese connexion, but I’m not sure about Chinese control. I haven’t read much of News24 (owned by Naspers) but they didn’t seem to be that different coverage-wise from the rest of the SA media on the spy scandal—after they broke the story—although, good lord, Xiaomei Havard must have been the world’s worst spy if the story was right, as Rebecca Davis pointed out: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-09-01-how-seriously-should-we-take-the-claim-of-a-possible-chinese-spy-in-parliament/ https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-09-01-how-serio....
- Godel_unicode 5y ago
  Yes, but that Chinese connection is in the other direction; Naspers owns them, not the other way around.
  - eynsham 5y ago
    Indeed. I suppose that there is a blackmail risk: their stake could be made worthless unless Naspers has Prosus have the Stack Exchange people ban Tor, but I rather doubt this happened.
    - missedthecue 5y ago
      How could Tencent selectively make the shares that Naspers owns worthless?
      - gbasin 5y ago
        Something tells me a shareholder suit by a foreign company in Chinese court, in connection with not blocking internet traffic, would not go down well for Naspers :D
      - maerF0x0 5y ago
        One could consider what's now happening with Alibaba ADRs and the fear of delisting. The price on a certain exchange crumbles. However, I do wonder if at the scale of a big company owning big chunks it'd just be a minor cost of doing business to reregister for the HK exchange?
      - stickfigure 5y ago
        The proper word would be extortion - the Chinese government could in theory make demands of Naspers by threatening to hobble Tencent. It's pretty far-fetched, especially since Naspers owns a minority (28.9%) stake in Tencent.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - HWR_14 5y ago
        I mean, Tencent could just be forced by new Chinese law to buy back Naspers stock for $0.001/share. What's Naspers going to do, sue in a Chinese court? Go to war?
fxleach 5y ago
Indeed it's Dutch and is also a subsidiary of the South American company Naspers.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

I am not familiar with Prosus but wikipedia says it's Dutch, not Chinese.

by edge17 5y ago

I am not familiar with Prosus but wikipedia says it's Dutch, not Chinese.

Prosus is owned by Naspers (RSA) which owns quite a lot of Tencent, so there is a Chinese connexion, but I’m not sure about Chinese control. I haven’t read much of News24 (owned by Naspers) but they didn’t seem to be that different coverage-wise from the rest of the SA media on the spy scandal—after they broke the story—although, good lord, Xiaomei Havard must have been the world’s worst spy if the story was right, as Rebecca Davis pointed out: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-09-01-how-seriously-should-we-take-the-claim-of-a-possible-chinese-spy-in-parliament/ https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-09-01-how-serio....

Godel_unicode 5y ago
Yes, but that Chinese connection is in the other direction; Naspers owns them, not the other way around.
- eynsham 5y ago
  Indeed. I suppose that there is a blackmail risk: their stake could be made worthless unless Naspers has Prosus have the Stack Exchange people ban Tor, but I rather doubt this happened.
  - missedthecue 5y ago
    How could Tencent selectively make the shares that Naspers owns worthless?
    - gbasin 5y ago
      Something tells me a shareholder suit by a foreign company in Chinese court, in connection with not blocking internet traffic, would not go down well for Naspers :D
    - maerF0x0 5y ago
      One could consider what's now happening with Alibaba ADRs and the fear of delisting. The price on a certain exchange crumbles. However, I do wonder if at the scale of a big company owning big chunks it'd just be a minor cost of doing business to reregister for the HK exchange?
    - stickfigure 5y ago
      The proper word would be extortion - the Chinese government could in theory make demands of Naspers by threatening to hobble Tencent. It's pretty far-fetched, especially since Naspers owns a minority (28.9%) stake in Tencent.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - HWR_14 5y ago
      I mean, Tencent could just be forced by new Chinese law to buy back Naspers stock for $0.001/share. What's Naspers going to do, sue in a Chinese court? Go to war?

fxleach 5y ago

Indeed it's Dutch and is also a subsidiary of the South American company Naspers.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]