Google Suspends Some Business With Huawei, Reuters Reports
SHENZHEN, CHINA - APRIL 12: A member of Huawei's reception staff walks in front of a large screen displaying the logo in the foyer of a building used for high profile customer visits and displays at the company's Bantian campus on April 12, 2019 in Shenzhen, China. Huawei is Chinas most valuable technology brand, and sells more telecommunications equipment than any other company in the world, with annual revenue topping $100 billion U.S. Headquartered in the southern city of Shenzhen, considered Chinas Silicon Valley, Huawei has more than 180,000 employees worldwide, with nearly half of them engaged in research and development. In 2018, the company overtook Apple Inc. as the second largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world behind Samsung Electronics, a milestone that has made Huawei a source of national pride in China. While commercially successful and a dominant player in 5G, or fifth-generation networking technology, Huawei has faced political headwinds and allegations that its equipment includes so-called backdoors that the U.S. government perceives as a national security. U.S. authorities are also seeking the extradition of Huaweis Chief Financial Officer, Meng Wanzhou, to stand trial in the U.S. on fraud charges. Meng is currently under house arrest in Canada, though Huawei maintains the U.S. case against her is purely political. Despite the U.S. campaign against the company, Huawei is determined to lead the global charge toward adopting 5G wireless networks. It has hired experts from foreign rivals, and invested heavily in R&D to patent key technologies to boost Chinese influence. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
, Photographer: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images AsiaPac
Zoya Khan, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.’s Google has suspended some of its business ties with Huawei Technologies Co., Reuters reported, citing a source close to the matter it didn’t identify.
Google will no longer engage in businesses with Huawei that require the transfer of hardware and software products except those covered by open source licenses, Reuters said. Google will also stop providing technical support and collaboration for Android and Google services.
The next version of Huawei smartphones outside of China will lose access to popular applications and services including the Google Play Store and Gmail app, Reuters said.
The Trump administration on Friday blacklisted China’s largest tech company -- which it accuses of aiding Beijing in espionage -- and threatened to cut off the U.S. software and semiconductors it needs to make smartphones and networking gear.
Huawei’s chief executive officer and founder, Ren Zhengfei, said he expects U.S. restrictions won’t hurt his company’s growth much, Nikkei reported yesterday. The company, the world’s largest maker of telecommunications gear, has been preparing for the ban since at least the middle of 2018, hoarding components while designing its own chips, according to a report by Bloomberg on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Representatives for Huawei weren’t immediately reachable by Reuters, and the U.S. Commerce Department didn’t comment, according to the report.
To contact the reporter on this story: Zoya Khan in New York at zkhan79@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Virginia Van Natta
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