Yahoo, Microsoft y China, parte 2

Anteriormente se ha apuntado aquí el factor chino en Yahoo. Hoy New York Times vuelve sobre el tema, a propósito del próximo lanzamiento de una nueva ley antimonopólica que China estaría a punto de presentar. La ley podría poner serias trabas a la compra, ya que autorizaría a examinar compras de empresas en tanto involucraran a compañias chinas. Y ya se ha dicho que Yahoo posee alrededor del 40% del portal Alibaba.com.
Dice New York Times:

Microsoft’s hostile-takeover attempt against Yahoo may encounter an unexpected hurdle in August after a Chinese antimonopoly law takes effect that will extend the nation’s economic influence far beyond its borders.
The law, which goes into effect on Aug. 1, is intended to strengthen an existing set of antitrust regulations the Chinese originally established in 1993. It will make China a third sphere of regulatory influence, matching the power of the European Union and the United States, according to legal specialists in this country and in China who have studied it.
Formally enacted by the National People’s Congress last year, the measure gives Chinese regulators authority to examine foreign mergers when they involve acquisitions of Chinese companies or foreign businesses investing in Chinese companies’ operations. Beijing could also consider national security issues, according to a report by the official news agency Xinhua.
The law could give China influence in Microsoft’s courtship of Yahoo because in August 2005, Yahoo, a premier search portal, invested $1 billion in Alibaba.com, China’s largest e-commerce business. The investment gave Yahoo about a 40 percent stake in the Chinese company. Alibaba officials have said they believe that a Microsoft takeover of Yahoo would set in motion a buyback provision, making it possible for them to gain independence from Microsoft.
Nathan G. Bush, an antitrust law specialist with O’Melveny & Myers in Beijing, said the law represented the ascendance of China “as another regulatory capital contending for influence with Brussels and Washington.”
“Multinational corporations will need to develop strategies for all the markets they operate in,” he added, “and China is a big market.”

NYTimes resalta que la confrontación se haría especialmente dura por las implicaciones sobre la seguridad nacional que Estados Unidos ha argumentado en algunos intentos de compras por parte de compañias chinas dentro del territorio norteamericano.

In the case of the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo transaction, the Chinese have in recent years become more and more alert to the role the Internet plays in their economic and political affairs.
Last week, a vice minister in the State Council Information Office, which oversees the Internet, said there were 230 million Chinese users of the Internet. He said the Internet sector accounted for 7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, and he expected that to rise to 15 percent in three to four years, according to a Reuters report.
The official, Cai Mingzhao, warned that foreigners should not use the Internet to interfere in Chinese internal matters, according to a report in The Guardian.

En resumen, no sólo se deberá vencer las resistencias en el directorio de Yahoo, sino las impugnaciones asiáticas, que quizá no sean las únicas.