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ZTE Shuts Down Main Business Operations After US Ban (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: ZTE wasn't kidding around when it suggested that a U.S. Department of Commerce order would "severely impact" its survival. It's hard to image a successful path around the seven-year ban on the sale of U.S. products to the company imposed after it reportedly failed to sufficiently reprimand staff for flouting Iranian sanctions. Earlier today, in fact, the Chinese smartphone/telecom manufacturer announced that it had ceased its main business operations as it attempts to figure out the best way forward. "As a result of the Denial Order, the major operating activities of the company have ceased," the company wrote in an exchange filing spotted by Reuters. "As of now, the company maintains sufficient cash and strictly adheres to its commercial obligations subject in compliance with laws and regulations."
Making all there old products....
That's exactly what will happen. The ban is specifically against ZTE, so he would have to ban a new company if it started up. This game could go on for a while.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
ZTE looks like a huge company with operations all over the world. According to Wikipedia, cell phones only account for roughly 29% of their operations. So being shut out of one market (albeit a major one) in one sector of their business is enough to knock out the entire company? Something doesn't smell right.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
I'm saddened to see them go; I love my ZTE Blade Spark. It's a _huge_ phone for under $100. The usable area of the display is bigger than the iPhone 6/7/8 plus and the battery lasts all day. ;(
Then you haven't been paying attention, moron. The Iran sanctions were mentioned in the reports that initially came out.
That is all.
About a year and a half ago I got each of my kids a ZTE ZMax Pro. I went with these phones because they were both affordable and full-featured.
They were $179 (unsubsidized). Specs were not quite on par with my LG V20, but they were decent.
- 1080p resolution
- 32GB storage, 2GB memory
- Decent cameras
- Only USB 2.0, but Type-C plug. (I got so tired of needing new micro-USB cables every other month for my kids)
- MicroSD slot (hate that so many phones have dumped this in an attempt to force users to utilize cloud storage to increase telecoms data usage profits, I expect since T-Mobile forced everyone into an "unlimited data" war that we will see the slots return as standard on Android phones.)
Google shows the user rating for the ZTE Zmax Pro as 4.3, which is pretty decent for a no-name budget phone. And to be honest, I've had less problems with my kids ZTE ZMax Pros than I did with either my Samsung Note 2/S5 Active.
China wanted to buy Qualcomm as they realized they had a dependency on Qualcomm chips but US did not allow it. Now they will try other tacks, maybe offer Qualcomm engineers huge salaries to come to China and build a competing chip. The US is like a 3rd world country now where politics drive trade decisions rather than rules.
**Life is too short to be serious**
ZTE is a publicly traded company, and a massive one at that. What you're proposing is that every single ZTE shareholder would have to somehow invest in this new company, every single employee would have to resign from the original and join the new, and every single asset would have to be transferred to the new company tax free.
No, most shareholders are irrelevant. However the new company will have the same major shareholders (founders, early investors, communist party officials, etc ... the pre-public and government folks) and possibly the same executives. As for assets they will get the good valuable and important stuff and the old shareholders will get to keep the legacy and unimportant stuff, and the mistakes.
I've seen this in the US. A company goes bankrupt. The previous owners/management contact the company that was supposed to do the asset auction and they make a pre-auction bulk purchase of the good stuff necessary to reboot under a new name.
The fact that any company sold anything to Iran at all under sanctions was basically a "let's see you stop me" move, and they got rightly called on that.
True they didn't have the sophistication to create a cutout company. A Czech company created a non-EU cutout company to sell goods to, who would in turn sell goods to Iran. Different ownership, a friend of a friend owned the cutout. The Czech company got its extra sales at a good price, the cutout got a good markup and basically reshipped unopened boxes. The Iranian buyers paid noticeably more for the goods but it understood the complications and workaround.
Now this was possible since the goods were consumer luxury items. Not tightly controlled and tracked military grade type stuff. YMMV depending on the goods.
The US is like a 3rd world country now where politics drive trade decisions rather than rules.
Dude, we now have just as many job openings as we have unemployed, for the first time in ever.
Also, the Qualcomm thing was part of the China trade sanctions, for China turning a blind eye towards companies that did business with N.Korea.
This indirectly led to the end of the Korean war.
If you could go back in time and choose or reverse the Qualcomm decision, which choice would you make: the one for a healthy Qualcomm, high US unemployment, and North and South Korea rattling sabres?
Or would you choose the situation we have today?
Most of the tech press is centered around the smartphone business (TFA is one of the few I've seen which does not make much emphasis on Smartphones, but does not tell the whole story), and the lack of Qualcomm Chips and Google services on the phones, but the problems run much deeper.
The bulk of ZTE's money do not come from the terminal business (Smartphones + CPEs [think ADSL/GPON modems and Wifi]). No, the bulk of ZTE's money comes from telco network gear, and there the sanctions already got their effect.
ZTE uses Acacia's chips for their optical (think fiber optics) equipment, and Acacia's shares are way down as a result.
You need Broadcom chips for the CPEs, MIPS and Brocade chips for the telco routers, PowerPC chips for the telephony switches, Altera's FPGAs for a myriad of specialized functions. and the list goes on and on...
You need certain OSs for your BSS/OSS systems. Things Like RedHat and Suse (yes, Linux is FOSS, but in order to play nice with the telcos, you need the certified Cosher/Halal versions).
While on the subjetc, while the guys of OpenSS7 have done a huge aamount of work, the SS7 solutions available and viable on linux are all the commercial variety (or you have to go to the ussual suspects), and all based in the USoA. Same for the X.700 implementations (SNMP's mucular, smart, badass, MMA older brother) in Linux and other OSs (HP-UX, AIX and Solaris).
Your boards run all sorts of RTOSs, for instance, wind-river...
Your IPTV gear needs all sorts of Processors and SW subjected to the embargo...
As a result of the ban, all these technologies are off-limits to ZTE now.
So no, this is not about "Qualcomm chips and Google's OS for Smartphones". If it were only that, the company would continue operating, and in less than 18 months, you would have a "Mediatek + AOSP based" Smartphone from ZTE taking over a decent chunk of market...
Good we have slashdot to get/set the record straight.
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
A LOT of the IP for cell phone technology is covered by loads of patents in the US (and most anywhere else a Japanese, Korean or European cell phone company sells phones, which is pretty much everywhere) Good luck building anything that connects to a 4G network without running through a gauntlet of patent infringement claims.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.