After years of trying, Huawei’s US business is still stalled.
Political and legal issues continue to dog its progress – the latest being a suit from Motorola alleging theft of company secrets.
The cloud that hangs over the Chinese vendor has become a business cost, forcing it to offer a premium in two recent unsuccessful bids for US assets, FT.com points out in a revealing article.
Huawei lost out to Nokia Siemens Networks in its tilt at Motorola’s network unit and ceded broadband software top firm 2Wire to UK’s Pace.
Huawei came under heavy scrutiny when it jointly bid with Bain Capital to buy 3Com in 2008, withdrawing when it became clear it would not be approved.
It might be China’s most visible exporter and a standard-bearer for the country’s hi-tech ambitions, but US authorities are divided on how to deal with Huawei, the FT reports.
One camp wants to engage with Huawei on the grounds that this will enable it to set conditions and also “give the US valuable insight into the inner workings” of the firm, which is alleged to be linked to the PLA. Huawei’s CEO and co-founder Ren Zhengfei is an ex-PLA officer but the company has repeatedly denied the accusation.