China blocks SoftBank's $5.4 billion takeover of ABB's robotics division
China blocks SoftBank’s $5.4 billion takeover of ABB’s robotics division
China's state planner has prohibited Japanese investor SoftBank from acquiring the robotics business of Swiss engineering group ABB for $5.4 billion. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) cited national security implications, including potential data transfer to the US and concerns over SoftBank's ties with Western companies like OpenAI. This decision represents a major setback for SoftBank's AI investment strategy in robotics and follows another high-profile deal blockage involving Meta and Manus earlier this year. ABB, which views China as its largest robotics market accounting for about 30% of its business, stated it is in dialogue with SoftBank to find a solution.
Source: Robotics — Web news discovery · Read original article ↗
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What the source reports
Publisher-reported claims, with original evidence. These results have not been independently verified by RoboSignal.
Reported numbers
number of employees in China
≈15,000
View original evidence
s, the person said. China is ABB's biggest robotics market, accounting for about 30% of its robotics business. ABB operates about 30 local companies in China with around 15,000 employees located in nearly 130 cities, as well as online and offline channels in nearly 700 cities. According to its website, ABB Engineering (Shanghai) houses the company's global robotics headquarters and is an important research-and-develo
Open source S7number of cities with offline channels
700
View original evidence
s, the person said. China is ABB's biggest robotics market, accounting for about 30% of its robotics business. ABB operates about 30 local companies in China with around 15,000 employees located in nearly 130 cities, as well as online and offline channels in nearly 700 cities. According to its website, ABB Engineering (Shanghai) houses the company's global robotics headquarters and is an important research-and-develo
Open source S7
- paper: not_reported
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Automatically extracted; no manual editorial approval recorded.
s, the person said. China is ABB's biggest robotics market, accounting for about 30% of its robotics business. ABB operates about 30 local companies in China with around 15,000 employees located in nearly 130 cities, as well as online and offline channels in nearly 700 cities. According to its website, ABB Engineering (Shanghai) houses the company's global robotics headquarters and is an important research-and-develo
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pment center and production base for ABB Group. SoftBank shares were down about 5% before the FT published the report and they ended the day down 6.8%. The blocked ABB deal comes less than a week after SoftBank-backed digital-payments company OPay withdrew a US initial public offering, citing a regulatory inquiry by a foreign jurisdiction it did not identify. OPay would have raised $304 million from the IPO after pr
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lopment and Reform Commission (NDRC) had prohibited the acquisition, the report said. The NDRC reviews foreign investments that might have national security implications. SoftBank declined to comment. The NDRC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ABB shares were down 2.7% by 1458 GMT. Chinese authorities are concerned about the potential transfer of sensitive data to the US and SoftBank's ties with W
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Source：Robotics — Web news discovery · msn.com