According to a new report, Huawei, China’s popular smartphone and hardware manufacturer is looking to go public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and fund its expansion across the world. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company has approached several investment banks for advice on becoming a publicly traded company and according to the Journal; the company has not yet decided where it would like to be listed. This comes amid growing concerns about allowing Huawei’s operations in some countries, specifically the United States, where the government is worried that the company may collect data through its primary business, telecommunications, and share it with the Chinese government.
Huawei’s executives were recently questioned by members of Congress about the company’s policy if the Chinese government were to ask it for information on American customers. The company defended itself by saying that it did not have any intention of spying for the Chinese government. Though these ideas seem farfetched, the American government’s concerns are definitely valid, according to experts who are familiar with Chinese capitalism policies.
Meanwhile, Huawei is looking for its own mobile OS as a backup if its platform partners stop licensing their operating systems to the company. Currently, Huawei phones run either Android or Windows Phone and the company has announced that it is going to have a third OS ready in case either of the platforms back out from the company’s devices. This comes at a time when the Android platform is seeing a lot of activity, especially with its largest partner Samsung losing a case to Apple and Google nullifying an attempt by Acer to use an OS that is allegedly an incompatible version of Android.
Though most of Huawei’s sales come from telecommunications equipment, its smartphone business has become quite an integral part of the company over the few years and the company is trying to consolidate it across the world, especially in markets like the United States. At the moment, the company doesn’t have too much of a presence in the US and its unbranded handsets are carried only by low cost carriers like MetroPCS. The company focuses on powerful phones which are not too heavy on design and run a basic version of Android compared to larger competitors like Samsung and HTC. Huawei also plans on launching a phablet (like the Samsung Galaxy Note) and there were also rumors that it might be one of the contenders for taking over ailing HTC.
