Gigaom 5 October 2012
Huawei is reportedly giving some serious thought to listing itself on a US or international exchange, exposing its books and ownership structure to the world. An IPO won’t silence all of Huawei’s critics, but it would help the company close equipment contracts and acquisitions.
Telecom infrastructure powerhouse Huawei has reached out to investment banks about a possibility of publicly listing its stock on an international exchange, according to reports from the Wall Street Journaland Reuters. While the news agencies’ sources said no final decision has been made, an initial public offering (IPO) could help the opaque Chinese equipment vendor with its long-sought goal of cracking the US infrastructure market.
US lawmakers and regulators’ biggest beef with Huawei has been over security and its alleged ties to the Chinese military. Though Huawei has dismissed those allegations, it has said on many occasions that those perceptions have killed off lucrative deals with US operators that it should have won.
For instance, Huawei VP of external affairs Bill Plummer recently told GigaOM that Huawei was practically a shoe-in to become the third vendor in Sprint’s $4.5 billion LTE build and network overhaul, but due to government pressures it was booted from list of finalists. Instead, the contract went to Samsung. “We were the most competitive offering for Sprint in terms of technology and total cost of ownership, but non-market forces dictated the result,” Plummer said.