Bloomberg: The US National Security Service is interested in Tencent gaming companies

The US government has requested information about security protocols from American gaming companies whose stakes belong to Tencent. Among them are Riot Games and Epic Games.

Bloomberg sources claim that the information was requested by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, headed by the Ministry of Finance. The service sent letters to gaming companies asking them to disclose the security protocols used in the processing of personal data of Americans.

Riot Games, along with Epic Games, also received such letters. Note that Tencent owns 40% of the shares of Eris and 100% of the shares of Riot. The Chinese giant also owns stakes in American Activision Blizzard, Discord, Glu Mobile and Reddit.

It is worth noting that the Committee has the right not only to investigate agreements under which foreign firms acquire American ones, but also to check other investments. Then he can recommend to the US president to block and cancel the deals.

Representatives of the companies and the Ministry of Finance declined to comment.

According to Bloomberg, the close attention of the intelligence services to Tencent’s American investments is due to the escalated trade confrontation between China and the United States. Against the background of the upcoming November elections, President Donald Trump has launched more aggressive actions towards Beijing.

This is not the first time that the political situation in the country has affected the American business of a company from China.

Recall that earlier ByteDance turned out to be in a similar situation with the TikTok service. A year ago, US senators demanded to check whether the Chinese application meets the national security requirements. In August of this year, Trump banned companies from the United States from making any ByteDance transfers. As a result, the owners of TikTok were forced to look for a partner who would instead deal with the American part of the company’s business.

Trump’s ban also extended to the WeChat messenger developed by Tencent. But at the same time, the presidential decree did not affect other businesses of the Chinese corporation.

Analysts suggest that the current actions of the US government may force Tencent to sell shares of American gaming companies. According to Bloomberg estimates, these assets are worth at least $22 billion and bring 6-7% of Tencent’s profits.

What is happening has already affected the finances of the holding: in Hong Kong, Tencent shares sank by 2.8%. This reduced the annual growth of securities to 36%.

Also on the topic:

• Trump banned ByteDance and partially Tencent transfers to AmericansThe authors of TikTok refused to sell the application to Microsoft.
• Oracle will become a partner of the companyTencent’s quarterly revenue was $16.2 billion, and online gaming revenue increased by 40%
• Is there any news?