(Reuters) – Oregon has joined a multistate lawsuit to block the merger of U.S. wireless carriers T-Mobile US Inc and Sprint Corp, the New York attorney general’s office, which is leading the lawsuit along with California, said on Monday.

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia are now seeking to stop the merger, which the states argue is anticompetitive and will cost their residents more than $4.5 billion annually. The lawsuit most recently added Texas, whose attorney general is the first Republican to join the effort.

“Oregon’s addition to our lawsuit keeps our momentum going, and ensures that there isn’t a single region of this country that doesn’t oppose this anticompetitive megamerger,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.

Earlier this month, a U.S. District Court in Manhattan ordered that the trial be delayed to Dec. 9, in a victory for the states, which had said they needed more time to investigate the merger.

“If left unchallenged, the current plan will result in reduced access to affordable wireless service in Oregon — and higher prices,” said Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum. “Neither is acceptable.”

The U.S. Justice Department signed off on the deal last month on the condition that the carriers divest Sprint’s prepaid phone business to satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp to create a fourth U.S. wireless carrier.

T-Mobile has said it does not intend to close the merger while the states’ litigation is ongoing.

(Reuters) – U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has banned certain models of Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) MacBook Pro laptops on flights, after the company recalled select units which had batteries posing fire risks.

“The FAA is aware of the recalled batteries that are used in some Apple MacBook Pro laptops,” the agency’s spokesman said in an emailed statement on Monday, adding that the agency has “alerted airlines about the recall.”

Apple said in June it would recall a limited number of 15-inch MacBook Pro units as their batteries were susceptible to overheating. The units were sold between September 2015 and February 2017.

Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Wednesday circulated a draft order that would grant approval to the $26 billion tie-up of T-Mobile Us Inc and Sprint Corp.

“The evidence conclusively demonstrates that this transaction will bring fast 5G wireless service to many more Americans and help close the digital divide in rural areas,” Pai said in a statement.

The order must still be approved by two of the other four FCC commissioners. The U.S. Justice Department approved the merger last month, but the deal still faces a court challenge from 16 state attorneys general. A trial is set for Dec. 9 on the legal challenge by the states.

The lengthy draft FCC order has not been made public.

In May, Pai came out in favor of the deal after the companies offered concessions, including selling Sprint’s Boost Mobile prepaid cellphone service, as did FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, a Republican. The panel’s third Republican, Mike O’Rielly, said in May he was “inclined to support” the proposed merger.

On Wednesday, Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wrote on Twitter she was “not convinced that removing a competitor will lead to better outcomes for consumers” and said the public should be able to comment before the commissioners vote.

The third- and fourth-largest U.S. wireless companies have agreed to divest Sprint’s prepaid businesses to satellite television company Dish Network Corp to create a fourth U.S. wireless carrier. Critics, including some state attorneys general, say competition will not increase and prices for mobile phone plans will rise.

T-Mobile USA Chief Executive John Legere wrote on Twitter the order was “another milestone toward bringing #NewTMobile and #5GForAll to life for US consumers!”

Advocacy group Free Press research director S. Derek Turner questioned Pai’s decision to back the merger before a formal order had been drafted.

“Given the harmful impacts of this merger and the shady manner in which the FCC’s approval was reached behind closed doors, the public should have the opportunity to weigh in and comment before the full agency vote is final,” Turner said in a statement.

Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim praised Pai’s announcement. “We are now one step closer to strengthening competition for high-quality 5G networks that will benefit American consumers nationwide,” he said in a statement.

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean panel maker Samsung Display said on Friday it is considering suspending one of its liquid crystal display (LCD) production lines at home due to a supply glut.

Samsung Display, a unit of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, currently operates two LCD production lines in South Korea and one in China.

“Samsung Display has been adjusting the production output and facility operation due to oversupply and worsening profitability, and we are still considering the suspension of the line, but nothing has been decided,” the company said in a statement.

Rising competition from Chinese rivals, a shift to more advanced OLED (organic light emitting diode) panels and slowing demand for smartphones have led to falling offtake and weak prices of LCD panels for South Korean display makers.

Samsung Display’s cross-town rival LG Display Co Ltd converted one of its LCD production lines to an OLED (organic light emitting diode) production line, a path that Samsung Display may also take, Park added.

LG Display is also considering various scenarios for its remaining LCD production line in South Korea, said LG Display Chief Financial Officer Suh Dong-hee at an earnings briefing last month.

Prices for LG Display’s main product, 50-inch TV LCDs, slid as much as 7.5% in April-June versus the same period last year, data from WitsView, which is part of research provider TrendForce, showed.

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Segway-Ninebot Group, a Beijing-based electric scooter maker, on Friday unveiled a scooter that can return itself to charging stations without a driver, a potential boon for the burgeoning scooter-sharing industry.

Ninebot said Uber and Lyft, the ride-hailing giants that are expanding into scooter-sharing, would be among the customers for the new semi-autonomous vehicles that are expected to hit roads early next year.

Gao Lufeng, Ninebot chairman and chief executive, told Reuters in an interview that AI-driven scooters, controlled remotely from the cloud, could radically improve the economics of scooter-sharing.

“The pain point for scooter operators is to better maintain the scooters at a lower cost,” he said. Currently, operators of scooter sharing fleets have to collect the machines manually for re-charging.

Formed by the 2015 combination of China’s Ninebot and U.S. transportation pioneer Segway, the company has quietly become the largest supplier for scooter-sharing companies such as Bird and Lime.

“I believe scooters will replace bicycles as the prime solution for micro-mobility,” Gao said. “It’s human nature to save energy when commuting.”

The scooter-sharing fad was triggered two years ago with the launch of Bird in California. Venture-capital investors have since poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the sector, and fleets of electric-powered scooters now operate in cities across the U.S. and Europe.

Segway-Ninebot Group has applied to list its shares on the China’s new Nasdaq-style board for homegrown tech firms, the STAR Market. The company sold 1.6 million scooters in 2018, according to a prospectus filed in April.

Lyft and Uber did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

The new scooters will be priced at close to 10,000 yuan ($1,420), more than the company’s traditional scooters, which it sells to scooter companies for $100-$300.

The new machines will start road testing next month and will be largely commercialized in the first quarter of 2020.

The company also launched two self-driving delivery robots — one for outdoor delivery, the other for indoor services.

Ninebot said the unmanned delivery robots will initially serve the food delivery industry in China.

The company is in talks with food delivery operators, including Meituan Dianping and Alibaba Group’s Ele.me, to begin service by the first half of next year.

SINGAPORE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to extend a reprieve given to Huawei Technologies that permits the Chinese firm to buy supplies from U.S. companies so that it can service existing customers, two sources familiar with the situation said.

The “temporary general license” will be extended for Huawei for 90 days, the sources said.

Commerce initially allowed Huawei to purchase some American-made goods in May shortly after blacklisting the company in a move aimed at minimizing disruption for its customers, many of which operate networks in rural America.

An extension will renew an agreement set to lapse on August 19, continuing the Chinese company’s ability to maintain existing telecommunications networks and provide software updates to Huawei handsets.

The situation surrounding the license, which has become a key bargaining chip for the United States in its trade negotiations with China, remains fluid and the decision to continue the Huawei reprieve could change ahead of the Monday deadline, the sources said.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to discuss Huawei in a call this weekend, one of the sources said.

Huawei did not have an immediate comment. China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

When the Commerce Department blocked Huawei from buying U.S. goods earlier this year, it was seen as a major escalation in the trade war between the world’s two top economies.

The U.S. government blacklisted Huawei alleging the Chinese company is involved in activities contrary to national security or foreign policy interests.

As an example, the blacklisting order cited a criminal case pending against the company in federal court, over allegations Huawei violated U.S. sanctions against Iran. Huawei has pleaded not guilty in the case.

The order noted that the indictment also accused Huawei of “deceptive and obstructive acts”.

At the same time the United States says Huawei’s smartphones and network equipment could be used by China to spy on Americans, allegations the company has repeatedly denied.

The world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker is still prohibited from buying American parts and components to manufacture new products without additional special licenses.

Many Huawei suppliers have requested the special licenses to sell to the firm. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters late last month he had received more than 50 applications, and that he expected to receive more.

Out of $70 billion that Huawei spent buying components in 2018, some $11 billion went to U.S. firms including Qualcomm, Intel and Micron Technology.

The Commerce Department late on Friday declined to comment, referring to Ross’s comments to CNBC television earlier this week in which he said the existing licenses were in effect until Monday.

Asked if they would be extended he said: “On Monday I’ll be happy to update you.”

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said he did not want the United States to do business with China’s Huawei even as the administration weighs whether to extend a grace period for the company.

Reuters and other media outlets reported on Friday that the U.S. Commerce Department is expected to extend a reprieve given to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] that permits the Chinese firm to buy supplies from U.S. companies so that it can service existing customers.

The “temporary general license” will be extended for Huawei for 90 days, Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the situation.

On Sunday, Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One in New Jersey that he did not want to do business with Huawei for national security reasons.

“At this moment it looks much more like we’re not going to do business,” Trump said. “I don’t want to do business at all because it is a national security threat and I really believe that the media has covered it a little bit differently than that.”

He said there were small parts of Huawei’s business that could be exempted from a broader ban, but that it would be “very complicated.” He did not say whether his administration would extend the “temporary general license.”

Speaking earlier on Sunday, National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow said the Commerce department would extend the Huawei licensing process for three months as a gesture of “good faith” amid broader trade negotiations with China.

“We’re giving a break to our own companies for three months,” Kudlow said on NBC’s “Meet the Press”. 

(Reuters) – PlayStation console maker Sony Interactive Entertainment said on Monday it would buy privately held Insomniac Games Inc, known for developing games such as Marvel’s “Spider-Man” and third-person shooter “Ratchet & Clank” franchise.

The deal will help the console maker, a unit of Japan’s Sony Corp, boost its game offerings ahead of the launch of rival game streaming services from companies, including Alphabet Inc’s Google, and as it prepares to unveil PlayStation 5 next year.

In its bid to maintain market share in the $150 billihere global video gaming market, Sony in March partnered with main rival Microsoft Corp, the maker of Xbox game console, to stream games and content to consumers as well as offer game makers new development tools.

Founded in 1994, Insomniac Games has worked with Sony for more than 20 years, starting with the first PlayStation. Last year, it developed “Spider-Man” in partnership with Marvel Games, which is owned by Walt Disney Co. More than 13.2 million copies of the game have been sold as of end of July.

Insomniac will also release here Stormland, an action-adventure virtual reality game for Facebook Inc’s Oculus Rift headset, later this year.

Sony did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) reported 15% growth in quarterly revenue on Tuesday, missing estimates, as fewer people bought smartphones at home and rival Huawei grabbed market share.

The company is weathering a bleak domestic smartphone market as economic growth in China slows and Chinese consumers rally in support of beleaguered rival Huawei.

Xiaomi’s stock has lost more than a quarter of its value so far this year.

The company’s revenue in the second quarter ended June 30 rose to 51.95 billion yuan ($7.36 billion) from 45.24 billion a year earlier.

That was short of the 53.52 billion expected by analysts, Refinitiv data showed.

Net income slumped 87% to 1.96 billion yuan. Still, adjusted profit of 3.64 billion yuan beat the 2.74 billion expected by analysts.

Xiaomi said total smartphone shipments in the second quarter rose to 32 million.

Huawei’s market share in China surged by 31% in the June quarter, according to market research firm Canalys, while Xiaomi’s share shrank by a fifth. But Canalys reckons Xiaomi’s shipments to Europe surged 48%.

The company, which listed last year, gets the majority of its revenue from mobile handsets, but also makes money selling online ads and other consumer devices.

Huawei has received a lot of support from Chinese customers who are buying the company’s phones after it was blacklisted by the United States, limiting access to U.S. components and technology.

DIVERSIFICATION

Xiaomi’s internet services unit, which makes money primarily by placing ads across various apps, accounted for 8.8% of its revenue, flat from one year prior.

When Xiaomi listed in July 2018, executives touted the business unit as key to the company’s continued growth.

On an earnings call, leaders instead highlighted the company’s so-called “AIoT” strategy, short for “Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things,” in which it invests in artificial intelligence and smart home devices.

The firm has invested in several companies making semiconductors or other key hardware components, trying to emulate the success of Huawei’s HiSilicon semiconductor division.

In the second quarter, Xiaomi funded Verisilicon, a Shanghai-based chip design firm. It also invested in Bestechnic, which designs chips for audio devices.

Several of the companies in which Xiaomi has invested had recently listed or plan to list on China’s newly-opened STAR market, including scooter-maker Ninebot, which acquired the Segway brand in 2015.

Xiaomi’s chief financial officer, Chew Shou Zi, said the investments stem in part from the company’s hopes to build a “Chinese supply chain”, while improving its internal research and development abilities.

(The story corrects definition of “AIoT, Ninebot” listing.)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S.-based Citigroup Inc and French bank BNP Paribas are caught up in the U.S. criminal case against the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, according to newly available documents.

The banks were named in documents released on Tuesday after a hearing in British Columbia Supreme Court, where Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is fighting extradition to the United States on bank fraud charges.

The two are among at least four financial institutions that had banking relationships with Huawei when Meng and others allegedly misled them about its business dealings in Iran despite U.S. sanctions.

Two others, HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered, have been previously reported.

The banks are considered “victim” institutions in the 13-count indictment the United States brought against Meng and Huawei, which includes charges of bank and wire fraud, violating sanctions against Iran and obstructing justice.

Both she and Huawei have denied wrongdoing.

Spokespeople for Citigroup, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, and HSBC all declined to comment, as did a spokesman for U.S. prosecutors. Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the newly public information.

The British Columbia court made public hundreds of pages of documents and other materials, including video of Meng’s detention, in advance of a hearing scheduled to begin Sept. 23 in Vancouver.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested at Vancouver’s airport in December on a U.S. warrant and her lawyers argue she was unlawfully detained. They claim Canadian authorities delayed her arrest to allow the border patrol to gather evidence for the United States as part of a “covert criminal investigation.”

In the video, Meng can be seen moving through the Vancouver airport customs and immigration area, escorted by border agents, and being questioned.

In a transcript, Meng repeatedly asks why she was being detained and is eventually told she can contact a lawyer, but not her family.

“My family members will be worried if they can’t find me,” she says.

Meng was searched and interrogated for hours in violation of her constitutional rights, her lawyers say. She spent more than a week in detention before being granted bail.

TRADE WAR

Diplomatic relations between Canada and China turned icy after Meng was detained and China subsequently arrested two Canadian citizens, charging them with espionage. It has also blocked imports of some Canadian commodities.

Meng and Huawei also have become part of the escalating U.S. and China trade war.

U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters in December he would intervene in her case if it would help secure a deal with China, leading her lawyers to argue the extradition proceedings are being used for economic and political purposes.

In Tuesday’s court documents, they describe Trump’s comments about Meng as “corrosive of the rule of law.”

The United States also has made a broader push against Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications maker, which it maintains is involved in activities contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.

Huawei was placed on a U.S. trade blacklist in May that bans the sale of U.S. parts and components to the company without special licenses. So far, the licenses have not been granted except to allow the repair and maintenance of existing products and networks.

Besides alleged sanctions-busting, the United States says the company’s smartphones and network equipment could be used by China to spy on Americans, allegations the company also has repeatedly denied.

In one document released on Tuesday, the United States describes the evidence against Meng, including articles published by Reuters in 2012 and 2013 about a company in Iran called Skycom Tech that had tried to sell computer equipment from a U.S. firm to a customer in Iran.

The reporting detailed links between Huawei and Skycom, including that Meng had served on Skycom’s board of directors between February 2008 and April 2009.

The articles were “concerning” to at least four financial institutions that banked for Huawei, according to the document, which was drafted by a U.S. federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, where the case was brought against Meng and Huawei.

U.S. laws and regulations generally prohibited the banks from providing U.S. dollar transactions tied to Iran through the United States.   

Meng and others defrauded HSBC and other banks by misrepresenting Huawei’s relationship with Skycom, according to U.S. prosecutors who claim Skycom’s operations in Iran were controlled by Huawei from at least 2007 until 2014.

U.S. authorities claim Huawei used Skycom to obtain embargoed U.S. goods, technology and services in Iran, and to move money via the international banking system.

According to the newly available document about the evidence, witnesses for the prosecution of the U.S. case will include executives from HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citigroup, and an FBI forensic accountant is expected to testify about documents showing BNP Paribas provided banking services for Huawei between at least 2013 and 2018.

In February, when Reuters exclusively reported that HSBC conducted a probe that helped bring the case against Meng and Huawei, a spokesman said the bank was legally obligated to provide the information it did to the U.S. Department of Justice.

All four banks have resolved their own sanctions issues with U.S. authorities in recent years. The agreements range from BNP Paribas paying $8.9 billion in 2014 and pleading guilty in U.S. court to Citigroup agreeing to pay $217,841 the same year over potential civil liability for its apparent violations of sanctions programs.