Meta acquired Manus, pending regulatory approvals, in a reportedly $2 billion deal last month.
- The FT reports that Beijing is reviewing Meta’s recent acquisition of Manus, including the transfer of the latter’s staff and technology.
- The review might not lead to an investigation.
- Meta made a string of acquisitions and investments last year, culminating with the Manus deal.
Meta Platforms, Inc.’s shares fell 0.2% in the early premarket session on Wednesday, after a report said that Beijing has opened a review of the company’s recently announced acquisition of AI firm Manus.
The Financial Times reported late Tuesday that China’s commerce ministry had begun assessing whether the relocation of Manus’s staff and technology to Singapore, followed by its subsequent sale to Meta, required an export licence under Chinese law.
Meta announced the acquisition of Manus, a Singapore-headquartered startup with roots in China, on Dec. 29, in a reportedly $2 billion deal.
The FT report, citing anonymous sources, said the review may not result in a formal investigation, though Beijing could still use its approval process to influence the deal – including, in an extreme scenario, pushing the parties to abandon it altogether.
China used a similar mechanism to intervene in Washington’s attempted forced sale of TikTok during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term.
On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for META was in the ‘bearish’ zone as of early Wednesday, unchanged from the previous day. The stock gained in the two sessions.
Although the deal is paltry for Meta – it made a string of acquisitions and investments last year – any pushback from China could curtail its AI development to some extent. Manus offers easy-to-deploy AI agents to businesses and boasts an annualized revenue run rate of $100 million.
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