Chapter 911 Joint Venture

Yes, in May of this year, the "Fourth Citizen", also known as Snowden, proposed his intention to meet with Laura Poitras in an encrypted email - he chose the meeting place in China HK .

Because the meeting point Snowden chose was in a foreign country far away from Europe, Laura was worried about safety issues and prepared to go with others.

So Laura Poitras contacted her friend who had participated in the event with her - Glenn Greenwald, a senior reporter for the British "Guardian".

Of course, her movements were also reported to Barron by Barron's intelligence agency, which was paying attention to her whereabouts.

After telling Glenn Greenwald about "Citizen Four", Laura discovered that Glenn had also received encrypted emails from the other party before.

However, at the time, Glenn thought the other party's remarks were a bit "nonsense" and he himself knew nothing about encrypted communications, so he did not reply to the other party.

In the end, Laura, Glenn, and a senior editor from the Guardian took a plane to Hong Kong to meet with the "Fourth Citizen".

In this way, after the two parties met, Laura and the others recorded the interview with Snowden, and later released a documentary about the "Prism" project under the name "Citizen Four".

At the same time, the Guardian was the first to report the contents of the "Prism" program revealed by Snowden, which caused an uproar around the world.

After all, according to the Prism program disclosed by Snowden, it also includes the United States’ surveillance of heads of state of allied countries, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, German Chancellor Merkel, Brazilian President Rousseff and other leaders of as many as 35 countries. People are on the NSA watch list.

After this, Germany's "Der Spiegel" quoted documents provided by Snowden and disclosed that the U.S. National Security Agency carried out surveillance on 122 foreign leaders in 2009 and built a database specifically to store information on foreign leaders, including information about Germany. There are 300 reports from Chancellor Merkel.

It can be said that after the Prism Gate outbreak, the global response was very exciting.

Snowden, the instigator, began his escape career. According to the information Barron obtained from the British intelligence agency, in order to capture Snowden, the United States even sent a team of 16 agents to Liandao. As a result, the resident special forces He even received first-class collective merit...

Barron can also imagine why the U.S. intelligence agencies are so interested in him - after all, he knew about the U.S. "Prism" program in his previous life, so from the beginning, he paid great attention to preventing being monitored.

Not only will all the places he goes to be thoroughly searched by his security team, but his daily communications will only be conducted through the O2 Telecom controlled by Honor Electronics using a mobile phone specially made by Honor Electronics.

And important conversations are conducted through encrypted satellite phones. It can be said that although American intelligence agencies can monitor leaders of many countries, it is much more difficult to monitor Barron.

…

On June 10, O2 Germany finally completed the acquisition of E-Plus, the German subsidiary of the Dutch KPN Group.

In this acquisition, O2 Telecom’s bid was 8 billion euros, which exceeded Telefonica’s bid, so it ultimately won the competition.

After completing the acquisition of E-Plus, its business will be merged into O2 Germany, resulting in O2 Germany having more than 40 million users, accounting for nearly half of the total population of Germany, surpassing Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone Germany, becoming The telecommunications operator with the largest number of users in Germany.

At this point, O2 Telecom has become Europe's second largest telecom operator after Vodafone through years of development and acquisitions.

Just after Barron returned to London, he met the boss of Huawei again at his home.

"I still remember the first time we met. Unknowingly, it was already ten years ago, Mr. Ren."

It can be said that compared with then, both Barron, Boss Ren, and Huawei have changed a lot now, so when talking about this matter, Barron can't help but feel a little sad.

"Yes, Your Highness the Duke. At that time, Huawei wanted to develop the British and European markets. The first cooperation in the UK was with your O2 Telecom. Until now, O2 Telecom has become one of the largest telecom companies in Europe. We have always We are a close partner and we are very grateful for this.”

"But the situation is different now. You know, although O2 Telecom is larger, it also covers the markets of many countries. Our cooperation with Huawei also faces more challenges..."

"When you see me today, you must have a plan. I am willing to hear the details."

The conversation between the two people was conducted in Chinese. After all, Boss Ren was very accustomed to the British Duke's fluent Chinese.

"You should be aware of the recent Prism Gate, Mr. Ren. This can explain the main reason why Huawei has hit a wall in the American market. However, in the European market, it is different..."

Barron handed a document to the other party and continued:

"After the debt crisis, Europe's economic recovery is slower than expected. Correspondingly, European telecommunications equipment manufacturers need the EU to provide them with guarantees. In this case, it is not only our O2 Telecom, but also all other telecommunications companies. Companies are facing pressure to give priority to European equipment suppliers..."

Boss Ren looked at the information handed over by Barron and frowned slightly.

Yes, Huawei has become one of the largest telecommunications equipment suppliers in the world, and can provide customers with the most cost-effective products and the highest quality services, but so what, after all, the EU can impose regulations on corresponding local companies. Subsidized, and in many assessments, telecommunications companies' equipment procurement options are taken into account...

This information is some specific policies and related information of the European Union.

"I am willing to continue to cooperate with Huawei. After all, our cooperation before this was very satisfactory, but in response to the current situation, I have a proposal..."

At the very beginning, Barron's completed the acquisition of the British Marconi Company through Rich23 Capital and merged it into Huawei, thus holding 15% of Huawei's shares.

Barron’s proposal is for Rich23 Capital to withdraw its holdings in Huawei and convert them into holdings in Huawei’s European joint venture.

That is to say, based on Huawei's European branch (established on the basis of the original Marconi Company), a joint venture between the two parties is formed, in which Barron's holds 51% of the shares and Huawei holds 49% of the shares, then The joint venture will be considered a European company.

In this way, the cooperation between O2 Telecom and other telecom companies and Huawei's European joint venture will no longer be restricted by relevant EU policies.