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SenseTime's Hong Kong IPO; TikTok's resources if algorithm opt-out bill passes

TOP NEWS IN TECH

* Artificial intelligence technology developer SenseTime Group Ltd. filed a draft prospectus Nov. 22 with The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Ltd., amid ongoing changes in cybersecurity laws in China. In its latest filing, the tech company revealed it implemented "comprehensive internal policies and measures on protection of cybersecurity, data privacy and personal information" in line with China's personal information protection laws and data security laws.

* U.S. lawmakers' focus on recommender algorithms in a recent pair of bills may be ineffective, as legislators seek to address broader harms caused by social media platforms. Social media giants such as Beijing ByteDance Telecommunications Co. Ltd.'s TikTok Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Twitter Inc. among others, have the resources to innovate and find ways to capture more screen time, even with users controlling the content they see, according to Daniel Hanley, a senior policy analyst with research group Open Markets Institute.

* Publicly traded information technology companies in the U.S., Canada and Bermuda raised about $14.79 billion through capital offerings in October, down from $19.09 billion in September. With respect to senior debt, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. unit TSMC Arizona Corp. raised the most capital via a series of senior unsecured note offerings in October, bringing in about $4.50 billion in total.

TECH POLICY AND REGULATION

* China's State Administration for Market Regulation imposed fines on companies that failed to declare past mergers, acquisitions and partnership deals to the regulator, Reuters reported. The companies involved in the cases, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Baidu Inc. and JD.com Inc., will each face a fine of 500,000 yuan, the maximum penalty amount under the country's anti-monopoly law.

* The Australian government will invest A$111 million to support the commercialization, adoption and use of quantum technology. The total investment includes A$70 million for a hub to help commercialize Australia's quantum research through partnerships with similarly interested countries while allowing local businesses to tap into new investors and markets.

TECHNOLOGY

* Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. plans to build a roughly $17 billion chipmaking plant in Taylor, Texas, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Biden administration pushes for an expansion of U.S. semiconductor production, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

* French IT company Capgemini SE completed the A$233 million acquisition of Australian cloud and digital services provider Empired Ltd.

* Apple Inc. pushed back the return-to-office date for its corporate employees to Feb. 1, 2022, from a previous target of January 2022, Bloomberg News reported, citing a staff email from CEO Tim Cook.

* SoftBank Corp. plans to issue its first sustainability bonds as early as January 2022, to fund an internet project linked to Alphabet Inc.'s shuttered Loon, Bloomberg News reported, citing Tokyo's The Nikkei.

MEDIA AND STREAMING

* South Korean entertainment company CJ ENM Co. Ltd. agreed to acquire an 80% stake in the scripted business of content studio Endeavor Content from its parent entity, Endeavor Group Holdings Inc., for $775 million. CJ ENM expects the acquisition to help boost its global presence and content distribution channels.

* Netflix Inc. announced it will acquire visual effects studio Scanline VFX, which has offices in South Korea, Vancouver, British Columbia, Montreal, Los Angeles, London, and Germany's Munich and Stuttgart.

* Spotify Technology SA is launching its podcast subscriptions offering in 33 more markets, its podcasting platform, Anchor FM Inc., announced Nov. 17. The expansion is mostly focused on Europe and Asia-Pacific.

* Crunchyroll Inc. made the beta version of its anime-streaming service available to selected users worldwide, Advanced Television reported. The beta version is initially accessible to 10% of Crunchyroll's premium and free subscribers, before eventually rolling out to premium and free users, globally outside Asia, over the succeeding weeks.

* SMC Entertainment Inc. executed a definitive share purchase agreement for its acquisition of 100% equity interest in diversified financial services company Genesis Financial Inc. for $45 million. Genesis Financial operates its business through two Australian regulated entities in wealth management, tax and accounting advisory services.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

* Japanese telco operator NTT Docomo Inc. and infrastructure-sharing services provider JTower Inc. struck a capital and business alliance to strengthen their collaboration in infra-sharing. Under the alliance, NTT Docomo will acquire JTower shares held by parent company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. The parent company will grant NTT Docomo 2.5% voting rights.

INTERNET

* Global internet outages increased 14% to 432 for the week of Nov. 13, marking the second consecutive weekly increase, according to data from ThousandEyes, a network-monitoring service owned by Cisco Systems Inc. Business-hours outages in the Asia-Pacific region fell 18 percentage points to 29% of the region's total disruptions.

* The online music business of Chinese internet company NetEase Inc. is planning to raise up to HK$3.52 billion in an IPO in Hong Kong, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Cloud Village Inc. will sell 16 million shares and has set a price range of HK$190-HK$220 apiece.

Our weekly feature covers the latest technology developments in the Asia-Pacific region, spotlighting exclusive insights from news and research within S&P Global Market Intelligence. The weekly Asia-Pacific tech roundup has an editorial deadline of 7 a.m. Hong Kong time and is published every Thursday.