Epic Games and Riot Games in Trump's Crosshairs

According to reports of the Bloomberg news agency, the US administration is looking at the financial involvement of the Chinese company Tencent in the American gaming industry. The Chinese giant owns Riot Games, holds a 40% stake in Epic Games and a 5% stake in Activision Blizzard.

Tencent will be another victim in the trade war between the US and China.

IN A NUTSHELL:

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump analyses the involvement of Chinese company Tencent in the American gaming industry;
The intention may be to push the Chinese out of this sector of the American economy;
Tencent holds shares in Riot Games (93%), Epic Games (40%) and Activision Blizzard (5%), among others;
The total value of assets of the Chinese company in the U.S. gaming industry is over 22 billion dollars.

Bloomberg reports that the US administration is looking at the investments of the Chinese company Tencent in the American gaming industry. The subject of the investigation are reportedly entities controlled by the company almost entirely (such as Riot Games), or in large part (e.g. Epic Games, 40% of which is owned by the Chinese).

The Treasury Department's Comitee on Foreign Investment has written to both companies inquiring about private data security issues. In a statement for Bloomberg TV, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's attorney Aimen Mir, who has previously investigated similar cases with the Treasury Department, admitted that there is almost always something to look into.

"When you’re talking about massive amounts of data, there’s probably something for the committee to look at. The question then becomes is the risk high enough that it actually warrants forcing deals apart," Aimen Mir argues.

Huawei was one of the first targets of the US government in the trade war with China.

Bloomberg's journalists speculate that the motive for the US authorities to act may be similar to that in the case of TikTok and WeChat - a way to put pressure on the Chinese government and try to drive out its capital from the country. It is worth remembering that Tencent owns shares in more than 300 companies. Apart from Epic Games or Riot Games, this includes Activision Blizzard (5% of shares). According to Bloomberg, the total value of Tencent's investments in the United States may reach 22 billion dollars and they generate about 6-7% of Chinese company's revenues.