Microsoft Consolidates Retail Channels in China

FILE PHOTO: A person walks past a Microsoft sign at its office building in Beijing, China May 25, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A person walks past a Microsoft sign at its office building in Beijing, China May 25, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
TT

Microsoft Consolidates Retail Channels in China

FILE PHOTO: A person walks past a Microsoft sign at its office building in Beijing, China May 25, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A person walks past a Microsoft sign at its office building in Beijing, China May 25, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo

Microsoft is consolidating its retail channels in mainland China, the firm said in response to media reports that it is closing its network of authorized physical retailers in the world's second-largest economy.
Microsoft did not confirm or deny the closures and did not comment on the number of authorized stores that would be impacted by the consolidation, in response to a request for comment from Reuters.
"Microsoft continually assesses its retail strategy to meet the evolving needs of our valued customers and we’ve made the decision to focus our channel approach in Mainland China," it said in a statement.
Microsoft products would still be available in the mainland via its retail partners and its own website, it added.
Microsoft does not directly operate physical retail stores in China and it did not elaborate on which retail partners would continue to stock its products in the China market.



Former ASML CEO says US-China Chip Fight Will Continue

Peter Wennink, President and CEO of Dutch chip machine maker ASML presents his company's Q4 results, in Veldhoven, Netherlands January 24, 2024. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Peter Wennink, President and CEO of Dutch chip machine maker ASML presents his company's Q4 results, in Veldhoven, Netherlands January 24, 2024. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Former ASML CEO says US-China Chip Fight Will Continue

Peter Wennink, President and CEO of Dutch chip machine maker ASML presents his company's Q4 results, in Veldhoven, Netherlands January 24, 2024. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Peter Wennink, President and CEO of Dutch chip machine maker ASML presents his company's Q4 results, in Veldhoven, Netherlands January 24, 2024. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

The recently retired CEO of semiconductor equipment maker ASML said in an interview with Dutch radio station BNR on Saturday that US-China disputes over computer chips are ideological and not based on facts, and they are set to continue.

Wennink left in April after a ten year term at the helm of ASML that saw it become Europe's largest technology firm. Since 2018, the US has imposed increasing restrictions on what tools the company can export to China, its second-largest market after Taiwan, citing security concerns. According to Reuters, most recently the US has sought to keep the company from servicing equipment already sold to Chinese customers.

"These kind of discussions are not being conducted on the basis of facts or content or numbers or data but on the basis of ideology," Wennink said.

"You can think whatever you want about that, but we're a business where the interests of your stakeholders have to be managed in balance ... If ideology cuts straight through that, I have problems with that."

He said the company has had customers and staff in China for 30 years "so you also have obligations".

As part of seeking to strike a balance, Wennink said he had lobbied where possible to prevent export restrictions from becoming too tight, and at the same time he had complained to high-ranking Chinese politicians when he felt the company's intellectual property wasn't being respected.

"I think in Washington, maybe they sometimes thought, that Mr. Wennink, maybe he's a friend of China," he said.

"No. I'm a friend to my customers, to my suppliers, to my employees, to my shareholders."

He forecast that given geopolitical interests are at stake, the chip war could take decades to play out.

"This is going to go on for a while," he said.