A new report claims that Facebook held investment discussions in late 2014 with China-based smartphone company Xiaomi. However, those talks did not result in a formal deal between the two companies.
Reuters, citing unnamed sources, claims that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met for dinner in October 2014 with Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun while Zuckerberg was visiting China. The story says that while the two men discussed a possible investment deal, they never went beyond that informal dinner. Xiaomi later announced it had raised $1.1 billion in new funding from a variety of other financial sources, which gives the company a market value of $45 billion.
This new report may show that Facebook is actively looking to break into the Chinese market. However, the social network itself is currently banned in China and Reuters' story claims that Lei was fearful that a Facebook investment could cause unwanted political issues with China's government. He also reportedly didn't want to hurt Xiaomi's current relationship with Google.
Source: Reuters
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