Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) was the subject of a strange course of events involving China recently.
The company was granted a business license to operate in country. However, that license didn’t last long before the Chinese government pulled it. It’s unknown why the license was granted in the first place.
For those not familiar with the situation, Facebook has been attempting to enter China for years now. Despite its best efforts, it has been unable to do so due to a ban from the Chinese government. That’s why the recent business license fiasco is such a strange occurrence.
One thing we do know about this business license is that it was granted to a subsidiary of Facebook. The 100% backer of this subsidiary is listed as Facebook Hong Kong. The subsidiary listed its location as Hangzhou.
The Hangzhou location is interesting for a couple of reasons. First off, FB has said that it is planning to launch an innovation hub in Zhejiang, which Hangzhou is the capital of. The city is also the home of Alibaba (NYSE:BABA). This could be a sign of a potential partnership between the two companies, reports TechCrunch.
It’s still unknown exactly what the subsidiary that Facebook was planning to open in China will do, but the recent filing does give us some hints. It mentions that the business’ operations will include “network information technology development and related services, investment consultancy and marketing planning,” CNBC notes.
FB stock was up 1% as of Wednesday afternoon.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
