Also don't see why a Chinese company can't buy shares in a company. Financial products, just like other products, are purchasable by any nationality.
If Palantir is doing something that risks national security then they ought to work with the government on that. I don't think we know enough about Palantir to make a judgement there.
Are you kidding?
By any measure that is available China is a country that is inferior to a vast chunk of the world when it comes to civil liberties and political freedom.
Palantir or a substantial portion of it in the hands of the Chinese (and, by extension in the hands of the Chinese authorities, direct or indirect) is something that you simply should not want.
Why assume they'd stop at a minority interest?
A Chinese equity buying a sizeable chunk of equity in Boeing or Lockheed would be a huge deal, comparable to the Aixtron acquisition (German chipmaker, deal got blocked by Obama administration on national security grounds). Ditto for Fairchild and Philips.
The Chinese directly or indirectly trying to gain a sizeable chunk of a company like Palantir is not just any old stock transaction, it is a strategic acquisition.
If the China angle is an issue, then should it be an issue when Palantir gives immigration agents access to CIA files, ergo is involved in arbitrarily denying visas, ergo de facto building the 'Muslim registry'?
https://theintercept.com/2017/03/17/palantir-enables-immigra...
http://www.voanews.com/a/african-trade-conference-canceled-a...
Seriously? What does that have to do with investing in the stock market?
Palantir isn't the Manhattan Project. Plus, the US is on friendly terms with China. Most of our computer hardware is made there. I don't see how Chinese investing in Palantir somehow hurts our national security. No need to spread FUD or build walls in the stock market.
Your comments seem to be in line with Thiel and Trump, who fear other countries, so I can see where you're coming from, I just think it's 1950's style thinking and not reflective of 2017 reality.
It isn't Coca Cola either.
I don't see why not. China is a live and let live sort of government. They're not trying to export their civil liberties or political system to other parts of the world. They mainly care about what economic inputs/outputs they share with other countries.
Also, why do we care if China have access to Palantir's technologies? I agree that if they have access to the data, that would be a bad thing in terms of national security. But their technology wouldn't be any threat to us.
Tibetans might disagree with you.
China rarely interferes with the internal affairs of foreign governments.
I don't see why giving China technology it's not likely to use outside of its borders is an issue here. Like I said before, access to data is another thing all together.
I've been paying pretty good attention to the news the last 3 decades or so and I'm going to have to disagree with you there. They're not as bad as some but they are definitely players.
On the other hand, if they are already working with the government on things that have an impact on, or are related to, national security, then it is perhaps prudent not to sell large portions of the firm to foreign buyers.
I am not making any claim about why or why not, just that they are currently in a posistion where they can control these things, right? If they were public this seems like it would be a different issue...
Also, if the US govt were very concerned about this, I imagine they would step in and block it.
Hmm I don't know if that's common. I think the company often has right of first refusal for founders, meaning the company can buy shares being sold, though not sure whether they can block sales outright.
> Also, if the US govt were very concerned about this, I imagine they would step in and block it.
Yeah, I agree. The security argument sounds like an investor's way of hyping the value of the company, since it's "so valuable China shouldn't be allowed to invest in it". Also could be Thiel's version of "I don't want to bake your gay wedding cake", substituting the Chinese for gays.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Foreign_Investmen...
There is already an established consensus that foreign nations can't invest just like 'everyone else'.
I doubt that China is on the brink of holding a majority of Palantir, or that they would gain access to its data by investing.
There is no way an acquisition at this level is made from China without party approval. You can't more more than $50K out of China without a very specific permit.
> why do you have a blanket distrust of "the Chinese"?
When did you stop beating your wife?
Either way, the Board should have put some political/newspaper test language in their shareholder rights documents as it pertains to transfers.
You lack imagination. Blackmail, espionage, economic advantage are all possible if a you have the kind of data that Palantir is fairly routinely assumed to have access to.
https://techcrunch.com/2015/01/11/leaked-palantir-doc-reveal...
If you feel that in light of that the Chinese having access to such information is a no-op then I have no further counter arguments.
What you're saying is wildly short-sighted, and frankly bound in a very dangerous false dichotomy.