It was during a speech in Washington on Thursday evening Swedish time that the Trump administration's Justice Minister William Barr said the US should consider buying Ericsson. He called China the biggest threat to the United States and considered that a way to counter telecom giant Huawei would be to buy up a competitor.
- An alternative is to merge with Ericsson and / or Nokia. This can be done through US ownership of a controlling stake in the company, either directly or through a consortium of privately owned US companies, ”Barr said.
Ericsson declines to comment
The fact that the US state invests in private companies is unusual. Investments in foreign companies are even more unusual.
Ericsson declines on Thursday night to comment on William Barr's statement. Earlier, Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm did not want to talk about Huawei or the 5G political conflict between the US and China.