More Tech Companies Are Pulling Out of Mobile World Congress on Virus Fears. Intel Is the Latest. -- Barrons.com
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Intel (INTC) has become the latest major technology company to cancel planned participation in the coming Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona on concerns about the continuing spread of novel coronavirus.
"The safety and well-being of all our employees and partners is our top priority, and we have withdrawn from this year's Mobile World Congress out of an abundance of caution," the chip company (ticker: (INTC) said in a statement.
The number of companies who have pulled out of the world's biggest smartphone conference, scheduled to start later this month, is growing by the day. Here's the current list of the companies that have canceled their participation, as of Monday night:
-- LG Electronics -- Ericsson (ERIC) -- Sony(SNE) -- Amazon.com(AMZN) -- Nvidia(NVDA) -- Amdocs(DOX) -- NTT DoCoMo (Japanese wireless service provider) -- InterDigital (IDCC) -- CommScope Holding (COMM) -- Viavi Solutions (VIAV) -- Intel(INTC) -- Accedian (Canada-based performance analytics company) -- Gigaset (German phone maker) -- Sprintrade (Italian ad network) -- Umidigi (China-based smartphone company) -- Ulefone (China-based smartphone company) -- Vivo (handset maker) -- MediaTek (chip maker) The China-based tech companies ZTE and TCL have canceled planned news conferences, but still plan to participate in the event.
As of Sunday, there were no plans to cancel the conference, which most years attracts more than 100,000 attendees from around the world. The GSMA, a trade association which sponsors the event, seems determined to carry on, despite the growing number of defections.
"The GSMA knows that the coronavirus has created disruption, in particular for exhibitors and attendees from around the world, including the 5-6,000 (5-6%) who have historically attended from China," the group said in a blog post. "Our sympathy goes to all those affected...Today, the GSMA is moving ahead as planned and will host MWC Barcelona 24-27 February 2020. While the GSMA confirm some large exhibitors have decided not to come to the show this year with others still contemplating next steps, we remain more than 2,800 exhibitors strong."
That said, as more companies pull out -- and the pattern suggests the list is going to lengthen in the coming days -- there will be growing questions about the wisdom of holding the show this year as scheduled if there is even modest risk to exhibitors and attendees.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at eric.savitz@barrons.com |
