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buses from Azerbaijan’s public transport company Xaliq Faiqoglu. The buses will be used in Baku. Delivery is set for Q1 2022.
Honda shut down its plant in Turkey. It has sold the plant to local conglomerate Habas. Local media reports suggested that Habas has also bought equipment from another closed-down Honda plant, in Swindon, England, and it plans to produce hybrid cars in the plant.
8.2.3 TMT corporate news
Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK) on September 3 fined Facebook’s WhatsApp LLC Turkish lira (TRY) 1.95mn ($235,000) over its controversial update dealing with privacy.
In May, concerns were raised around the world that the update to WhatsApp’s terms of service and privacy rules would force users to agree to share more of their data with Facebook.
Turkey’s competition board also launched an investigation into Facebook and WhatsApp over “abuse of a dominant position.”
US social media companies have recently come under pressure globally to keep data of their users within their home countries and to also pay fair taxes.
Recently, Ireland and Russia fined WhatsApp.
By April, meanwhile, all social media companies obeyed Turkey’s new social media legislation by appointing representatives in Turkey.
As of March, a 7.5% tax on the “sales revenues” of technology companies, including Google, Facebook and Amazon, came into force in Turkey.
In June, the US retaliated to Turkey’s digital services tax on US-based companies including Alphabet, Apple and Facebook by imposing a 25% tariff on $310mn of imports from Turkey.
Akinon, a cloud-based omnichannel e-commerce platforms developer, raised $20mn in its Series B funding round.
Cambridge-based biotechnology start-up Congenica, which develops diagnostic decision support platforms, entered the Turkish market with the signing of a distributorship agreement with Ankara-based ATC Healthcare Trade Co.
Dubai-based e-commerce roll-up investor Opontia, which buys e-commerce companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, is targeting the acquisition of at least 15 brands in Turkey within one year.
Turkey-based RubiBrands, Opontia’s local competitor, targets to buy 18 brands within one year.
Getir's funding rounds and M&As
Date
Sold
Stake
Price
Buyer
Seller
Sep-21
Getir
RUMOUR
$150mn
Existing shareholder
Series E
Sep-21
Dogus Etiler REIT (47 office units)
-
TALKS
Getir
Dogus REIT
Aug-21
n11
-
-
Getir
Dogus Holding
45 TURKEY Country Report October 2021 www.intellinews.com