Huawei exits Australia sponsorship deal over ‘negative business environment’

Embattled Chinese telco Huawei exited its main sponsorship deal with rugby league’s Canberra Raiders Monday, citing a “negative business environment” after Australia blocked the company from its 5G wireless networks.

The Raiders were the tech giant’s first large-scale sporting sponsorship worldwide and they have backed the club for almost a decade, with their logo and name on the front of the playing kit.

But Huawei said in a statement that the “continued negative business environment is having a larger than originally forecasted impact on our planned revenue stream”, in explaining its decision to terminate the deal a year early.