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Panasonic cuts full-year outlook as costly raw materials weigh

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Panasonic cuts full-year outlook as costly raw materials weigh

Japan’s Panasonic Holdings Corp (6752.T) cut its annual operating profit forecast by 12.5% on Thursday after lower-than-expected third-quarter earnings, hit by headwinds from a slowing global economy and persistently high raw materials prices.

The company faces challenges amid a tricky outlook for global growth, as it looks to further build out its energy business, which includes making auto batteries for electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O).

The conglomerate slashed its operating profit forecast to 280 billion yen ($2.18 billion) for the financial year to Mar. 31, from 320 billion yen, in part due to a less rosy outlook for its industry segment this quarter.

It expects to invest up to about 600 billion yen in the three years through March 2025 in a new battery plant it started building in Kansas last year, Group Chief Financial Officer Hirokazu Umeda told an online earnings presentation.

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Panasonic said in presentation materials it will aim to grow profits in automotive batteries by expanding sales of its 2170 model lithium-ion battery cells and commercialising the more advanced 4680 format battery.

The company’s energy unit last month signed an agreement with Lucid Group Inc (LCID.O) to supply lithium-ion batteries for the EV maker’s full lineup, including its “Air” luxury model.

The company also said it aimed to begin supplying the 4680 format battery to the North American market in the financial year through March 2024 to commercialise this model of battery cells.

Panasonic’s third-quarter result, with its operating profit rising 16% to 84.4 billion yen in the three months ended Dec. 31, fell short of a mean estimate of 95.31 billion yen profit from nine analysts.

Jefferies analysts said in a note before the earnings release that the company’s overly diverse business portfolio lacked focus and was centred on low-margin, cyclical businesses.

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Most investors were focused on more clarity and details about U.S. Inflation Reduction Act benefits for Panasonic’s EV battery cell production, such as the size and sustainability of subsidies, the analysts added.

The energy business’ operating profit fell nearly half to 28.9 billion yen for the nine months through the end of December, hit mainly by high prices for raw materials and transport, despite a 25% rise in sales over the period.

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TikTok, Meta, X CEOs to testify at US Senate hearing in January

TikTok, Meta, X CEOs to testify at US Senate hearing in January

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TikTok, Meta, X CEOs to testify at US Senate hearing in January

The chief executives of social media companies Meta, X, TikTok, Snap and Discord will testify on online child sexual exploitation at a Jan. 31 U.S. Senate hearing, the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Wednesday.

Senator Dick Durbin, the panel’s Democratic chairman and the ranking Republican Lindsey Graham said Discord and X had initially balked at participating and refused to accept a subpoena. “Now that all five companies are cooperating, we look forward to hearing from their CEOs,” they said in a statement.

It will be the first appearance by TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew before U.S. lawmakers since March when the Chinese-owned short video app company faced harsh questions, including some suggesting the app was damaging children’s mental health.

Proposed legislation has stalled in Congress that would give the Biden administration new powers to block Americans from using foreign communications technology such as TikTok, which is used by more than 150 million Americans.

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Durbin and Graham said the hearing will allow committee members to press CEOs from some of the biggest social media companies on their failures to protect children online.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Discord CEO Jason Citron will testify.

“Big Tech’s failure to police itself at the expense of our kids cannot go unanswered,” Durbin and Graham said.

The committee this year has approved a number of bills including one that would remove tech firms’ immunity from civil and criminal liability under child sexual abuse material laws that was first proposed in 2020.

Another would establish a National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention and another to modernize investigations and prosecutions of online child exploitation crimes.

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EU Commission lawyers initially opposed warning Amazon on iRobot deal – sources

EU Commission lawyers initially opposed warning Amazon on iRobot deal – sources

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EU Commission lawyers initially opposed warning Amazon on iRobot deal - sources

European Commission lawyers initially opposed sending a warning to Amazon over its $1.4 billion acquisition of robot vacuum maker iRobot (IRBT.O), three people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

The Commission’s legal service did not think a statement of objections regarding the deal was warranted, in contrast with antitrust officials handling the case, the people said. Without such a charge sheet, the deal would have been cleared unconditionally.

The lawyers subsequently changed their mind and backed antitrust officials’ decision to send the charge sheet setting out their concerns, the sources said on condition of anonymity, declining to provide confidential details.

The Commission declined to comment.

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Antitrust officials can override objections from the legal service by either tweaking or narrowing their concerns to get their backing or by appealing to the top officials.

Sources had previously told Reuters the deal would be cleared unconditionally.

The EU competition enforcer sent a statement of objections to Amazon on Monday, narrowing the case to concerns about the deal restricting competition in the market for robot vacuum cleaners and dropping initial worries that the deal would strengthen the company’s position as an online marketplace provider.

While Amazon might still gain unconditional approval to buy iRobot, the charge sheet indicates that officials are looking to remedies from the company to address their concerns.

The case echoes that of Google which only won the EU green light to buy Fitbit in 2020 after agreeing to restrictions on how it will use customers’ health-related data, in effect creating a data silo.

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Some of the issues in the Amazon deal are covered in new tech rules known as the Digital Markets Act which sets out a list of dos and don’ts for Big Tech, but antitrust officials do not want those obligations as an excuse to take a more lenient line on the deal, one of the people said.

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After 50 years, US to return to Moon on Jan 25

After 50 years, US to return to Moon on Jan 25

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After 50 years, US to return to Moon on Jan 25

 More than 50 years after the last Apollo mission, the United States will try once again to land a craft on the Moon on Jan 25, said the head of what could be the first private company to successfully touch down on the lunar surface. 

The lander, named Peregrine, will have no one on board. It was developed by American company Astrobotic, whose CEO John Thornton said it will carry NASA instruments to study the lunar environment in anticipation of NASA’s Artemis manned missions.

Several years ago, NASA opted to commission US companies to send scientific experiments and technologies to the Moon — a program called CLPS. These fixed-price contracts should make it possible to develop a lunar economy, and provide transport services at a lower cost.

“One of the big challenges of what we’re attempting here is attempting a launch and landing on the surface Moon for a fraction of what it would otherwise cost,” said Thornton Wednesday at a press briefing at his company’s base in in Pittsburgh.

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“Only about half of the missions that have gone to the surface of the Moon have been successful,” he said. “So it’s certainly a daunting challenge. I’m going to be terrified and thrilled all at once at every stage of this.”

Takeoff is scheduled for December 24 from Florida aboard the inaugural flight of the new rocket from the ULA industrial group, named Vulcan Centaur.

The probe will then take “a few days” to reach lunar orbit, but will have to wait until January 25 before attempting landing, so that light conditions at the target location are right, Thornton said.

The descent will be carried out autonomously, without human intervention, but will be monitored from the company’s control center.

In the spring, the Japanese start-up ispace had already attempted to become the first private company to land on the Moon, but the mission ended in a crash. Israel also suffered a setback in 2019. Only four countries have successfully landed on the Moon: the United States, Russia, China and, most recently, India.

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In addition to Astrobotic, NASA has signed contracts with other companies, such as Firefly Aerospace, Draper and Intuitive Machines. The latter is due to take off aboard a SpaceX rocket in January.

“NASA leadership is aware of the risks and has accepted that some of these missions might not succeed,” said Chris Culbert, the CLPS program manager. “But even if every landing isn’t successful, CLPS already had an impact on the commercial infrastructure needed to establish a lunar economy,” he said.

With its Artemis program, NASA wants to establish a base on the surface of the Moon. 

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