Chrysler is considered one of the United States' "Big Three" automakers, but it has cast its gaze overseas to build its future. The company has had two major mergers with European automakers in a little more than a decade — first, a failed 1998 marriage with German automaker Daimler, and then a somewhat more harmonious 2009 union with Italy's Fiat, turning it into Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, or FCA. Now, the company is planning to go to the altar for a third time, with French manufacturer Groupe PSA, best known for its Peugeot brand.
Industry experts warn that mergers are always a challenge. As in the case of Daimler, a cultural mismatch between two companies can cause friction, and worse. However, experts say that a super-sized FCA-PSA that pools the resources and strengths of the two automakers may be better able to invest in new technologies and compete globally.
Here's why experts say a merger may be just what Fiat Chrysler and PSA both need.
Merging can help both companies innovate
Erik Gordon, of the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, says that both Fiat Chrysler and PSA are behind on technologies like electrification and safety features. Coming together could make the automakers innovate more efficiently, he says, as they can pool development resources and share designs. Manufacturing will be more efficient as well, he argues, because each company will be able to share parts and designs with the other.
Gordon admits that there's an open debate as to whether mergers actually lead to innovation. In part, that's because companies tend to spend money elsewhere after a tie-up. However, he argues that mergers also offer companies cover to nix ideas that aren't working out. "When you do a merger, everything is looked at," says Gordon. "So, there's more freedom to close things without career damage."
Harley Shaiken, a professor with expertise in labor and globalization at the University of California-Berkeley, says that it's important that post-merger companies focus not just on efficiency, but also on "vision" — creating innovative, well-marketed products that people want to buy.
Shaiken says PSA has already shown signs that it's capable of acquiring and turning around ailing assets. In 2017, it purchased two struggling car brands — Opel and Vauxhall — from General Motors. A year later, both brands were profitable again.
It's a chance to reset their relationship with workers
Shaiken says that the merger could be an opportunity to hit the reset button on Fiat Chrysler's battered relationship with United Auto Workers (UAW) and the company's employees, which has suffered mightily amid a corruption scandal. "It could be very good news for workers, for their communities, and for a more competitive auto firm," says Shaiken.
If the combined company chooses to build its new technologies in the United States, it could bolster their relationship with workers. Of course, the company could decide to shrink U.S. production, but he says that such a move would be "short-sighted." Maintaining a relationship with workers is essential to keeping them motivated and encouraging innovation, he argues. "It's something companies take for granted at their own peril," Shaiken says.
However, Gordon says that he doubts that the deal will have much of an impact on the issues that most concern workers. With or without the merger, he believes it's likely that Fiat Chrysler will need to reduce its domestic workforce because Americans are buying few of Chrysler's small cars, focusing instead on larger SUVs and trucks like those from the company's Jeep brand.
The merger will help them compete on a global level
If the two companies merge, the new company would be among the largest automakers in the world. Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst for Autotrader, says that such massive size could be a big advantage as it plans for the future. "The thinking is that you really need to be a big company to compete on a global basis," Krebs says.
Pooling resources will enable the company not only invest in new technology such as autonomous and electric vehicles, but also to take advantage of different markets. Chrysler has a stronger foothold in the United States, while Peugeot is in a strong position in Europe.
The merger may also help them to move into another market where neither company has much of a presence: China.
"As a global automaker, you can't ignore China. It's the biggest market in the world, by a very wide margin," says Krebs. "It's also the largest market for electric vehicles. So if you're going to be a true global automaker, you need to have strength in China."
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Attorney General Xavier Becerra is in Google and Facebook's backyard. But unlike nearly all other state attorneys general, he won't say whether he's investigating them.
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From the vantage point of space aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan captured this image of a California wildfire.
October 31, 2019
Rival carmakers PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles unveiled a plan to combine, pooling resources to confront an expensive new era of trade tariffs, emissions rules and electrification.
Shareholders of each company will own 50% of the combined entity, to be listed in Paris, Milan and New York. Investors in Fiat will receive a dividend of 5.5 billion euros ($6.1 billion) and its robotics arm Comau, while France's PSA plans to distribute its 46% stake in auto-parts maker Faurecia SE. Cost savings from the deal without plant closures are projected to be about 3.7 billion euros.
PSA shares dropped as much as 9.1% in Paris, the most in more than three years, while Fiat rose as much as 10% in Milan.
The boards of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot and Citroen-maker PSA agreed to work toward a binding agreement in the coming weeks, they said Thursday in a joint statement. The accord would create the fourth-largest automaker with a combined market value of about $50 billion.
A merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA, the No. 2 for car sales in Europe, would create a regional powerhouse to challenge Volkswagen AG. The tie-up would bring together the billionaire Agnelli clan in Italy and the Peugeot family of France as consolidation sweeps through an industry trying to finance major transformation.
The 11-member board of the new Netherlands-based group will have six members from PSA including Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares, who will remain CEO for five years, and five from Fiat Chrysler. Fiat Chairman John Elkann stays in that role. It's unclear what role Fiat CEO Mike Manley will hold.
The announcement comes several months after Fiat Chrysler and PSA explored a partnership on pooling investment to build cars in Europe, and following the collapse in June of negotiations between Fiat and French competitor Renault SA.
"It's not as good a partner as Renault, but any partnership is good," said Felipe Munoz-Vieira, an analyst with Jato Dynamics in Turin. Fiat Chrysler "is not facing very good times, and it seems it's getting worse as the time passes."
Both PSA and Fiat Chrysler lag on investments in electrification and neither has a strong presence in China, but a combination could help them grow in the lucrative commercial vehicle market in Europe, Munoz said. Fiat Chrysler, which reports third-quarter earnings on Thursday, is suffering in Europe with an aging Jeep lineup and lack of SUVs under the Fiat brand, he said.
Automakers face tremendous pressure to combine to help pay for platform development, manufacturing and purchasing as they battle through trade wars, a global slowdown and an expensive shift toward electrification and autonomous driving. Producers face the additional burden in Europe of new rules on emissions.
Against this backdrop, the pace of dealmaking has picked up. Volkswagen in July said it will work with Ford Motor Co. on electric and self-driving car technology, while Toyota Motor Corp. is strengthening ties with partners such as Subaru Corp. and China's BYD Co. The Indian conglomerate that owns Jaguar Land Rover has said it's open to finding partners for the British automaker but isn't planning on selling the embattled unit.
Dismal car sales have also added to the mix. Volkswagen on Wednesday lowered its outlook for vehicle deliveries this year due to a faster-than-expected decline in auto markets.
France is one of the biggest shareholders of PSA, whose brands also include Opel and Vauxhall, and the government has signaled support for a deal, while warning it would scrutinize the jobs impact and governance structure of the new company, as well as its commitment to build a European battery-maker.
"The operation responds to a need in the auto industry for consolidation to face the challenges of the future," French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said in a statement Thursday.
PSA had been floated as a logical merger partner with Fiat, because of their complementary product and geographic fit, and the two sides discussed partnership possibilities this year. However, the Italian-American carmaker instead pursued a deal with Renault.
Those talks fell apart in June when Elkann, who also heads Fiat Chrysler's largest shareholder, Exor NV, walked away amid opposition from the French government and a lack of support from Renault's Japanese alliance partner Nissan Motor Co.
Tavares has sought to re-establish Peugeot's foothold in the U.S., a market it exited in 1991. He set plans earlier this year for a return, with shipments starting from Europe or China in 2026.
Fiat has sought to secure its future with a larger partner for several years, dating back to late CEO Sergio Marchionne's failed courtship of General Motors Co. After being rebuffed by GM in 2015, rumors of talks with other automakers have swirled with varying intensity.
Pumped storage plants for hydroelectric power in the Unites States were built primarily between 1960 and 1990; nearly half of the pumped storage capacity still in operation was built in the 1970s. Pumped storage power plants are the largest source of electricity storage technology used in the United States, both in terms of capacity and number of plants. (Virtually all remaining commercial-sized electrical storage use thermal energy or batteries.)
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After 40 days on the picket line, General Motors autoworkers voted Oct. 25 to accept a new contract that offers salary increases and other concessions. The agreement may offer relief for more than 48,000 United Auto Workers (UAW) members after the longest nationwide strike against GM in nearly 50 years, but the standoff cost both the company and its workers dearly.
Changing Gears
The new contract scraps the company's bisected salary structure, under which workers hired after 2007 were paid less and had no way to reach the top salaries of longer-serving employees. The company will also invest $7.7 billion in U.S. factories, including $3 billion at a Detroit plant that had been scheduled to close in early 2020. But not all workers came out ahead. The agreement allows GM to close three other plants–including one in Lordstown, Ohio, that was the focus of a 2017 promise from President Trump that workers' jobs would be saved.
Slow Going
The Detroit automaker is paying a hefty toll for the strike, with nearly $3 billion in lost earnings for 2019. The past weeks have been no picnic for workers either, with their families living on meager strike pay. Some worry that local economic repercussions may still linger, especially in Michigan, where GM is the state's largest employer.
The Road Ahead
GM continues to face stiff competition from foreign manufacturers, many of which operate U.S. plants that pay nonunion workers substantially less. And the future may be tough for autoworkers even if GM makes new gains. The company has announced plans to transition to producing electric cars, which are simpler to manufacture than gas-powered cars and trucks. Union analysts believe that means job cuts, but the larger forces behind the shift are unlikely to reverse. Even with a deal in hand, another fight awaits.
The company's financial performance is a regular bright spot for the social giant, which has been embroiled in scandals in recent years.
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The company said its profit dropped 3.1 percent from a year ago, but there are early hints that new iPhones are selling well heading into the holidays.
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The company's financial performance is a regular bright spot for the social giant, which has been embroiled in scandals in recent years.
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(SAN FRANCISCO) — Twitter is banning all political advertising from its service, saying social media companies give advertisers an unfair advantage in proliferating highly targeted, misleading messages.
Facebook has taken fire since it disclosed earlier in October that it will not fact-check ads by politicians or their campaigns, which could allow them to lie freely. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress last week that politicians have the right to free speech on Facebook.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted the change Wednesday, saying the company is recognizing that advertising on social media offers an unfair level of targeting compared to other mediums.
The majority of money spent on political advertising in the U.S. goes to television ads.
Twitter's policy will start on November 22.
The company's financial performance is a regular bright spot for the social giant, which has been embroiled in scandals in recent years.
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Lyft had said that it would lose record amounts of money, but it changed its tune as the sentiment toward prominent technology start-ups has soured.
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The social media company's action is a stark contrast to Facebook, which is taking a hands-off approach to political advertising.
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"Apparently, it's only O.K. to lie on Facebook if you don't tell them you're lying," said Adriel Hampton, who is running for California governor in protest of the site's reluctance to fact-check politicians.
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Podcasts featuring inmates. The evolution of social media. The writing of Stephen Hawking. All are routes to thinking about race and identity, says Lauretta Charlton, editor of Race/Related.
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Guilty pleas to charges of hacking and an extortion conspiracy cap a legal saga that ensnared the tech companies in data breach scandals.
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Facebook said it removed three Russian-backed influence networks aimed at African countries. The activity by the networks suggested Russia's approach was evolving.
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A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket is seen as it rolls out to Pad-0A, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2019, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
October 29, 2019
Most of the utility-scale battery systems used for energy storage on the U.S. electric grid use lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, which are known for their high-cycle efficiency, fast response times, and high energy density. Nearly all of the utility-scale battery systems installed in the United States in the past five years use lithium-ion technology.
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The National Novel Writing Month event challenges people to crank out 50,000 words in 30 days. Here are the digital tools to help you make a go of it.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday that new testing of a batch of baby powder that was recently recalled did not show any traces of asbestos.
Earlier this month the company recalled 33,000 bottles of its talc powder after Food and Drug Administration testing revealed trace amounts of the dangerous substance in a single bottle.
But Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that dozens of tests by two outside firms did not detect any asbestos in the company's product.
It said the tests covered the bottle previously tested by the FDA and other samples from the same lot that was recalled.
The FDA said, however, that it stands by its testing that found traces of asbestos. It noted that given the minuscule size of samples taken from a single bottle, different samples may yield different results.
Talc is mined from mineral deposits that can be contaminated with asbestos. J&J says its powder is routinely tested to ensure there's no asbestos.
The Johnson & Johnson recall came as the company fights thousands of lawsuits in which plaintiffs claim its baby talcum powder was contaminated with asbestos and that it caused ovarian cancer or mesothelioma, a rare cancer linked to inhaling asbestos fibers.
At multiple trials, J&J's expert witnesses have testified asbestos hasn't been detected in the talc in its baby powder in thousands of tests over the last 40 years. Several juries have reached multimillion-dollar verdicts against the company, nearly all of which are being appealed or have been overturned on appeal.
Shares in Johnson & Johnson, which is based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, rose about 3% in after-hours trading Tuesday.
(SEATTLE) — Brian Sweeney has a long list of complaints about Amazon, from the way it treats warehouse workers to the low taxes it pays and its effort to win concessions from cities to bring in jobs. So when he learned the online retail giant had poured $1 million into remaking the Seattle City Council with more business-friendly candidates, he pulled out his wallet.
The New York resident sent $15 to socialist council member Kshama Sawant, a target of the online retail giant. While that doesn't compare to Amazon's unprecedented spending Oct. 14, about 1,900 others also have donated to Sawant since then, her campaign says. It's a dramatic rise in support and a reflection of the risk Amazon is taking as it splashes into the politics of its liberal hometown.
Many in Seattle aren't happy with the council, but they also don't like a company headed by the world's richest man, Jeff Bezos, trying to influence their vote. As historic income inequality fuels homelessness and soaring housing prices, progressives elsewhere don't like it either.
"Amazon could do this in hundreds of places around the country with all the money they're not paying in taxes," said Sweeney, a 28-year-old software engineer turned carpenter in Valley Stream, New York.
With seven of the nine Seattle council seats in play Nov. 5, business interests see an opportunity to shift city leadership closer to the political center and away from a bent to potentially tax big companies to fund homeless services or improve public transit.
The council is officially nonpartisan, but Republicans stand little chance of getting elected in Seattle, and many of the business-backed candidates are moderate to progressive Democrats. The race will decide whether the council is dominated by socialists and extremely liberal Democrats or more centrist ones.
"We are contributing to this election because we care deeply about the future of Seattle," Amazon spokesman Aaron Toso said in a statement. "We believe it is critical that our hometown has a City Council that is focused on pragmatic solutions to our shared challenges in transportation, homelessness, climate change and public safety."
Progressive Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are among those accusing Amazon of trying to buy the council.
The elections come a year after a political debacle that damaged the council's popularity. The leaders unanimously passed the "Amazon tax," designed to make lucrative companies contribute more to affordable housing for the homeless.
It repealed the tax after a revolt from Amazon, which would have had to pay around $11 million a year and threatened to halt its growth in the city. The company said Seattle didn't need more money and that it was "highly uncertain whether the City Council's anti-business positions or its spending inefficiency will change for the better."
The debate helped cement Amazon's awakening to local politics as the council's popularity slipped, especially over its handling of homelessness. Four council members decided not to seek re-election.
There's been little progress in the four years since the city declared a homelessness crisis. Many business interests support "sweeps" of homeless camps accompanied by teams to help people get services.
Liberal council members, including Sawant, say the sweeps are inhumane and don't work. She wants money for tiny-house villages.
Meanwhile, some in Sawant's district say she's more interested in building a national socialist movement than responding to their concerns. A large portion of her donations come from out of state.
Sawant helped make Seattle the first big city to adopt a $15-an-hour minimum wage. She frequently says people must choose sides in "class warfare" and has warned that a win by Amazon would embolden corporate interests to fight efforts to make the rich pay more in taxes or spread progressive policies like tenants' rights and paid sick leave laws.
The two liberal, vocally pro-union council members who are not up for re-election, Teresa Mosqueda and Lorena Gonzáles, didn't endorse Sawant in the primary.
But after Amazon weighed in, both enthusiastically endorsed her last week. She's running against Egan Orion, director of an annual gay pride festival in Seattle.
Gonzáles said Amazon's support might swing Orion's positions.
"When there's that much money being offered, there will be a quid-pro-quo expectation," she said. "Amazon has plenty of access to the council already. What they want is elected officials who are going to bend to their will."
At a recent debate, Orion pointed to his work in the LGBTQ community and with small businesses, saying, "That narrative does not match the person that I am or the way I am running this campaign."
He describes himself as a progressive but says more can be accomplished by negotiating with business leaders than by demonizing them.
Amazon gave $1 million this month to the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce's political action committee, bringing its total contributions to the PAC this year to $1.5 million — a huge amount for a local election. Starbucks, Expedia and a development company started by late Microsoft founder Paul Allen also have contributed.
"Generally, folks have seen a council that talks a lot about progress on homelessness, on reducing traffic, on helping with our increasingly unaffordable housing stock, and they really just haven't seen progress," PAC executive director Markham McIntyre said. "With taxes going up year after year, they get frustrated when they're not seeing results."
So far, independent spending in the council races has reached more than $3.5 million.
Labor groups also are spending heavily, including Civic Alliance for a Progressive Economy, which is backed by progressive Amazon investor Nick Hanauer and has raised nearly $500,000. The PAC of the hotel workers union Unite Here has raised even more.
State Sen. Reuven Carlyle, a Seattle Democrat, said he didn't know what effect Amazon's spending will have on the election but that he understood its desire to "rebalance" the council.
"They're showing that they care a lot about their hometown, just as labor cares a lot and social justice activists care a lot," Carlyle said.
In a federal lawsuit, the messaging service said the firm had targeted 1,400 WhatsApp accounts, including 100 journalists and human-rights activists.
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Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg faced tough questioning from senators on Tuesday about two crashes of 737 Max jets and whether the company concealed information about a critical flight system from regulators.
"We have made mistakes, and we got some things wrong," Muilenburg conceded.
Some members of the Senate Commerce Committee clashed with Muilenburg, cutting him off when they believed he was failing to answer their questions about a key flight-control system implicated in both crashes.
Boeing successfully lobbied regulators to keep any explanation of the system, called MCAS, from pilot manuals and training. After the crashes, the company tried to blame the pilots, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
"Those pilots never had a chance," Blumenthal said. Passengers "never had a chance. They were in flying coffins as a result of Boeing deciding that it was going to conceal MCAS from the pilots."
Muilenburg denied that Boeing had ever blamed the pilots.
The hearing was taking place exactly one year after a 737 Max flown by Lion Air crashed off the coast of Indonesia, and about seven months after a second crash in Ethiopia. It is the first congressional testimony by a Boeing official since the first of two Max crashes that together killed 346 people.
Indonesia investigators say Boeing's design of a key flight-control system contributed to the crash of a Lion Air Max last October. Another Max crashed in Ethiopia in March, leading to a worldwide grounding of the plane.
"Both of these accidents were entirely preventable," said Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss.
More than a dozen relatives of passengers who died in the accidents attended the hearing. Wicker invited them to stand and hold up large photos of their relatives, which they had carried into the room. Muilenburg turned in his seat to look at them.
In Indonesia, the CEO of the Lion Air vowed Tuesday to follow recommendations from a probe into the disaster. Relatives of victims scattered flowers on waters where the aircraft went down a year ago.
Muilenburg told senators that Boeing is in the final stages of updating flight software to improve safety by adding redundancy — tying MCAS to a second sensor and second computer at all times, and making the system's ability to push a plane's nose down less powerful.
Boeing hopes to win Federal Aviation Administration approval by year end to return the plane to flight. The FAA is also coming under scrutiny for relying on Boeing employees to perform some certification tests and inspections. It's an approach FAA has followed for many years.
"We need to know if Boeing and the FAA rushed to certify the Max," Wicker said.
This view from NASA's Juno spacecraft captures colorful, intricate patterns in a jet stream region of Jupiter's northern hemisphere known as "Jet N3."
October 29, 2019
From January through June of 2019, U.S. net natural gas exports averaged 4.1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), more than double the average net exports in 2018 (2.0 Bcf/d), according to data in the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) Natural Gas Monthly. The United States became a net natural gas exporter (exported more than it imported) on an annual basis in 2017 for the first time in almost 60 years.
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The company announced free two-hour food delivery for Prime members in about 20 major metropolitan areas.
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Ever since Popeyes sold out of its fried chicken sandwich —a first-time creation from the fast-food chain that became such a phenomenon, the company ran out of supplies to make it in two weeks—hungry fans have been eagerly awaiting its return to the menu.
On Monday, Popeyes delivered the answer: the sandwich will be back on Sunday, Nov. 3, with hopes that it will remain on the menu on a permanent basis. The announcement also lightly trolled Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain that famously stays closed on Sundays.
The popularity of the Popeyes chicken sandwich will likely be the stuff of 2019 legend. The release of the sandwich in August involved some sharp back-and-forth commentary on Twitter, when the official Popeyes Twitter account took some digs at competitors, including Chick-fil-A and Wendy's. Social media debate, in part, sparked long lines at Popeyes locations across the U.S., along with a string of strange behaviors from customers desperate for a taste of the sandwich. In at least one instance, a group demanded sandwiches at gunpoint at a Houston Popeyes location.
All the excitement came to a quick halt. In late August, about two weeks after its launch, Popeyes announced it had sold out of chicken. The company declined to share how many sandwiches it had projected to sell, versus how much it eventually sold before running out. Bruno Cardinali, Popeyes' head of marketing for North America, tells TIME the company had expected a high volume of customers and ended up seeing far more than was initially forecasted.
The problem was mostly in the supply chain, Felipe Athayde, President of Popeyes for the Americas, tells TIME. "We literally ran out. There was no more chicken for the chicken sandwich," he says.
Getting the chicken sandwich back on the menu, a process that has taken about two months, meant Popeyes had to shore up its chicken supply. According to Athayde, it took several weeks to find chicken suppliers that met the company's strict specifications for quality and quantity and build up an amount that can handle another round of soaring demands.
"This is not a product that you just go out and procure," he says. Having seen the initial reaction to the chicken sandwich, Athayde says the company now has enough supply to keep the sandwich on the menu permanently.
In an attempt to prepare for the onslaught of customers when the sandwich returns, Popeyes franchises have also hired more workers, the Wall Street Journal reports. At the height of the excitement over the sandwich, Popeyes employees reported feeling exhausted and overwhelmed at the continuously growing lines and impatient customers.
Athayde, who notes that franchise groups handle employment matters rather than the company's executives, says various franchisees only realized more training and staffing was needed once they were exposed to the strong demand for the sandwiches.
"Those were very tough weeks and those guys were the heroes," he says, referring to workers.
The relaunch of the chicken sandwich is likely to cause a frenzy on Sunday. This time, one hopes, the sandwich supplies will outlast the discourse.
Alphabet, Google's parent, said its profits fell after a sharp increase in spending for research and development.
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Alphabet, Google's parent, said its profits fell after a sharp increase in spending for research and development.
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On the anniversary of the first crash of a Boeing 737 Max, the CEO will begin two days of testimony before Congress by telling lawmakers that the aircraft company knows it made mistakes and is throwing everything into fixing the plane.
Dennis Muilenburg says that after Boeing finishes upgrading flight-control software on the Max, it will be one of the safest planes ever.
The chairman of the House Transportation Committee says Boeing should have made those improvements before the Max began carrying passengers and was involved in two crashes.
Muilenburg is scheduled to testify Tuesday before a Senate committee, then again on Wednesday before a House panel.
The appearances come as Boeing faces investigations by both committees and a criminal probe by the Justice Department.
Rural carriers have raised concerns about moves to crack down on Huawei gear, saying it will cut them off from a supply of affordable equipment.
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Hundreds of Facebook employees signed a letter decrying the decision to let politicians post any claims they wanted — even false ones — in ads on the site.
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In an open letter, the social network's employees said letting politicians post false claims in ads was "a threat" to the company.
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This image of star trails was compiled from time-lapse photography taken by NASA astronaut Christina Koch while onboard the International Space Station.
October 28, 2019
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) latest International Energy Outlook 2019 (IEO2019) Reference case, future growth in natural gas consumption is concentrated in developing nations—those outside of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)—especially in non-OECD Asian countries. Major non-OECD Asian countries include China, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Vietnam. EIA expects annual natural gas consumption in non-OECD Asia to reach 120 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by 2050, outpacing regional production by 50 Bcf/d. This supply imbalance widens through the projection period, resulting in non-OECD Asia's increasing reliance on natural gas imports from other regions.
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PHOENIX (AP) — A lawsuit filed against Southwest Airlines by a flight attendant alleges pilots on a 2017 flight had an iPad streaming video from a hidden camera in a bathroom in one of the airline's jets.
Southwest responded Saturday by denying it places cameras in aircraft lavatories and by calling the 2017 incident an "inappropriate attempt at humor" not condoned by the company.
The lawsuit alleges flight attendant Renee Steinaker saw an iPad streaming video from the plane's forward bathroom when she entered the cockpit to be the required second person in the cockpit when the pilot left to use the bathroom about 2½ hours into a Feb. 27, 2017, flight to Phoenix from Pittsburgh.
According to the suit, Steinaker saw the pilot in the streaming video on the iPad and the co-pilot "with a panicked look on his face" acknowledged that the iPad was streaming from a camera in the bathroom but asserted it was a "new security and top-secret security measure installed in all of Southwest's Boeing 737-800 planes."
The suit said Steinaker took a cellphone photo of the iPad video, provided the photo with a report to Southwest management and was warned by a supervisor to not tell anybody about the incident.
According to the suit, Steinaker was warned, "if this got out, if this went public, no one, I mean no one, would ever fly our airline again."
Court filings by attorneys for Dallas-based Southwest and the two pilots denied the livestreaming allegations, and Southwest on Saturday issued statements saying it will vigorously contest the suit and denying it places cameras in aircraft lavatories.
"When the incident happened two years ago, we investigated the allegations and addressed the situation with the crew involved," the company's second statement said. "We can confirm from our investigation that there was never a camera in the lavatory; the incident was an inappropriate attempt at humor which the company did not condone."
The suit against Southwest, a company known for its joking and irreverent behavior by flight crews, and the two pilots was announced Saturday by attorneys for Steinaker and her husband, also a Southwest flight attendant.
The suit was originally filed on behalf of the Steinakers, who live in metro Phoenix, in an Arizona state court in October 2018 and was moved in late August to federal court in Phoenix.
An attorney for the couple, Ronald L. M. Goldman, said the alleged livestreaming would compromise safety by distracting crew members and intrude on the privacy of those using the bathroom.
"The cockpit of a commercial airliner is not a playground for peeping toms," Goldman said in a statement.
An initial version of the suit alleged that both spouses experienced discrimination, harassment and retaliation in connection with Renee Steinaker's reporting of the in-flight incident.
A later version of the suit didn't include those allegations but said they would be restored if the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission approved suing on those allegations.
No trial date has been set for the suit, which seeks specified awards based on various damages claims.
Apps like Flo and Clue are shifting from just tracking your health data to using it to make evaluations about your health risks. Their tools may not always be accurate.
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(SAN FRANCISCO) — The Pentagon awarded Microsoft a $10 billion cloud computing contract, snubbing early front-runner Amazon, whose competitive bid drew criticism from President Donald Trump and its business rivals.
Bidding for the huge project, known as Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, pitted leading tech titans Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle and IBM against one another.
The giant contract has attracted more attention than most, sparked by speculation early in the process that Amazon would be the sole winner of the deal. Tech giants Oracle and IBM pushed back with their own bids and also formally protested the bidding process last year.
Oracle later challenged the process in federal court, but lost.
Trump waded into the fray in July, saying that the administration would "take a very long look" at the process, saying he had heard complaints. Trump has frequently expressed his ire for Amazon and founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post. At the time, he said other companies told him that the contract "wasn't competitively bid."
Defense Secretary Mark Esper recused himself from the controversial bidding process earlier this week, citing a conflict of interest because his son works for one of the companies that originally bid.
The JEDI system will store and process vast amounts of classified data, allowing the U.S. military to use artificial intelligence to speed up its war planning and fighting capabilities.
A cloud strategy document unveiled by the Defense Department last year called for replacing the military's "disjointed and stove-piped information systems" with a commercial cloud service "that will empower the warfighter with data and is critical to maintaining our military's technological advantage."
The Pentagon emphasized in an announcement that the process was fair and followed procurement guidelines. It noted that over the past two years, it has awarded more than $11 billion in ten separate cloud-computing contracts, and said the JEDI award "continues our strategy of a multi-vendor, multi-cloud environment."
The latter statement appeared designed to address previous criticism about awarding such a large deal to one company.
The deal is a major win for Microsoft's cloud business Azure, which has long been playing catch-up to Amazon's market-leading Amazon Web Services. Microsoft said it was preparing a statement.
Amazon said Friday it was surprised by the decision.
"AWS is the clear leader in cloud computing, and a detailed assessment purely on the comparative offerings clearly lead to a different conclusion," Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener said in a statement. "We remain deeply committed to continuing to innovate for the new digital battlefield where security, efficiency, resiliency, and scalability of resources can be the difference between success and failure."
According to a July report from the research firm Gartner, Amazon holds almost 48% of the market for public cloud computing, followed by Microsoft in second place with close to 16%.
Over the last year, Microsoft has positioned itself as a friend to the U.S. military. President Brad Smith wrote last fall that Microsoft has long supplied technology to the military and would continue to do so, despite pushback from employees.
Oracle and IBM were eliminated earlier in the process, leaving Microsoft and Amazon to battle it out at the end.
Google decided last year not to compete for the contract, saying it would conflict with its AI ethics principles. Google employees have been especially vocal in protesting the company's involvement with government contracts.
"It's a paradigm changer for Microsoft to win JEDI," said Dan Ives, managing director of Wedbush Securities. "And it's a huge black eye for Amazon and Bezos."
Microsoft, Amazon, Google and other tech giants have faced criticism from their own employees about doing business with the government, especially on military and immigration related projects.
Amazon was considered a front-runner for the cloud computing project, known as JEDI, before President Trump began criticizing the company's founder, Jeff Bezos.
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump's company said Friday it is exploring the sale of its marquee Washington hotel, which has been at the center of nearly three years of ethics complaints and lawsuits accusing him of trying to profit off the presidency.
The Trump Organization says it will consider offers to buy it out of a 100-year lease of the building, partly to avoid criticism over conflicts of interest. The Trump International Hotel, which opened in late 2016 just before Trump was elected, has been a magnet for lobbyists and diplomats looking to gain favor with the administration.
"People are objecting to us making so much money on the hotel and therefore we may be willing to sell," said Eric Trump, an executive vice president of the Trump Organization. "Since we opened our doors, we have received tremendous interest in this hotel and as real-estate developers, we are always willing to explore our options."
Read more: Donald Trump's Suite of Power
The opulent hotel built in the Old Post Office down the street from the White House has hosted parties thrown by diplomats from the Philippines, Kuwait and other countries, and has been among the biggest money makers in Trump's real estate empire. It is at the center of two lawsuits accusing the president of violating the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars presidents from receiving gifts or payments from foreign governments.
According to Trump's most recent financial disclosure, the 263-room hotel took in $41 million in revenue last year, up less than half a million dollars from the previous year.
In his statement, Eric Trump said the Trump Organization agreed not actively solicit foreign government business for the hotel when his father took the oath of office, and its success has been all the more remarkable given that voluntary restraint.
But Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert and Trump critic, said the idea that the hotel has made sacrifices to avoid conflicts is "nonsense" and the Trump Organization may be selling now because it fears the profits will fall if the president is not elected. "There is no reason to think that Republican Party operatives or a trade association that wants to curry favor with the next president will choose this hotel," said Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. "It will just be another fancy hotel."
Other good government critics saw danger with the sale itself: Will the buyer pay more than the hotel is worth in attempt to get in good with the administration? And what if the buyer is from overseas?
"If the Trump Organization puts out a 'For sale' sign on the Trump International Hotel and seeks and takes bids, it will create massive conflicts of interests with the deep-pocketed individuals, foreign governments, investment funds or corporations that could afford to make such a purchase," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a liberal-leaning consumer advocacy group.
The Trump Organization said it has hired real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle to consider offers.
In his statement, Eric Trump addressed concerns about conflicts of interest by noting the company cuts a check to the U.S. Treasury each year for what it calculates as "profit" from foreign government business at its hotels and other properties. That amounted to $191,538 last year, up from $151,470 the previous year.
Astronomers using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes have put together a detailed map of a rare collision between four galaxy clusters.
October 25, 2019
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The company can run esoteric calculations on exotic new hardware faster than is possible on a supercomputer. It's an achievement of little practical use, but still important.
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On August 9, 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it had granted 31 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Small Refinery Exemptions (SRE) for the 2018 compliance year, or 4 fewer than were approved for the 2017 compliance year. As of October 2019, two SRE applications were pending. The SRE waivers effectively reduced the amount of biofuel required to enter the nation's fuel supply by exempting 7.4% of the total RFS renewable fuel volume mandate for the 2018 compliance year, or about 1.43 billion gallons.
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The social network introduced a new section of its mobile app dedicated to news content, offering stories from a mix of publications.
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Talks over how American companies can ensure future supplies of advanced computer chips have taken on more urgency.
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The company has been investing heavily to keep its giant core businesses growing at the expense of higher profits.
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Jeri Ellsworth started as a self-taught computer hacker and chip designer. In an industry dominated by men, she's the head of a company focusing on augmented reality.
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The Medusa merger, was not always one entity, but two. An early galaxy consumed a smaller gas-rich system, throwing out streams of stars and dust into space. These streams resemble the writhing snakes that Medusa, a monster in ancient Greek mythology, famously had on her head in place of hair, lending the object its intriguing name.
October 24, 2019
In the first half of 2019, the United States exported an average of 5.47 million barrels per day (b/d) of petroleum products, an increase of 19,000 b/d (0.3%) from the first half of 2018 and the slowest year-over-year growth rate for any half year in 13 years. Two factors that likely contributed to lower exports were lower U.S. refinery runs in the first half of 2019 compared with the first half of 2018 and slowing global economic growth, which is limiting demand for petroleum products. In the first half of 2019, increased exports of propane and distillate offset decreased exports of all other petroleum products.
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(WASHINGTON) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg endured hours of prickly questioning from lawmakers Wednesday as he defended the company's new globally ambitious project to create a digital currency while also dealing with widening scrutiny from U.S. regulators.
House Financial Services Committee's immediate focus was Facebook's plans for the currency, to be called Libra. Zuckerberg took pains to reassure lawmakers that his company won't move forward with Libra without explicit approval from all U.S. financial regulators.
Still, many members of the panel appeared unconvinced.
Rep. Maxine Waters, the California Democrat who chairs the panel, said the Libra project and the digital wallet that would be used with it, Calibra, "raise many concerns relating to privacy, trading risks, discrimination … national security, monetary policy and the stability of the global financial system."
Furthermore, Waters told Zuckerberg, "You have opened up a discussion about whether Facebook should be broken up."
The social media giant has sparked public and official anger at every turn, from its alleged anticompetitive behavior to its shift into messaging services that allow encrypted conversations, to its refusal to take down phony political ads or doctored videos.
The breakup specter — the worst-case scenario for Facebook and other tech behemoths — has been raised by prominent politicians, notably Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a leading Democratic presidential candidate.
The Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee and attorneys general in several states are all conducting investigations of Facebook and other tech giants amid accusations that they abuse their market power to crush competition.
Zuckerberg was on the defensive at the hearing, his first testimony to Congress since April 2018, parrying criticism but also acknowledging lapses. He conceded at one point that the Libra project is "risky," acknowledging several high-profile companies such as Visa, MasterCard and PayPal had signed on as partners in the currency's governing association but have recently bailed.
Under continued criticism of Facebook's handling of hateful speech and potential incitements to violence on its site, he said, "We're not perfect. We make a lot of mistakes."
Zuckerberg held up China as a strong reason for encouraging innovation as embodied in the Libra project.
"While we debate these issues, the rest of the world isn't waiting," he said. "China is moving quickly to launch similar ideas in the coming months."
The Facebook CEO also has cited competition from China as a compelling reason against breaking up the company.
His China argument found a ready echo from some Republicans on the committee, such as Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, who stepped up to defend the Libra project and urge lawmakers not to put "innovation on trial."
But Democrats, in a rare tilt, allied themselves with President Donald Trump and his Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who have publicly criticized the Libra plan. Mnuchin and other regulators, including Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, have warned that the digital currency could be used for illicit activity such as money laundering or drug trafficking.
Zuckerberg touted his optimistic vision of Libra and what it could mean for people around the world who don't have access to bank accounts.
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AP Technology Reporter Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco and AP Banking Reporter Ken Sweet in New York contributed to this report.
The company's cloud computing efforts again pushed profits higher, to $10.7 billion in the latest quarter.
more @ New York Times
Tomb of the Mask by Playgendary Download on the App Store.
Price: Free
Rating: 4.5
Category: Games
Version: 1.7.2
Created: October 23, 2019 at 03:30AM
Description:
"Tomb of the Mask instantly got me hooked with its appealing combination of retro-style graphics, fast-paced gameplay, and dead-simple controls. In fact, if I didn't have to write this post, I probably wouldn't have stopped from playing it" - AppAdvice "I'm very impressed with how much I'm enjoying Tomb of the Mask" - TouchArcade "This modern arcade title charms with retro FX and visual sensibilities that communicate personality more than merely nostalgia" - Kill Screen "A challenging endless arcade game through trap-filled tombs" - Pocket Gamer Tomb of the Mask is an arcade game, which takes place in an infinite procedurally generated vertical labyrinth. Seeking for adventure you get into a tomb, where you find a strange mask. You wear it and suddenly realize that you can now climb walls - easily and promptly. And that's when all the fun begins. You'll face a variety of traps, enemies, game mechanics and powerups. And as far as time doesn't wait, get a grip and up you go! We Love You! Enjoy! SUBSCRIPTION PRICING AND TERMS Subscription options In Tomb of the Mask we offer you the following subscription options: 1. Weekly Premium offers a weekly subscription for $7.99 after a 3-day free trial. It gives you unlimited energy, 400 coins every day and removes ads. 2. Monthly Premium offers a monthly subscription for $19.99. It gives you unlimited energy, 400 coins every day and removes ads. 3. Yearly Premium offers a yearly subscription for $99.99. It gives you unlimited energy, 400 coins every day and removes ads. End of trial and subscription renewal This price is for United States customers. Pricing in other countries may vary and actual charges may be converted to your local currency depending on the country of residence. Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. The account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal. Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. Canceling trial or subscription You can turn off the auto-renew for the subscription whenever you want to through iTunes account. Check https://ift.tt/2tYbryn. When your current trial/subscription period expires, you will be unsubscribed. The current active subscription period cannot be canceled. After your subscription expires, you will no longer be able to use elements offered in your chosen Subscription Option. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us at support@playgendary.com Privacy Policy: https://ift.tt/2mmlUj2 Terms of Use: https://ift.tt/2qUBWFJ
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The chief executive of Facebook faces an uphill battle convincing lawmakers that its digital initiative, called Libra, would benefit consumers.
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There are many websites and tech tools for covering football nationally, Ken Belson says. (The beat doesn't hurt his fantasy team, either.)
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Google said it has built a computer that's reached "quantum supremacy," performing a computation in 200 seconds that would take the fastest supercomputers about 10,000 years.
The results of Google's tests, which were conducted using a quantum chip it developed in-house, were published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature.
"This achievement is the result of years of research and the dedication of many people," Google engineering director Hartmut Neven said in a blog post. "It's also the beginning of a new journey: figuring out how to put this technology to work. We're working with the research community and have open-sourced tools to enable others to work alongside us to identify new applications."
The idea behind quantum computing is to exponentially improve the processing speed and power of computers to be able to simulate large systems, driving advances in physics, chemistry and other fields. Rather than storing information in binary 0s or 1s like classical computers, quantum computers rely on "qubits", which can be both 0 and 1 simultaneously, dramatically increasing the amount of information that can be encoded.
But, much like advancements in artificial intelligence, there's a lot of debate about what constitutes a real breakthrough. Researchers at International Business Machines Corp. said in a blog this week that a simulation of the same task Google used could be done in 2.5 days on a classical computer with enough hard drive storage, not 10,000 years. If quantum supremacy means doing something classical computers can't, this isn't it, they wrote.
While the world's biggest tech companies are racing to develop a quantum computer that passes the scrutiny of academics, some products are commercially available already. In 2011, Canada's D-Wave Systems Inc. became the first company to sell such a product to businesses and government labs, although unlike machines being built by rivals, its usefulness is limited as the hardware can't solve any kind of mathematical problem.
A number of other companies — including IBM, Google, Microsoft Corp., and California-based startup Rigetti Computing — are pushing to create more powerful machines that businesses can use. They've also made some of their technology available for researchers to experiment with via the internet.
Rapid growth in China's natural gas consumption has outpaced growth in its domestic natural gas production in recent years. China's natural gas imports, both by pipeline and as liquefied natural gas (LNG), accounted for nearly half (45%) of China's natural gas supply in 2018, an increase from 15% in 2010. To increase domestic production of natural gas, the Chinese government has introduced incentives for several forms of natural gas production.
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As U.S. crude oil export volumes have increased to an average of 2.8 million barrels per day (b/d) in the first seven months of 2019, the number of destinations (which includes countries, territories, autonomous regions, and other administrative regions) that receive U.S. exports has also increased. Earlier this year, the number of U.S. crude oil export destinations surpassed the number of sources of U.S. crude oil imports that EIA tracks.
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Scientists at a company lab said they had taken a big step toward creating a machine that would make today's supercomputers look like toys.
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NEW YORK (AP) — WeWork is accepting a financial rescue package that hands control of the company to Japanese tech giant SoftBank and pushes aside co-founder Adam Neumann and his grandiose vision of changing the world through communal working.
WeWork said in a statement that Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank will infuse the We Company with more than $5 billion in urgently needed capital.
Neumann reportedly would walk away with nearly $2 billion to sever most of his ties to the company.
"SoftBank is a firm believer that the world is undergoing a massive transformation in the way people work. WeWork is at the forefront of this revolution," SoftBank's founder Masayoshi Son said in a statement.
"Since the vision remains unchanged, SoftBank has decided to double down on the company by providing a significant capital infusion and operational support. We remain committed to WeWork, it's employees, its member customers and landlords," he said.
WeWork has been scrambling for cash since its attempt to enter the stock market floundered last month, a stunning fall from grace for a company that has until recently been considered one of the most highly valued start-ups in the U.S.
The deal throws WeWork a lifeline as it attempts to turn around a money-losing business model that had repelled potential Wall Street investors. But it comes at a steep cost for SoftBank, which already owns one-third of WeWork and has sunk $10 billion into the company.
SoftBank's takeover would value WeWork at $8 billion, a fraction of the $47 billion valuation SoftBank had assigned the company in its last round of financing in January.
The contours of the deal mean SoftBank now has more money invested in WeWork than the company is worth.
"This is where the math gets confusing because they've put in more money than the valuation of the company," said Larry Perkins, founder and CEO of SierraConstellation Partners, a management advisory firm that specializes in helping companies navigate difficult turnarounds. "That would be the question going forward: Is this good money after bad money or a preservation of their investment?"
SoftBank will pay Neumann $1 billion for his shares in the company and extend him $500 million in credit to help him repay a loan from J.P. Morgan., the Wall Street Journal reported. SoftBank also will pay Neumann a $185 million consulting fee, it said.
Neumann stepped down as CEO under pressure last month, but he retained a controlling share of the company, making his approval necessary for any deal. He will step down from WeWork's board of directors but retain a small stake in the company.
"He gets a golden helicopter that lets him get out of this, and that is just remarkable," Perkins said.
The SoftBank deal eases WeWork's immediate cash crunch, but the company faces a long road ahead to address its deeper challenges, namely finding ways to curtail its staggering spending.
WeWork mostly makes money by leasing buildings and subdividing them into office space that it sublets on a short-term, flexible basis.
Since the failed IPO, WeWork has taken steps to shore up that core business and move away from the meandering direction it had taken under Neumann.
Neuman, who grew up partly in a kibbutz, had dazzled private investors with his vision of creating workspaces that foster communality and cater to the overall well-being of its members. The company launched side businesses including a fitness company called "Rise by We" and the co-living rental company "WeLive."
Those projects now appear on the chopping block. Last week, WeWork announced it would close WeGrow, its newly launched Manhattan elementary school. Days later, the company scrapped a deal with a top Seattle real estate firm for a building that would combine its WeWork offices spaces with its WeLive communal apartment rentals.
WeWork, which has locations in 111 cities around the world, is also slowing its expansion plans. Last week, the company canceled plans to lease space in U.S. Steel Tower, Pittsburgh's tallest building.
But the company could face an uphill battle to curb costs related its future lease obligations, which amounted to $47.2 billion as of June 30. Most of its leases don't have provisions to let the company end them early, and the average initial term of its U.S. leases is 15 years.
"It's a huge liability. There's a very blunt option called bankruptcy that I'm sure everyone wants to avoid. It would be a last resort, but I'm sure it's an option that is on the table if they can't get out of leases peacefully," Perkins said.
WeWork had few palatable options after pulling out of the IPO, which the company had been counting on to raise $9 billion in stock and related debt financing.
The company decided to accept SoftBank's offer over a high-risk debt-financing proposal from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which had been the lead underwriter of the failed IPO.
WeWork was sitting on $2.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of June, but it burned through nearly $199 million in the first six months of the year just operating its business.
On top of that, it spent $2.36 billion on new leases and other investments, an amount that had been offset by $3.43 billion raised though venture capital and high-yield debt. A person familiar with the negotiations said WeWork had been on track to run out of cash by the end of November without the new financing.
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AP Business Writer Stan Choe in New York contributed to this report.
The chief executive is expected to testify on Wednesday at a House committee hearing about his company's cryptocurrency project.
more @ New York Times
NEW YORK — Nike said Tuesday that its longtime CEO Mark Parker is stepping down early next year.
He will be replaced by board member John Donahoe, who formerly ran e-commerce company eBay. Parker will become executive chairman of the board.
Nike's sales have been on the rise as the company focuses on selling more of its swoosh-branded sneakers online and on its apps. The company's first quarter earnings last month soared past expectations. But Nike has also been plagued by scandals recently.
Three weeks ago, renowned track coach Alberto Salazar was banned from the sport for four years by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for running experiments with supplements and testosterone that were bankrolled and supported by Nike, along with possessing and trafficking testosterone. Nike announced that it was shutting down its elite Oregon Project track and field program overseen by Salazar in the wake of the scandal.
Parker said in a TV interview with CNBC Tuesday that the scandal had "absolutely nothing" with him leaving the top job and that succession plans have been months in the making.
"This is not something that happens in a matter of weeks," he said.
Last year, allegations of misconduct and gender discrimination led to a leadership shakeup at the company. And earlier this spring, Nike announced changes to its contract policies after the New York Times published opinion articles and videos from female runners saying they risked losing pay if they became pregnant.
Parker, who joined the company in 1979 as a footwear designer, has been CEO since 2006. In 2017, he took a 70% compensation cut after a rough year for U.S. sales and the company's stock price.
The Beaverton, Oregon-based sneaker seller said Donahue will step in as CEO on Jan. 13, 2020. Donahoe is the current president and CEO of ServiceNow, an information technology and software company.
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AP Business Writer Alexandra Olson in New York also contributed to this story.
It's a modern day ritual practiced by some of the most passionate fans on the planet: gathering to observe the reveal of new video games. In June, some of the devoted assembled to pay tribute at Nintendo's Rockefeller Center store. Many wore Nintendo t-shirts, hats and other swag. The most hardcore dressed as their favorite characters, including one devotee in full-blown Luigi garb. They were there to watch a livestream of the company's latest "Nintendo Direct," a slickly-produced video announcing upcoming games and more, and get hands-on time with just-announced titles like Link's Awakening, a remake of a 1993 classic.
These Nintendo diehards in part explain how the Kyoto-based company is thriving despite the naysayers who were forecasting doom just a few short years ago. Ostensibly a video game company, Nintendo is really an intellectual property company, converting people's seemingly endless love of its characters into profit. Its rebound is also thanks to the Switch, a hybrid console and mobile device that has resurrected Nintendo's hardware business, and, by extension, the rest of the company. The Switch is the exclusive home of some of today's most well-reviewed games, and fans love that they can carry it around with them on their commutes or vacations. Nintendo, arguably stronger than ever and with a stock price flirting with its five-year high, is now looking for yet more ways to tap its deep bench of intellectual property (IP), from a theme park to a feature-length film.
At the helm during this transformative period is Shuntaro Furukawa, who in 2018 became Nintendo's sixth president. At 47 years old, he brings a different generational perspective than his predecessor, Tatsumi Kimishima, who was 68 when he stepped aside and became an executive advisor. Having grown up with Nintendo's earliest video games, Furukawa shares the nostalgia that many middle-aged gamers feel for the company's creations. Furukawa, who joined Nintendo in 1994 in the accounting department and later worked at Nintendo of Europe in Germany, tells TIME that he's committed to a strategy that has both helped and hurt the company in the past: A steadfast commitment to experimentation.
"Above all else, I base my decisions on the development leader's way of thinking," says Furukawa in a rare interview with Western media, and who spoke with TIME mostly through a translator provided by the company. "Nintendo is Nintendo because of our games, characters and IP. So giving our teams the freedom to experiment with new ideas is something I strongly agree with. Expansion can't happen without the freedom to try something new, and the courage to step into unfamiliar territory."
Back in the mid-2010s, Nintendo was in dire straights as it became clear the company's flagship console at the time, the Wii U, was failing. With a "second screen" embedded in the controller, the system was a curious experiment, but a lack of compelling third-party games and confusion about the product dampened sales. But the surprise success of 2016's Pokémon Go, an augmented reality smartphone game made in collaboration with Niantic, injected new life into the company. That set the stage for October of that year, when Nintendo unveiled its latest big release: the Nintendo Switch, essentially a tablet that players can drop in a dock to play games on the TV, or take with them on the go.
If the Wii U showed how Nintendo's experimentation can go very wrong, the Switch is showing how it can go very right. Bolstered by game of the decade contender The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the console was an instant hit. Nintendo has sold nearly 37 million Switch units; by the end of 2018 it was the fastest-selling console in the United States. "They're having a fantastic year," says NPD analyst Mat Piscatella. Looking at the Switch and its built-in screen, you can see what Nintendo was trying to do with the Wii U, which, if you were feeling generous, you might call ahead of its time.
Nintendo is well-poised headed into this holiday quarter. While the Switch is nearly three years old, next-generation consoles from rival companies like Microsoft and Sony won't hit store shelves until next year at the earliest. The new Switch Lite, a slimmed-down mobile-only version of the console, plus hotly anticipated games like Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield and Luigi's Mansion 3, should help. "They do try to be innovative on the hardware front, but at the end of the day, it really is their software and their IP that makes them successful," says Blake J. Harris, author of Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation. But what happens when those new competitors arrive, with their superior graphics and other high-end specs? And what about games-streaming platforms like Google Stadia, which could obviate the need for consoles entirely?
Furukawa's plan can be summed up in a single word: Entertainment. While other game companies have focused on pushing the underlying technology as far as it can possibly go, Nintendo is content to produce or promote games that are just plain fun. Furukawa says this thinking dates back through the company's considerable ages. (Nintendo was founded as a playing card company in 1889, the same year Benjamin Harrison was sworn in as the 23rd President of the United States.) "Not just streaming, but any kind of new technology, whether that is going to be appealing to the consumer or not really depends on the quality of the experience that we can provide," says Furukawa. "Nintendo continues to search for new ways to enhance the fun that people can have through their gaming experience."
The best case in point here is the ridiculous, and ridiculously fun, Untitled Goose Game. While the game was created by Melbourne-based developer House House, Nintendo has promoted it heavily, and it's only available for Switch and PC. Set in a countryside village with delightfully cartoonish graphics, players take control of a mischievous goose whose raison d'etre is to cause as much chaos as possible. Says House House's Jacob Strasser of the Switch: "It's the nice, friendly console. Its whole aura is one of friendliness, and it feels more inviting to non-gamers, or non-traditional gamers or players. When it came down to the decision of where we would launch, it felt like the right emotional fit."
Speaking of whimsy: The unsung hero of the Switch system are the controllers, which, Nintendo being Nintendo, are called "Joy-Cons." While they can be used like typical gaming controllers, their internal components — accelerometers, gyroscopes, infrared sensors — allow them to be used in all manner of bizarre, fun applications. Nintendo Labo, for instance, allows gamers to build their own controllers out of cardboard — yes, cardboard — using the Joy-Con as the "smarts." And with the company's new fitness-focused Ring Fit Adventure, gamers put the Joy-Con in a ring-shaped workout accessory to break a sweat while playing.
Nintendo has also fully embraced smartphone gaming, with offerings like Fire Emblem Heroes and Super Mario Run. Nintendo is still figuring out the best way to make money this way — its games have different pricing structures, and some have been more successful, both critically and financially, than others. "In terms of monetization, that's something that we decided on an app basis," says Furukawa. "It's something we decide looking at the game content of each app, as well as the IP used and the player that we're targeting. We also look at how we can best have the players enjoy the game, as well as how they would be comfortable in spending money." Nintendo made $92 million from smartphone games in the most recent quarter, below some outsiders' expectations but up 10% year-over-year.
For the foreseeable future, video games will lie at the core of what Nintendo does. But under Furukawa's watch, Nintendo is seeking other, intriguing ways to make money. Construction at Super Mario World, a Nintendo-themed area of Universal Studios Japan, is set to be completed before the 2020 Summer Olympics get underway in Japan; a new Mario movie is in the works (Nintendo must be careful to avoid repeating the disaster that was 1993's Super Mario Bros., which made $20.9 million at the box office on a budget of more than double that); and a new Nintendo megastore is scheduled to open in November. "For me, Mr. Furukawa is a bridge creating the connection from the past to our future," says Doug Bowser, President of Nintendo of America (and a very good sport about all those jokes). "Always keeping us focused on our north star to be a company deeply devoted to originality while constantly exploring new opportunities to share our iconic characters and our deeply immersive worlds with everyone around the world."
A company built around adored intellectual property that's in the theme parks, movies and merch businesses? That sounds a whole lot like Disney, the M&A-obsessed pop culture behemoth that, under CEO Bob Iger, has gobbled up everything from Star Wars to Marvel. Asked if the Mouse House is a model for Nintendo's future, Furukawa doesn't bite. "We've never tried to imitate any other company," he says, later adding that "the idea of using our IP in things like theme parks or movies is simply an extension of the philosophy we've had all along." And to be sure, Nintendo's strategy is less about acquisitions and more about in-house creations. But, wandering around Nintendo World, with its shelves upon shelves of Mario t-shirts, stuffed Yoshi dolls and other Nintendo paraphernalia, the comparison to an Orlando gift shop is unavoidable. Nintendo may never become quite as dominant as the house that Walt built, but for many of its fans, it has at least the same power to inspire nostalgia and joy — and convert those emotions into big dollars.
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