1.TESLA: Electric-vehicle maker Tesla Inc said on Wednesday it has opened its first charging station in China with its own solar and energy storage facilities.
The charging station in Lhasa city will generate power from sunlight and store it in the energy storage facilities for electric vehicles to charge, the company said in a Weibo post.
Tesla moved into the solar business in 2016 with its $2.6 billion purchase of California-based SolarCity, and has said it is keen to develop its energy business.
The company’s solar services include Solar Roof, a power generating system meant to look like normal roof tiles, and Powerwall, which can store power generated by solar panels.
Last year, Tesla, which is making electric vehicles in Shanghai, put out job ads for solar and energy storage project managers in China.
2.SOFT BANK:- SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son said on Wednesday share buybacks remain an option for the conglomerate, amid a slide in its shares.
“Buybacks are always on my mind as an important option but when and how big requires balanced thinking,” Son said at SoftBank’s annual shareholders’ meeting, adding that the group also needs to consider alternative uses of its capital.
Shares in SoftBank, which completed a record 2.5 trillion yen ($22.6 billion) buyback programme in May, have fallen amid weakness in tech stocks. That has helped widen its conglomerate discount – the gap between the value of its assets and share price – to about 50%.
SoftBank shares were flat at 7,699 yen on Wednesday. Further falls to 7,000-7,500 yen “may increase the expectation of a buyback”, Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a note earlier this month.
Buybacks would increase 63-year-old Son’s own shareholding and make any management buyout easier to achieve.
“I believe our potential is much bigger than the discounted share price,” said Son, calling on shareholders to take a long-term view on the company.
The billionaire drew a historical comparison, saying that while credit is given to inventors like 18th century British steam engine pioneer James Watt, the capitalists that funded the railways are overlooked.
“Just as the Rothschilds were a central player in the industrial revolution, we’d like to become the key player in the information revolution,” said Son in reference to the prominent European banking dynasty.
3.GOOGLE:- A group of state attorneys general may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Inc’s Google as early as next week, accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mobile app store, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Google’s management of its Play Store for Android devices, according to one source. The lawsuit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed, but seems close again, the sources said.
The investigation by the state attorneys general is being led by Utah, Tennessee, North Carolina and New York. It is unclear how many states will participate.
Two sources said the case is likely to be filed in federal court in Northern California, where related cases are being heard. These include a lawsuit that video game maker Epic Games Inc filed against Google last year, accusing it of having anticompetitive app store rules. It is expected to go to trial in 2022.
There also are two proposed class-action lawsuits over the Play store before the same judge. If the states want to participate in depositions and other pre-trial activities, they would have to file fairly soon, one source said.
4.AMAZON:-The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union in the United States and Canada, is stepping up efforts to unionize workers at Amazon.com Inc by creating a company-specific division to aid workers, it said on Tuesday.
Representatives from 500 unions, which together account for 1.4 million workers in the United States, have come together at the 30th international convention of Teamsters to support and help improve the livelihoods of Amazon workers.
The union tweeted that delegates will vote on a resolution to make the campaign at Amazon a ‘top priority’.
It is also planning pressure campaigns involving work stoppages, petitions and other collective action to push Amazon to bargain over working conditions and meet workers’ demands.
Amazon did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.
The e-commerce giant and one of the largest private employers in America has for decades discouraged attempts among its over 800,000 U.S. employees to organize, showing managers how to identify union activity, raising wages and warning that union dues would cut into pay.
In April, Amazon Alabama workers voted against forming a union, owing to factors including the company’s fierce resistance to unionization, workers’ skepticism that organizing would get them a better deal and decisions on election parameters.
5.FACEBOOK –Facebook Inc is expanding its “Shops” feature to its messaging app WhatsApp in several countries and to Facebook Marketplace in the United States, the company said on Tuesday as it announced changes to its commerce tools.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said it would also introduce personalized ads in its Shops service based on users’ shopping behavior.
The social media giant, which launched Shops last year as a way for people to find and buy products on Facebook and Instagram as part of its push into ecommerce, said it has more than 300 million monthly Shops visitors and about 1.2 million monthly active Shops.
Zuckerberg said during Facebook’s last earnings release that e-commerce is one of the company’s three key areas of focus, along with working on augmented and virtual reality and helping content creators earn money on Facebook’s platforms.
The company said it would in the coming months test an artificial intelligence tool called ‘visual search’ so users shopping on its photo-sharing site Instagram can click on items and find similar products in Shops.
Users will be able to use this search from content on the app or on photos on their own camera rolls, Zuckerberg said.
Facebook is also working on ways using augmented reality that shoppers can try on items, including from ads, Zuckerberg said, speaking in a live audio room on Facebook.
