Japanese technology giant Panasonic announces a new chief as its profits barely hold up
Kenneth William Sain, a former Boeing executive, will replace Yasuyuki Higuchi as Panasonic's president and chief executive in April 2026, the company said Wednesday.
Sain joined Panasonic in 2019 as CEO of Panasonic Avionics.
'Ken is an exceptional leader with extensive global experience and a deep understanding of business and technology,' Higuchi said in a statement.
Panasonic Holdings Corp.'s April-June profit totaled 71.46 billion yen ($483 million), up from 70.6 billion yen. Its quarterly sales declined 10.6% from last year to 1.9 trillion yen ($12.8 billion).
The Osaka-based maker of home appliances, solar panels and batteries for Tesla vehicles kept its full year profit forecast unchanged at 310 billion yen ($2.1 billion), down 15% from the previous year.
Panasonic said the impact from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs was not yet fully factored in. The company said it will try to minimize the effect on its operating profit with cost cuts and other measures.
Consumer electronics sales were strong in Japan, Panasonic said, while they were also healthy in China, supported by subsidies.
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On the positive side, it said demand for AI servers and air-conditioners was expected to grow. But concerns remain about slowing demand for electric vehicles because of U.S. tariffs and the ending of tax credits.
Panasonic also said it's planning to get rolling later this year its new lithium-ion battery factory in Kansas, whose start has been delayed.
Panasonic said in May that it was slashing its global workforce by 10,000 people, half in Japan and half overseas, to become 'lean.' The job cuts amount to about 4% of its workforce.
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CTV News
3 hours ago
- CTV News
NFL and ESPN reach nonbinding agreement for sale of NFL Network and other media assets
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Besides ESPN, the biggest winner in this could be NFL Network, which had seen reductions in original programming the past couple years. 'Total Access,' the network's flagship show since its launch in 2003, ended in May 2024 amid a series of layoffs and cost-cutting moves. 'Good Morning Football' also moved from New York, where it had been since its start in 2016, to Southern California last year. NFL Network moved to a broadcast facility across the street from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., in 2021. 'The thing that's exciting for us is that we have put a lot into the network. I think it's been very effective for fans. We know it's in good hands,' Goodell said. 'They're innovative, they recognize great production and know how to produce it. They will do a fantastic job of operating the network and taking it to another level.' Joe Reedy, The Associated Press
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘He's one of the major players'
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If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
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Disputes often accompany potential US-China leader meetings Efforts by a U.S. president to meet the head of the authoritarian Chinese government have often met with partisan outcries — which happened when former President Joe Biden hosted Xi in California in 2023. But Trump's case is peculiar, partly because he is willing to break with conventional political restraints to make deals and partly because his own party has grown hawkish towards China over national security. 'With President Trump, everything seems to be open for negotiation, and there are few if any red lines,' said Gabriel Wildau, managing director of the global consultancy Teneo. 'The hawks worry that if Trump gets into a room with Xi, he will agree to extraordinary concessions, especially if he believes that a big, beautiful deal is within reach.' While most Republican lawmakers have not voiced their concerns openly, Democrats are vocal in their opposition. 'President Trump is giving away the farm to Xi just so he can save face and reach a nonsensical trade deal with Beijing that will hurt American families economically,' said Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. On Tuesday, Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the Trump administration 'has not wavered — and will never waver — in safeguarding our national and economic security to put America first.' 'The administration continues to have productive conversations with China to address longstanding unfair trade practices,' Desai said, adding that export controls on cutting-edge technology and many tariffs remain in place. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, after his latest round of trade negotiations with the Chinese in July, told CNBC that the team was 'very careful to keep trade and national security separate.' And Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appearing on Fox News Radio, said the U.S. remains 'as committed as ever to our partners … in places like Taiwan' but also spoke of the strategic need to keep trade ties with China steady. 'In the end, we have two big, the two largest economies in the world,' Rubio said. 'An all-out trade conflict between the U.S. and China, I think the U.S. would benefit from it in some ways, but the world would be hurt by it.' There's worry over Taiwan Taiwan is concerned that the self-governing island could be 'trade-able' when Trump seeks a deal with Beijing, said Jason Hsu, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former legislator in Taiwan. 'Our concern is that, will any of the trade deals lead to concession on political support for Taiwan?' Hsu said, citing the case last month where the White House allegedly blocked a request for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to transit through the United States. The U.S. maintains unofficial ties with Taiwan and has always allowed such transits in the past. Experts are worried that the Trump administration is setting a bad precedent, and Democrats have seized on it to criticize Trump. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, called the move 'both a sharp break from precedent and another example of the Trump administration caving to China in hopes of reaching a trade deal.' He said the policy decision 'sends a dangerous signal' that Taiwan's democracy is negotiable. Hsu said Taiwan fears that Trump could be coerced or compelled to support the one-China principle, as espoused by Beijing, that acknowledges Beijing's sovereignty claim over the island. There are also concerns that Trump might utter anything in support of 'unification.' That was a request Beijing raised with the Biden administration, though it failed to get a positive response. Now, it's upon Taiwan to persuade Trump to think of the island as 'an economic partner rather than something that he can trade when he negotiates with China,' Hsu said, suggesting that Taiwan step up defense commitments, increase energy procurement, open its market to U.S. companies and invest more in the U.S. But Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, said Trump is bound by the Taiwan Relations Act, a domestic law that obligates the U.S. to maintain an unofficial relationship with the island and provides it with sufficient hardware to deter any invasion by China. 'He can dial the (U.S.-Taiwan) relationship up and down,' Sun said, 'but he can't remove the relationship.' Export controls have been instituted, to mixed results In April, the White House, citing national security, announced it would restrict sales of Nvidia's H20 computer chips to China. The ban was lifted about three months later, when the two governments had climbed down from sky-high tariffs and harsh trade restrictions. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. The decision upset both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Rep. John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on China, wrote to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to stress that the U.S. cannot let the Chinese Communist Party 'use American chips to train AI models that will power its military, censor its people, and undercut American innovation.' In Stockholm, Bessent pushed back at the concern that national security might be compromised. 'We are very diligent,' Bessent said, adding there's an interagency process that involves the National Security Council and the Defense Department for decisions. 'There's nothing that's being exchanged for anything,' Bessent said. Addressing H20 chips specifically, Bessent said they 'are well down' Nvidia's 'technology chips stack.' U.S. companies are banned from selling their most advanced chips to China. That might not be persuasive enough. Teneo's Wildau said China hawks are most worried that the H20 decision could be the beginning of a series of moves to roll back export controls from the Biden era, which were once considered 'permanent and non-negotiable.'
