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Japanese electronics and technology manufacturer Toshiba has accepted a 2 trillion yen ($15 billion) tender offer from a buyout fund made up of the nation’s major banks and companies.

Japan Industrial Partners was created in 2002 to restructure Japanese companies. Companies it has invested in include Sony, Hitachi, Olympus and NEC.

Toshiba announced its board accepted the bid at 4,620 yen ($36) a share late Thursday. Toshiba closed at 4,213 yen ($32) a share and is trading at 4,474 yen ($34) early Friday. 

The bid is the latest chapter in the company's turnaround effort, allowing it to go private and delist from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. 

TOSHIBA SHAREHOLDERS REJECT PLAN TO BREAK INTO TWO PARTS

The logo of Toshiba Corp. is seen at a companys building in Kawasaki near Tokyo, on Feb. 19, 2022. Scandal-embattled Japanese electronics and technology manufacturer Toshiba has accepted a 2 trillion yen ($15 billion) tender offer from Japan Industri ((AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File) / AP Newsroom)

Overseas activist investors own a significant part of Toshiba’s shares, and it’s unclear if they will be happy with the latest bid.

If the deal is successful, it will keep Toshiba’s business Japanese in an alliance with Japanese partners.

The consortium includes about 20 Japanese companies, such as Orix Corp., a financial services company, electronics manufacturer Rohm Co. and the megabanks such as Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., according to Japanese media reports.

Toshiba has been dealing with controversy for years, starting with an accounting scandal in 2005.

Its U.S. nuclear arm Westinghouse, filed for bankruptcy in 2017 after years of deep losses as safety costs soared. 

TOSHIBA NOW PLANS TO SPLIT INTO TWO, BOOSTS SHAREHOLDER RETURN TARGETS

A logo of Toshiba Corp is seen on a printed circuit board in this photo illustration taken in Tokyo. (REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao / Reuters Photos)

Toshiba is also involved in the decommissioning effort at the Fukushima nuclear plant, heavily damaged by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

Toshiba has gone through several presidents over the years.

The latest proposal still needs to go through regulatory reviews in several countries, including the U.S., Vietnam, Germany and Morocco. 

That process is expected to take several months.

TOSHIBA GETS TAKEOVER BID FROM PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM CVC

The logo of Toshiba Corp. is seen at a companys building in Kawasaki near Tokyo. ((AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File) / AP Newsroom)

Toshiba has been trying to go private in recent years. Proposals to split Toshiba into three and then two companies were rejected by shareholders.

The company first received a buyout offer from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners in April 2021, which was subsequently dismissed as lacking details.Ticker Security Last Change Change % TOSBF TOSHIBA CORP. 34.8 +2.80 +8.75%

Interest in Toshiba by Japan Industrial Partners was first reported last October.

Last month, Toshiba lowered its profit forecast for the fiscal year to 130 billion yen ($1 billion), down from an earlier projection for a 190 billion yen ($1.5 billion) profit.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Environment

Podcast: New Tesla Model Y unveil, Mazda 6e, Aptera solar car production-intent, more

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Podcast: New Tesla Model Y unveil, Mazda 6e, Aptera solar car production-intent, more

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss the official unveiling of the new Tesla Model Y, Mazda 6e, Aptera solar car production-intent, and more.

The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.

As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.

After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:

We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.

Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:

Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET):

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Environment

BYD’s new Han L EV just leaked in China and it’s a monster

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BYD's new Han L EV just leaked in China and it's a monster

The Chinese EV leader is launching a new flagship electric sedan. BYD’s new Han L EV leaked in China on Friday, revealing a potential Tesla Model S Plaid challenger.

What we know about the BYD Han L EV so far

We knew it was coming soon after BYD teased the Han L on social media a few days ago. Now, we are learning more about what to expect.

BYD’s new electric sedan appeared in China’s latest Ministry of Industry and Information Tech (MIIT) filing, a catalog of new vehicles that will soon be sold.

The filing revealed four versions, including two EV and two PHEV models. The Han L EV will be available in single- and dual-motor configurations. With a peak power of 580 kW (777 hp), the single-motor model packs more power than expected.

BYD’s dual-motor Han L gains an additional 230 kW (308 hp) front-mounted motor. As CnEVPost pointed out, the vehicle’s back has a “2.7S” badge, which suggests a 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) sprint time of just 2.7 seconds.

BYD-Han-L-EV
BYD Han L EV (Source: China MIIT)

To put that into perspective, the Tesla Model S Plaid can accelerate from 0 to 100 km in 2.1 seconds. In China, the Model S Plaid starts at RBM 814,900, or over $110,000. Speaking of Tesla, the EV leader just unveiled its highly anticipated Model Y “Juniper” refresh in China on Thursday. It starts at RMB 263,500 ($36,000).

BYD already sells the Han EV in China, starting at around RMB 200,000. However, the single front motor, with a peak power of 180 kW, is much less potent than the “L” model. The Han EV can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.9 seconds.

BYD-Han-L-EV
BYD Han L EV (Source: China MIIT)

At 5,050 mm long, 1,960 mm wide, and 1,505 mm tall with a wheelbase of 2,970 mm, BYD’s new Han L is roughly the size of the Model Y (4,970 mm long, 1,964 mm wide, 1,445 mm tall, wheelbase of 2,960 mm).

Other than that it will use a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) pack from BYD’s FinDreams unit, no other battery specs were revealed. Check back soon for the full rundown.

Source: CnEVPost, China MIIT

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Technology

Zuckerberg says Biden administration pushed Meta ‘super hard’ to take down vaccine content

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Zuckerberg says Biden administration pushed Meta 'super hard' to take down vaccine content

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears at the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024. Meta debuted its first pair of augmented reality glasses, devices that show a combined view of the digital and physical worlds, a key step in Zuckerberg’s goal of one day offering a hands-free alternative to the smartphone.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Joe Rogan in a podcast published on Friday that his company was pressured by the Biden administration to remove content on side effects of Covid vaccines.

Early in a conversation that lasted about three hours, Zuckerberg told Rogan that he’s generally “pretty pro rolling out vaccines” and that they are “more positive than negative.”

“But I think that while they’re trying to push that program, they also tried to censor anyone who is basically arguing against it,” Zuckerberg said.

A Biden administration representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The remarks come days after Meta said it would stop relying on third parties to check facts published on its widely used applications and instead turn to community notes, letting users add commentary regarding truthfulness. The strategy puts Meta more inline with X, whose owner, Elon Musk, has been advising President-elect Donald Trump and was a major backer of his campaign.

It’s also the latest in a string of announcements and comments following Trump’s election that appear targeted at appeasing the incoming president. Last week, Meta replaced its president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, with Joel Kaplan, the company’s current policy vice president and a former Republican Party staffer.

Meta was one of several large technology companies to announce that it was contributing $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, NBC News reported.

Zuckerberg has expressed criticism in the past about the Biden administration’s handling of Covid-related content.

In a letter to the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee in August, Zuckerberg said the administration “pressured” Meta to “censor” Covid-19 content, adding that he regretted some of the decisions the company made following those requests.

“And they pushed us super hard, to take down the things that were honestly were true,” Zuckerberg told Rogan. “They basically pushed us and said, you know, anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.”

Zuckerberg didn’t specify who from the White House made the requests, acknowledging that “I wasn’t involved in those conversations directly.” But he said the company’s response was that it wasn’t going to take down content that “is kind of inarguably true.”

The Food and Drug Administration said in 2021 that headache, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea and fever were the most common side effects of Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Covid vaccine. Worldwide, Covid vaccines are credited with saving tens of millions of lives a year when the pandemic was raging.

On a separate matter, Zuckerberg said that the U.S. government hasn’t done enough to protect its technology industry, leaving too much power in the hands of regulators abroad. He said the European Union has fined technology companies more than $30 billion over the past 20 years.

“It’s one of the things that I’m optimistic about with President Trump, is I think he just wants America to win,” Zuckerberg said.

WATCH: Reed: Is Facebook a news platform or a vehicle for information?

Reed: Is Facebook a news platform or a vehicle for information?

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