Post Office has attributed the record amount for personal cash withdrawals at its 11,500 branches to more staycations in the U.K. and people using cash to manage their budgets.
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LONDON — Fujitsu‘s role in the U.K. Post Office scandal, dubbed the “most widespread miscarriage of justice” in British history, has analysts wary of what the fallout could look like for the Japanese IT giant.
Between 1999 and 2015, a fault with the company’s Horizon computer software used by the Post Office, a state-owned private company employing thousands of people across the country, resulted in more than 700 sub-postmasters being subjected to false prosecutions. Thousands more were driven to destitution, illness and in several cases, suicide.
The U.K.’s High Court ruled in 2019 that the Horizon software was at fault for the misreported losses at Post Office branches throughout the country, and a public inquiry was ordered by the government to take place in the following year.
However, the scandal has been re-ignited following the airing of a TV docudrama earlier this month, which showed that despite the acknowledgment, the sub-postmasters had never received adequate compensation for the financial and emotional damage inflicted.
The British government has introduced legislation to exonerate all convicted sub-postmasters and set aside £1 billion ($1.27 billion) in compensation for the victims, saying it will pursue Fujitsu if an ongoing inquiry finds the company is to blame.
Despite the furor in the U.K., Fujitsu shares are only down around 2% since the turn of the year, having suffered an initial drop after the company’s European co-CEO Paul Patterson said compensating Post Office victims was a “moral obligation,” before recovering over the past week.
Former subpostmasters celebrate outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, on April 23, 2021, following a court ruling clearing subpostmasters of convictions for theft and false accounting. – Dozens of former subpostmasters, who were convicted of theft, fraud and false accounting because of the Post Office’s defective Horizon accounting system, have finally had their names cleared by the Court of Appeal. (Photo by Tolga Akmen / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
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Patterson later told U.K. lawmakers at the Business and Trade select committee on Friday that the company had “clearly let society down” and that there were “bugs errors and defects” with the Horizon software “from the very start.”
In a statement Thursday, Fujitsu said it regards the matter with the “utmost seriousness and offers its deepest apologies to the sub-postmasters and their families.”
“The U.K. statutory public Inquiry, to which our U.K. subsidiary is providing full cooperation, is examining complex events that have unfolded over many years, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to this cooperation,” the company said.
“Based on the findings of the Inquiry, we will also be working with the UK government on the appropriate actions, including contribution to compensation.”
Fallout could have ‘more negative consequences’ for Fujitsu
Tim Morse, founding partner of Asymmetric Advisors, told CNBC last week that while Fujitsu may not be on the hook for the entirety of the £1 billion compensation fund, it will have to shoulder a “reasonable financial burden,” and the company becoming persona non grata for future government contracts is “certainly a possibility.”
A spokesperson for Fujitsu wasn’t immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
“The name of Fujitsu has been tainted, but don’t forget that Fujitsu — and previously to Fujitsu, ICL, which was very close to the U.K. government and was bought by Fujitsu in the early nineties — they’re very well embedded in U.K. government IT contracts, so actually replacing Fujitsu could be very expensive,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”
He suggested the greater fear is that there could be further frailties identified in government-contracted programs, with issues already identified in Japan relating to ATM systems and national ID cards, along with an outage on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2020.
Mio Kato, founder of LightStream Research, told CNBC last week that he was surprised by the relatively “tepid” reaction in the stock price so far, because although the compensation payment may not be the “end of the world” for a company of Fujitsu’s size, the “reputational consequences could be more severe.”
“You do have these little issues cropping up attached to Fujitsu and while it’s impossible to completely iron out all bugs, the frequency is a bit of a concern considering that Fujitsu tends to supply their clients with really mission-critical software and systems,” he said, noting that the company may need to increase spending on quality control.
“So while this event may be quite U.K.-specific, what’s really concerning to us is the length of time over which it persisted, and the fact that even after certain evidence did seem to emerge suggesting that there were problems with their Horizon system, it wasn’t addressed in a timely manner.”
Kato suggested potential Fujitsu clients would have “significant concerns” about this aspect of the allegations.
“While this case hasn’t necessarily attracted massive attention outside of the U.K. yet, as it drags on, this could have more negative consequences for Fujitsu, so I’m still relatively cautious about the short- to medium-term outlook until we see exactly what the total fallout is,” he added.
The Trump administration has floated a plan to trim about $6 billion from the budget of NASA, while allocating $1 billion of remaining funds to Mars-focused initiatives, aligning with an ambition long held by Elon Musk and his rocket maker SpaceX.
A copy of the discretionary budget posted to the NASA website on Friday said that the change focuses NASA’s funding on “beating China back to the Moon and on putting the first human on Mars.”
NASA also said it will need to “streamline” its workforce, information technology services, NASA Center operations, facility maintenance, and construction and environmental compliance activities, and terminate multiple “unaffordable” missions, while reducing scientific missions for the sake of “fiscal responsibility.”
Janet Petro, NASA’s acting administrator, said in an agency-wide email on Friday that the proposed lean budget, which would cut about 25% of the space agency’s funding, “reflects the administration’s support for our mission and sets the stage for our next great achievements.”
Petro urged NASA employees to “persevere, stay resilient, and lean into the discipline it takes to do things that have never been done before — especially in a constrained environment,” according to the memo, which was obtained by CNBC. She acknowledged the budget would “require tough choices,” and that some of NASA’s “activities will wind down.”
The document on NASA’s website said it’s allocating more than $7 billion for moon exploration and “introducing $1 billion in new investments for Mars-focused programs.”
SpaceX, which is already among the largest NASA and Department of Defense contractors, has long sought to launch a manned mission to Mars. The company says on its website that its massive Starship rocket is designed to “carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.”
Musk, who is the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has a central role in President Donald Trump’s administration, leading an effort to slash the size, spending and capacity of the federal government, and influencing regulatory changes through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk, who frequently makes aggressive and incorrect projections for his companies, said in 2020 that he was “highly confident” that SpaceX would land humans on Mars by 2026.
Petro highlighted in her memo that under the discretionary budget, NASA would retire the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, the Orion spacecraft and Gateway programs.
It would also put an end to its green aviation spending and to its Mars Sample Return (MSR) Program, which sought to use rockets and robotic systems to “collect and send samples of Martian rocks, soils and atmosphere back to Earth for detailed chemical and physical analysis,” according to a website for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Some of the biggest reductions at NASA, should the budget get approved, would hit the space agency’s space science, Earth science and mission support divisions.
Petro didn’t name any specific aerospace and defense contractors in her agency-wide email. However SpaceX, ULA and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are positioned to continue to conduct launches in the absence of the SLS. Boeing is currently the prime contractor leading the SLS program.
“This is far from the first time NASA has been asked to adapt, and your ability to deliver, even under pressure, is what sets NASA apart,” she wrote.
President Trump’s nominee to lead NASA, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, still has to be approved by the U.S. Senate. His nomination was advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday.
Chinese bargain retailer Temu changed its business model in the U.S. as the Trump administration’s new rules on low-value shipments took effect Friday.
In recent days, Temu has abruptly shifted its website and app to only display listings for products shipped from U.S.-based warehouses. Items shipped directly from China, which previously blanketed the site, are now labeled as out of stock.
Temu made a name for itself in the U.S. as a destination for ultra-discounted items shipped direct from China, such as $5 sneakers and $1.50 garlic presses. It’s been able to keep prices low because of the so-called de minimis rule, which has allowed items worth $800 or less to enter the country duty-free since 2016.
The loophole expired Friday at 12:01 a.m. EDT as a result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in April. Trump briefly suspended the de minimis rule in February before reinstating the provision days later as customs officials struggled to process and collect tariffs on a mountain of low-value packages.
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The end of de minimis, as well as Trump’s new 145% tariffs on China, has forced Temu to raise prices, suspend its aggressive online advertising push and now alter the selection of goods available to American shoppers to circumvent higher levies.
A Temu spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that all sales in the U.S. are now handled by local sellers and said they are fulfilled “from within the country.” Temu said pricing for U.S. shoppers “remains unchanged.”
“Temu has been actively recruiting U.S. sellers to join the platform,” the spokesperson said. “The move is designed to help local merchants reach more customers and grow their businesses.”
Before the change, shoppers who attempted to purchase Temu products shipped from China were confronted with “import charges” of between 130% and 150%. The fees often cost more than the individual item and more than doubled the price of many orders.
Temu advertises that local products have “no import charges” and “no extra charges upon delivery.”
The company, which is owned by Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings, has gradually built up its inventory in the U.S. over the past year in anticipation of escalating trade tensions and the removal of de minimis.
Shein, which has also benefited from the loophole, moved to raise prices last week. The fast-fashion retailer added a banner at checkout that says, “Tariffs are included in the price you pay. You’ll never have to pay extra at delivery.”
Many third-party sellers on Amazon rely on Chinese manufacturers to source or assemble their products. The company’s Temu competitor, called Amazon Haul, has relied on de minimis to ship products priced at $20 or less directly from China to the U.S.
Amazon said Tuesday following a dustup with the White House that had it considered showing tariff-related costs on Haul products ahead of the de minimis cutoff but that it has since scrapped those plans.
Prior to Trump’s second term in office, the Biden administration had also looked to curtail the provision. Critics of the de minimis provision argue that it harms American businesses and that it facilitates shipments of fentanyl and other illicit substances because, they say, the packages are less likely to be inspected by customs agents.
Jeff Bezos, founder and executive chairman of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, takes the stage during The New York Times’ annual DealBook Summit, at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, Dec. 4, 2024.
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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos plans to sell up to 25 million shares in the company over the next year, according to a financial filing on Friday.
Bezos, who stepped down as CEO in 2021 but remains Amazon’s top shareholder, is selling the shares as part of a trading plan adopted on March 4, the filing states. The stake would be worth about $4.8 billion at the current price.
The disclosure follows Amazon’s first-quarter earnings report late Thursday. While profit and revenue topped estimates, the company’s forecast for operating income in the current quarter came in below Wall Street’s expectations.
The results show that Amazon is bracing for uncertainty related to President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs. The company landed in the crosshairs of the White House this week over a report that Amazon planned to show shoppers the cost of the tariffs. Trump personally called Bezos to complain, and Amazon clarified that no such change was coming.
Bezos previously offloaded about $13.5 billion worth of Amazon shares last year, marking his first sale of company stock since 2021.
Since handing over the Amazon CEO role to Andy Jassy, Bezos has spent more of his time on his space exploration company, Blue Origin, and his $10 billion climate and biodiversity fund. He’s used Amazon share sales to help fund Blue Origin, as well as the Day One Fund, which he launched in September 2018 to provide education in low-income communities and combat homelessness.