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Nintendo’s profits tumbled as sales of its Switch console lost momentum, prompting the Japanese video-game maker to lower its full-year forecasts.Kyoto-based Nintendo Co., which created the Super Mario franchise, reported Tuesday an April-December profit of 237 billion yen ($1.5 billion), down 42% from the same period the previous year.Nine-month sales dropped 31% to 956 billion yen ($6 billion), according to Nintendo, which did not break down quarterly results.The company now expects to rake in a 270-billion yen ($1.7 billion) profit for the fiscal year through March, down from the previous forecast for 300-billion yen ($1.9 billion).Sales of Nintendo machines for the nine-month period fell to 9.54 million units from 13.7 million last year.Nintendo now expects to sell 11 million Switch consoles for the full fiscal year, lower than its initial projection of 12.5 million.Game software sales in April-December declined to nearly 124 million from 164 million, although “Super Mario Party Jamboree,” remained popular, with 6.17 million units sold.The latest “Legend of Zelda” game software was also in demand, selling 3.4 million units globally after going on sale in September.Nintendo said, while demand has dwindled for the Switch, now in its eighth year after its debut, it was still being purchased by a significant number of people. The number of Switch players remains above 100 million, it said.Nintendo is banking on its successor, called Switch 2, which goes on sale later this year. Events where people can try it out are rolling out from April around the world.Nintendo also noted the opening of Super Nintendo World, an amusement facility, in May at Epic Universe in Orlando, Florida will help woo people to its content. Yuri Kageyama is on Threads:https://www.threads.net/@yurikageyama Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
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E-Commerce
Elon Musk is rapidly consolidating control over large swaths of the federal government with President Donald Trump’s blessing, sidelining career officials, gaining access to sensitive databases and dismantling a leading source of humanitarian assistance.The speed and scope of his work has been nothing short of stunning. In a little more than two weeks since Trump took office, the world’s richest man has created an alternative power structure inside the federal government for the purpose of cutting spending and pushing out employees. None of this is happening with congressional approval, inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority. Trump says Musk is doing his bidding Musk has been named as a special government employee, which subjects him to less stringent rules on ethics and financial disclosures than other workers. Trump has given Musk office space in the White House complex where he oversees a team of people at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The team has been dispersed throughout federal agencies to gather information and deliver edicts. Some of them were spotted on Monday at the Department of Education, which Trump has vowed to abolish.Republicans defend Musk as simply carrying out Trump’s slash-and-burn campaign promises. Trump made no secret of his desire to put Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur behind the electric automaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX, in charge of retooling the federal government.“Elon can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.The Republican president also played downs concerns about Musk’s conflict of interests as he flexes his power over the bureaucracy even though his businesses face regulatory scrutiny and have federal contracts.“Where we think there’s a conflict or there’s a problem, we won’t let him go near it, but he has some very good ideas,” Trump said. Musk persists in spite of Democrats’ outrage Democrats, for their part, accused Musk of leading a coup from within the government by amassing unaccountable and illegal power.“We will do everything in our power in the Senate and the House to stop this outrage,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said. “And in the meantime, since we don’t have many Republican colleagues who want to help us, we are doing everything we can with our colleagues through the courts to make sure that we uphold the rule of law.” The apex of Musk’s work so far came on Monday at the Washington headquarters for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, where yellow police tape blocked access to the lobby and hundreds of employees were locked out of computer systems. Musk said Trump had agreed to let him shutter the agency.“It’s not an apple with a worm in it, what we have is just a ball of worms,” Musk said of the world’s largest provider of humanitarian, development and security assistance. “You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.” Federal workers are in unchartered territory Musk has also turned his attention to the General Services Administration, or GSA, which manages federal government buildings. An email sent last week from the Washington headquarters instructed regional managers to begin terminating leases on roughly 7,500 federal offices nationwide.The initiative is being led by Nicole Hollander, according to an agency employee who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters. Hollander describes herself on LinkedIn as an employee at X, Musk’s social media platform.“This has gone beyond the pale. This is out of control. This is not a normal situation,” said Keya Chatterjee, executive director of Free DC, a local advocacy organization. She participated in a protest on Monday outside the Office of Personnel Management, which is one of the lesser-known federal agencies key to Musk’s agenda.Musk’s work has unnerved federal employees who are being nudged toward the exits. On Sunday night, concerns swept through the workforce that they could be locked out of internal human resources system, denying them access to their own personnel files that showed pay history, length of service, and qualifications. Supervisors in some agencies encouraged employees to download their records, called an SF-50, to personal computers so that they could prove their employment history in the event of disputes. Musk’s penchant for dabbling Musk has been tinkering with things his entire life, learning to code as a child in South Africa and becoming rich with the online payment company PayPal. He bought the social media platform Twitter a little more than two years ago, renamed it X and slashed its workforce while turning it into his personal political megaphone.Now Musk is popping open the hood on the federal government like it’s one of his cars or rockets.“The Silicon Valley playbook to disrupt the status quoby disregarding and disobeying rules that you don’t likeis in full effect here,” said Rob Lalka, an expert on entrepreneurship and innovation in business at Tulane University.One of the most significant steps was gaining access to the U.S. Treasury payment system, which is responsible for 1 billion payments per year totaling $5 trillion. It includes sensitive information involving bank accounts and Social Security payments.“No one outside of the staff doing the work ever asked to have access to the payment files,” said Richard Gregg, who spent four decades working for Treasury and oversaw the payment system as fiscal assistant secretary.It’s unclear what Musk wants to do with the payment system. He’s claimed that he could trim $1 trillion from the federal deficit “just by addressing waste, fraud and abuse.”“That’s the biggest data hack ever in the world,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, told reporters in Madison. “I am outraged about it.”Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent must revoke Musk’s access to the payment system.“We must halt this unlawful and dangerous power grab,” he said on Capitol Hill.A group representing retirees and union workers sued Bessent and the Treasury Department on Monday to get them to stop sharing personal and financial information with DOGE. Trump rewards Musk’s fealty Musk’s role is partially a reward for his work on behalf of Trump during the campaign. He spent roughly $250 million supporting Trump through America PAC, which included door-to-door canvassing and digital advertising.Although the PAC has not announced its next plans, Musk has suggested that he could ndorse primary challenges to Republican lawmakers who defy Trump’s agenda.“The more I’ve gotten to know President Trump, the more I like him,” Musk said in a conversation streamed live on X. “Frankly, I love the guy. He’s great.”Musk also described his work overhauling the federal government in existential terms, making it clear that he would push as hard and as far as he could.“If it’s not possible now, it will never be possible. This is our shot,” he said. “This is the best hand of cards we’re ever going to have. If we don’t take advantage of this best hand of cards, it’s never going to happen.” Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri, Scott Bauer, Tom Beaumont, Rick Gentilo, Joshua Goodman, Lisa Mascaro, Zeke Miller, Sarah Parvini and Byron Tau contributed reporting. Chris Megerian, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
The discount retailer that plans to take over and operate hundreds of Big Lots stores is closer to deciding which locations it will save. Some 200 Big Lots leases have been designated to be transferred to Variety Wholesalers, the North Carolina-based owner of Roses and other discount chains, new court documents show. In a bankruptcy filing dated Monday, Big Lots said it will transfer the locations as part of its agreement with Gordon Brothers, the restructuring and investment firm that took control of the embattled retailer earlier this month. The list includes Big Lots locations across more than a dozen states, mostly in the South and Midwest regions. It’s unclear what Variety’s plans for the locations fully entail or if the stores will remain open continuously throughout the process. Concerned parties have until February 18 to object to the transfer of the leases. A spokesperson for Gordon Brothers confirmed with Fast Company that Variety intends to operate the leases as Big Lots stores, but said the list was not final and new locations could be added. Fast Company has also reached out to Variety Wholesalers. Variety had originally said it would take over between 200 to 400 Big Lots stores in an 11th-hour deal announced late last year that purportedly rescued the bankrupt brand from complete oblivion. Although Big Lots said the plan would potentially save thousands of jobs, workers have mostly been in the dark about which of the retailer’s more than 800 locations would be closing for good. The new list is likely to provide a modicum of closure for some employees who have been working under a lot of uncertainty for many weeks. States with Big Lots leases included on the list are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The parties have asked a court to give them until April 7 to make the final determination. Gordon Brothers has since listed hundreds of Big Lots leases for sale to retailers that want to take over the spaces. This story is developing…
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E-Commerce
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