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TOKYO -- Embattled Nissan reported a 19 percent increase in operating profit in the latest quarter as cost control, better pricing power and lower incentives bolstered results.

Operating profit rose to 27.1 billion yen ($262.5 million) in the automaker's fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, the company said on Tuesday in its financial results announcement.

But Nissan's quarterly net loss expanded to 37.8 billion yen ($366.1 million), from 26.1 billion yen ($252.8 million) the year before. Revenue fell 11 percent to 2.22 trillion yen ($21.50 billion) in the October-December period, as global sales declined 9.6 percent to 1.08 million vehicles.

In the just-finished fiscal third quarter, North American sales fell 20 percent to 323,000 units. Regional operating profit retreated 33 percent to 14.5 billion yen ($140.4 million) in the period.

Sales in Europe decreased 16 percent to 109,000 vehicles, while the regional business there rebounded to a narrow operating profit of 3.1 billion yen ($30.0 million) from a year-earlier loss.

Citing continued uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the global semiconductor shortage, Nissan trimmed its global sales forecast for the current fiscal year ending March 31. It now expects volume to total 4.02 million vehicles, down from its earlier forecast of 4.17 million. The new target represents a 19 percent drop from the previous fiscal year.

COO Ashwani Gupta predicted the semiconductor bottleneck would clear up by May or June.

Despite cutting the sales outlook by 150,000 units, Nissan upgraded its full-year profit outlook.

It now expects an operating loss of 205.0 billion yen ($1.99 billion) in the year to March 31, as opposed to a negative 340.0 billion yen ($3.29 billion) forecast in November. Despite the upgrade, the new target still represents a record operating loss for the company.

Still, CEO Makoto Uchida said improved cost control and a better mix of retail volume and value pricing is gradually lifting profitability. In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, for example, Nissan said revenue per unit is up 1.7 percent, the rental mix is down 6 points, inventory is down 25 percent and fixed costs are 12 percent lower.

A stream of new product, such as the redesigned Rogue crossover in the U.S. and the next-generation Note e-Power in Japan, are boosting Nissan's brand and pricing power.

Uchida and Gupta are spearheading a recovery plan called Nissan Next that chops global production capacity, slashes 300 billion yen ($2.91 billion) in fixed costs and focuses on new product. But the COVID-19 pandemic is complicating the recovery.

Regarding media reports that American tech giant Apple is canvassing global automakers for a partner to make its upcoming car, Uchida dodged a straight answer when asked whether Nissan had been approached. But he said Nissan is open to collaborating with new industry entrants.

"We need to work with the companies who are knowledgeable with good experience, through partnership and collaboration. So, this is an option that we may take," Uchida said.

"So, when new companies emerge in the auto industry, that's a possibility too."

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Nissan operating profit rose in latest quarter on better cost control, lower incentives - Automotive News Europe

Polish games developer CD Projekt Red, the outfit behind Cyberpunk 2077, starring Keanu Reeves, and The Witcher series, has been hacked.

In a statement released on social media on Tuesday, the company said it had been targeted in a cyber attack by an unidentified actor that compromised some of its internal systems.

We are still investigating the incident, however at this time, we can confirm that to our best knowledge the compromised systems did not contain any personal data of our players or users of our services.

We will not give in to the demands nor negotiate with the actor, being aware that this may eventually lead to the release of the compromised data, CD Projekt Red said.

The company also released the ransom note, which said: We have dumped FULL copies of the source code from your Perforce server for Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 3, Gwent, and the unreleased version of Witcher 3!!

The ransom note threatens that if an agreement isnt reached, the source codes will be leaked or sold online and CD Projekt Reds documents will be sent to their contacts in gaming journalism, giving an ultimatum of 48 hours.

The company is in touch with law enforcement authorities and the Personal Data Protection Office.

CD Projekt Red was in the news late last year when their release of Cyberpunk 2077 went awry. The much anticipated games release was delayed. When it was finally released, users complained of glitches until Sony pulled the game from its online store until further notice and agreed to provide customers full refunds.

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Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher Games Developer CD Projekt Red Hacked, Refuses to Pay Ransom - Variety

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Nucleus Biologics, The Cell Performance Company, today announced the availability of NB-AIR, the world's first Artificial Intelligence Research platform for optimizing cell culture formulations for cell and gene therapies. Leveraging cutting-edge AI algorithms, the system empowers scientists to create optimized formulas based on meta-analysis of peer-reviewed articles. AI guided formulations will allow scientists to improve the performance of their cell therapy and shorten the time to get these lifesaving therapies into patients faster.

Cell and gene therapy in 2019 was a $1 Billion market and is estimated to be growing at 36% CAGR.Most cell therapy companies struggle to achieve reproducible potency in their cell therapies.The media used for in vitro cell growth have a documented impact on cell quality and hence therapeutic efficacy.Until now, scientists have had to rely on major suppliers who sell proprietary media formulations.These black box formulations limit the scientist's ability to chemically modify their media. This slows down discovery and introduces supply chain risk.Until now, no tool existed that allowed scientists to research and select components and formulations based on current published knowledge on conditions that impact cell performance.

"This is an industry transforming tool. Imagine being able to take months of research and reduce it to minutes through the power of machine learning. We are democratizing formulations enabling scientists to tap into the collective knowledge of their peers, become experts quickly and own their media formulation." said David Sheehan, Founder, President and CEO of Nucleus Biologics. "Our vision is that we can create a constantly evolving technology ecosystem that allows therapy providers to create intellectual property that improves cell performance and reduces development time."

Initially targeted for developers of cell therapies, NB-AIR speeds formulation development by providing peer-tested compounds and formula recommendations based on cell type and critical quality attributes. It is directly connected to NB-Lux, a cloud-based ordering and tracking portal, to allow online ordering of lot sizes from 2L to 2000L, allowing media scaled from bench to bioreactor. Further, changing even one component in your media can improve therapeutic yields, phenotype, and efficacy. Giving scientists the tools to optimize at a component level and control their media will help speed the time from discovery to cure.

Media Contact:Michael Morgan[emailprotected], (858) 251-2010

About Nucleus BiologicsNucleus Biologics, The Cell Performance Company, is the leading provider of custom cell-growth media, tools, and technologies for cell and gene therapy. Their mission is to speed the time from scientific discovery to cure by delivering innovative, transparent and cGMP products and services with the goal of disrupting the market and eliminating antiquated practices and products. Ultimately, Nucleus Biologics strives to create a new paradigm that serves both scientists and clinicians, while reducing the environmental footprint of cell culture. http://www.nucleusbiologics.com

SOURCE Nucleus Biologics

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The invitation-only audio-chat social networking app Clubhouse is pictured on a smartphone on January 26, 2021 in Berlin, Germany.

Thomas Trutschel | Photothek | Getty Images

The audio-only social media app Clubhouse appears to have been blocked in China.

Queeny Li, a communications professional based in Shenzhen, and Michael Norris, a tech analyst in Shanghai, told CNBC that the Clubhouse app no longer works for them.

"Clubhouse has been blocked," said Norris, echoing what multiple media reports have said.

"Clubhouse's ban was expected," Norris added. "Indeed, the sudden rush to give Clubhouse a whirl was driven by the sense that a ban was imminent."

Some Clubhouse users in China are now being shown an error message when they open the app. The message reads: "An SSL error has occurred and a secure connection to the server cannot be made."

U.S.-based Clubhouse, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China and the Chinese embassy in London did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

The invite-only discussion app, which lets people chat with their voices instead of written messages, has boomed in popularity over the last few months.

It initially gained traction with the Silicon Valley tech community, but in recent weeks the app has been downloaded onto smartphones across China.

While the iPhone app is not available to download from the Chinese App Store, people in China were able to get it by using overseas Apple IDs.

Chinese ecommerce sites have been selling thousands of Clubhouse invites for up to $77, according to The Financial Times.

Clubhouse, which is valued at around $1 billion and boasts over 2 million users, worked for people in China that managed to download the app and obtain an invite up until Monday, when the apparent block came in.

Unlike other apps, Clubhouse was not censored by the Chinese Communist Party and users were free to talk about whatever they pleased.

Chinese authorities have blocked U.S. social media apps like Facebook and Twitter, and internet search results are censored by the government. The country's digital censorship of overseas platforms has been dubbed the "Great Firewall."

Meanwhile, the U.S. government has been clamping down on Chinese tech firms like Huawei and TikTok over the last few years.

"At one level, China is cracking down on any technology that challenges how the government controls society," Abishur Prakash, a geopolitical specialist at the Center for Innovating the Future (CIF), told CNBC.

"This is nothing new," he added. "But, at another level, China is rapidly 'unplugging' from U.S. technology, even the new platforms and services. This is further driving the split between the U.S. and China."

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Buzzy new social media app Clubhouse appears to have been blocked in China - CNBC

Local and federal authorities are investigating after an attempt Friday to poison the city of Oldsmars water supply, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.

Someone remotely accessed a computer for the citys water treatment system and briefly increased the amount of sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, by a factor of more than 100, Gualtieri said at a news conference Monday. The chemical is used in small amounts to control the acidity of water but its also a corrosive compound commonly found in household cleaning supplies such as liquid drain cleaners.

The citys water supply was not affected. A supervisor working remotely saw the concentration being changed on his computer screen and immediately reverted it, Gualtieri said. City officials on Monday emphasized that several other safeguards are in place to prevent contaminated water from entering the water supply and said theyve disabled the remote-access system used in the attack.

The Pinellas County Sheriffs Office is investigating, along with the FBI and the Secret Service, Gualtieri said.

Nobody has been arrested, Gualtieri said, though investigators have some leads. They do not know why Oldsmar was targeted, he said. He added that other area municipalities have been alerted to the attack and encouraged to inspect the safeguards to their water treatment systems and other infrastructure.

Though some cities obtain water through Pinellas County, Oldsmar provides water directly to its businesses and roughly 15,000 residents, Gualtieri said. The computer system at the water treatment plant was set up to allow authorized users to remotely access it for troubleshooting.

A plant operator was monitoring the system at about 8 a.m. Friday and noticed that someone briefly accessed it. He didnt find this unusual, Gualtieri said, because his supervisor remotely accessed the system regularly.

But at about 1:30 p.m. the same day, Gualtieri said, someone accessed the system again. This time, he said, the operator watched as someone took control of the mouse, directed it to the software that controls water treatment, worked inside it for three to five minutes and increased the amount of sodium hydroxide from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million.

The attacker left the system, Gualtieri said, and the operator immediately changed the concentration back to 100 parts per million.

At no time was there a significant adverse effect on the water being treated, the sheriff said. Importantly, the public was never in danger.

Even if the operator hadnt caught it, he said, it would have taken more than a day for the water to enter the water supply.

The protocols that we have in place, monitoring protocols, they work thats the good news, said Oldsmar Mayor Eric Seidel. Even had they not caught them, theres redundancies in the system that would have caught the change in the pH level.

The important thing is to put everyone on notice, he said. Theres a bad actor out there.

Sen. Marco Rubio also addressed the attack in a tweet Monday, saying it should be treated as a matter of national security.

The Sheriffs Office learned of the attack and began investigating Friday evening, Gualtieri said. Investigators dont yet know whether the attack originated within or outside Pinellas County, Florida or the United States. If the attacker is apprehended, he said, theyll face state felony charges and possibly federal charges.

Contact with sodium hydroxide can kill skin and cause hair loss, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Ingestion can be fatal.

Gualtieri said he didnt know what physiological effects would result from the concentration dialed up in the attack. Nor was it immediately apparent whether a similar attack had ever happened in the U.S. In 2007, the water of a town in Massachusetts was accidentally treated with too much lye, causing burns and skin irritation among people who showered with it.

Im not a chemist, Gualtieri said. But I can tell you what I do know is if you put that amount of that substance into the drinking water, its not a good thing.

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Someone tried to poison Oldsmars water supply during hack, sheriff says - Tampa Bay Times