Samsung has merged its mobile business, the company's biggest moneymaker, with its consumer electronics division in a major restructuring meant to "strengthen its business competitiveness." In addition, to combining divisions, the tech giant has also replaced all of its CEOs. 

Jong-Hee Han, the head of its TV business, has been named as Vice-Chairman and co-CEO of the newly merged mobile and consumer electronics divisions. Han won't be leaving his duties as head of visual display, though, and will instead lead both businesses. According to Reuters, Han has no experience in mobile, but Samsung credits him for playing a key role in the company achieving top position in global TV sales over the past 15 years. 

Meanwhile, Samsung President Kyehyun Kyung has also been named co-CEO and will now lead its chip and components division. Kyung is a semiconductor design expert and used to leading the company's flash product and technology team. He's expected to "help maintain" Samsung's semiconductor leadership and conjure innovative ideas at the same time. 

While mobile generated the biggest revenue (US$24.2 billion) for Samsung in the third quarter of 2021, its chip business isn't that far behind. Its semiconductor business posted US$22.6 billion in revenue due to the heightened demand for server DRAMs and for computers in general during the pandemic. Samsung is aiming to become the number 1 chip contract manufacturer within the next decade and has poured hundreds of billions into the business. Just this November, it announced that it's building a $17 billion semiconductor factory in Texas to manufacture high-end and advanced chips for smartphones, 5G and artificial intelligence.

Toyota has selected a site for its proposed $1.29 billion US battery manufacturing facility. On Monday, the automaker said it would build the plant on the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite, a tract of land located in Randolph County in central North Carolina. When the facility is complete sometime in 2025, it will consist of four production lines, each capable of producing batteries for 200,000 vehicles per year. Toyota plans to eventually expand the facility to produce enough power cells to support up to 1.2 million cars annually.

The plant is part of a broader $3.4 billion investment the automaker has earmarked to expand its battery production capabilities in the US. When Toyota first announced the $1.29 billion facility, it said it would create approximately 1,750 jobs. The company notes it picked Greensboro-Randolph Megasite for a handful of reasons. One of the more notable ones is that it’s a location with access to renewable energy. Toyota says it’s “committed” to using 100 percent clean energy to produce batteries at the facility.

The scale of the project is an acknowledgment by the automaker that it needs to diversify its electrification strategy. More so than any other automaker, Toyota invested significantly into fuel cell technology. So far, it has little to show for its efforts. Outside of California, you can’t buy its Mirai fuel-cell sedan. However, the company’s latest plan is to offer 70 different electric models, including 15 battery electric vehicles, by 2025.

Payments firm Square plans to change its name to Block as cryptocurrencies and other blockchain technologies become a bigger part of its business. On Wednesday, the company announced it will move forward with the rebranding on December 10th.

“The name has many associated meanings for the company — building blocks, neighborhood blocks and their local businesses, communities coming together at block parties full of music, a blockchain, a section of code, and obstacles to overcome,” the company said in a blog post.

When Jack Dorsey co-founded Square in 2009 shortly after his first stint as CEO of Twitter, the company’s only product was its namesake card reader, which allowed merchants to process credit card payments with their phones. Since then, its business has expanded to include stock and crypto trading, money lending and more. This year, Square even bought a majority stake in Tidal. And it’s that expansion from that the rebranding is designed to encapsulate.

“We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs,” Dorsey said. “Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same. No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy.”

The move comes in the same week that Dorsey stepped down as the CEO of Twitter. Since 2015, he had led both Twitter and Square, a position that eventually led to pressure from activist investment firm Elliott Management. In a lot of ways, the rebranding is also reflective of Dorsey’s well-known enthusiasm for cryptocurrency. After all, this is the man who wanted the world to know he has a Bitcoin clock in his kitchen. He recently announced Square would build a Bitcoin hardware wallet, and “consider” a mining system.

Following scrutiny from state and federal regulators, Activision Blizzard and its CEO Bobby Kotick now face pressure from an unexpected source. Per Axios, state treasurers from California, Massachusetts, Illinois, Oregon, Delaware and Nevada recently contacted the company’s board of directors to discuss its “response to the challenges and investment risk exposures that face Activision.” In a letter dated to November 23rd, the group tells the board it would “weigh” a “call to vote against the re-election of incumbent directors.”

That call was made on November 17th by a collection of activist shareholders known as Strategic Organizing Center Investment Group. SOC, which holds about 0.6 percent of Activision stock, has demanded Kotick resign and that two of the board’s longest-serving directors, Brian Kelly and Robert Morgado, retire by December 31st.

“We think there needs to be sweeping changes made in the company,” Illinois state treasurer Michael Frerichs told Axios. “We're concerned that the current CEO and board directors don't have the skillset, nor the conviction to institute these sweeping changes needed to transform their culture, to restore trust with employees and shareholders and their partners.”

Between the six treasurers, they manage about a trillion dollars in assets. But as Axios points out, it’s unclear how much they have invested in Activision, and it’s not something they disclosed to the outlet. However, Frerichs did confirm Illinois has been impacted by the company’s falling stock price.

To that point, the day before The Wall Street Journal published its bombshell report on Activision and CEO Bobby Kotick, the company's stock closed at $70.43. The day California’s fair employment agency sued the company its stock was worth $91.88. As of the writing of this article, it’s trading at about $58.44.

The group has asked to meet with Activision’s board by December 20th. We’ve reached out to Activision for comment.

LG has appointed a new CEO to lead its electronics business. Starting December 1st, current Chief Strategy Officer William Cho will take over for Bong-seok Kwon as the CEO of LG Electronics. Meanwhile, according to The Korea Herald, Kwon will head up LG’s main holding company. Cho has been with LG Electronics since 1987. Prior to his most recent role, he served as the president of LG Canada, and later had the same role at LG Australia and LG USA.

Cho is about to take the reins of LG Electronics at an inflection point for the company. It recently shut down its mobile division in July after the unit failed to make a profit in 23 consecutive quarters. At this point, LG Electronics is probably best known for its TVs and monitors, but there too it faces tough competition from Samsung and a variety of Chinese competitors. 

However, Cho will have help from a handful of executives the company has shuffled into new positions. Most notably, there’s Ik-hwan Jang who’s about to take up the top position at the company’s Business Solutions unit. Jang was most recently responsible for overseeing LG’s IT business portfolio where he helped LG become a powerhouse in the monitor space.

Japan is about to take a significant step toward developing a digital currency. Per Reuters, a consortium made up of approximately 70 Japanese firms said this week they plan to launch a yen-based cryptocurrency in 2022. What’s notable about the project, tentatively called “DCJPY,” is that three of the country’s largest banks will back it. At a news conference on Wednesday, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group said they’ve been meeting since last year to build a shared settlement infrastructure for digital payments.

Some of the other members of the consortium include the East Japan Railway Company and Kansai Electric Power Company. They plan to start testing the currency in the coming months. The experiment is separate from the work the Bank of Japan is doing to create a digital yen. CBDCs are something China and the US are exploring as well. For Japan, there’s an additional incentive to the push. It’s a country that famously loves cash. Even as recently as 2018, 80 percent of all retail transactions in the country were completed in notes and coins. It’s something the government of Japan has tried to change as a way to make the country’s economy more consumer-friendly and productive.

American regulators might soon offer much more insight into the legality of cryptocurrency deals. Bloombergreports the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) have shared a roadmap of their crypto priorities for 2022, and they're primarily focused on "greater clarity" around the legal status of transactions. This might include everything from stablecoin releases through to loan collateral and the presence of crypto on company balance sheets.

The three agencies also hope to study how they can apply bank capital and liquidity standards to US bank organizations. The roadmap isn't locked in place — the organizations said they might tackle other issues as the marketplace changes.

The outline follows a wave of crypto policy "sprints" that helped decide the regulatory priorities for the year ahead. The Reserve, FDIC and OCC aimed for common ground that included pinpointing risks and determining the usefulness of existing rules.

This roadmap might not lead to a concrete strategy. There's also no guarantee this will work in crypto holders' favor. US regulatory bodies have historically erred on the side of caution, and it won't be shocking if cryptocurrency users have to scale back or even stop certain activities to stay on the right side of the law.

El Salvador's government is throwing even more of its weight behind Bitcoin. Coindesk and BBC News report President Nayib Bukele has unveiled plans to build a "Bitcoin City" near a volcano along the Gulf of Fonseca, between La Unión and Conchagua. The metropolis will have its own geothermal power plant to help support crypto mining, and there will be no capital gains, income, payroll or property taxes, just value added tax.

The city will be shaped like a coin. While it should include the full amenities you'd expect from a city, people in La Unión could travel to work in the new development.

Bukele didn't provide a timeline for the city's creation. However, he simultaneously unveiled a $1 billion US "Bitcoin bond" where half would be used to build energy and mining infrastructure, with the rest used to buy more of the digital currency. The strategy chief for bond developer Blockstream, Samson Mow, said El Salvador would start selling crypto holdings after five years and pay an extra dividend to bond holders. With an initial 6.5 percent yield, this could represent a significant windfall for the country if all goes well.

The move is a huge gamble for a company with a gross domestic product of just over $24.6 billion in 2020. Bukele's administration is counting on Bitcoin to spur economic growth, independence and investment, but this also assumes the monetary format remains on an overall upward trajectory. It's also unclear if would-be residents and investors will flock to a Bitcoin-oriented city even with tax incentives. This is new territory for cryptocurrency, and it's not certain if there's enough support to help the project thrive.

Amazon has escalated its fight with Visa: Starting on January 19th, 2022, the e-commerce giant will stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the UK. It notified Amazon UK customers in an email about the change, blaming the high fees Visa charges for credit card transactions. Buyers can at least continue using their Visa credit cards throughout the holidays, but after that, they'd have to switch to a Visa debit card or another credit card like a Mastercard or an AMEX.

An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement:

"The cost of accepting card payments continues to be an obstacle for businesses striving to provide the best prices for customers. These costs should be going down over time with technological advancements, but instead they continue to stay high or even rise. As a result of Visa’s continued high cost of payments, we regret that Amazon.co.uk will no longer accept UK-issued Visa credit cards as of 19 January, 2022. Customers can continue to use all debit cards (including Visa debit cards) and other non-Visa credit cards to shop on Amazon.co.uk. With the rapidly changing payments landscape around the world, we will continue innovating on behalf of customers to add and promote faster, cheaper, and more inclusive payment options to our stores across the globe."

Meanwhile, a Visa spokesperson said the company is disappointed that "Amazon is threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future." They added: "When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins." They also said that Visa is working towards a resolution with the e-commerce giant so that cardholders can keep on using their UK-issued Visa credit cards on the website "without Amazon-imposed restrictions come January 2022." It's worth noting that Amazon has a much better relationship with other credit card brands in the country. The e-commerce giant currently has a partnership with Mastercard for consumer credit cards and with AMEX for business cards in the UK.

The companies may be engaging in a public war in an effort to get better terms from each other. Amazon has been putting pressure on the credit card brand over the past few months and started imposing a 0.5 percent surcharge on Visa credit card purchases on its Singapore website on September 15th. A month-and-a-half after that, Amazon also started imposing a surcharge on Visa transactions in Australia. In both instances, the company offered customers a gift card (AU$20 and SG$30) to add an alternative payment method that isn't a Visa credit card.

Spotify could soon be home to a lot more audiobooks. The streaming service has acquired audiobook platform Findaway, the companies announced. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the acquisition suggests Spotify is looking to build out its own library of audiobook titles.

Findaway is an Ohio-based company that boasts a catalog of more than 325,000 titles, according to its website. The company has partnerships with Apple, Amazon and other retail heavyweights, and also makes tools for audiobook creators. While it’s not yet clear how Spotify might integrate Findaway’s catalog into its own service, the company said in a statement that the deal would help it “quickly scale its audiobook catalog” and create new opportunities for authors and publishers.

The acquisition isn’t Spotify’s first foray into audiobooks. The company has previously experimented with a handful of celebrity-narrated public domain classics, and a Harry Potter audiobook at the start of coronavirus lockdowns in 2020. But the acquisition signals the streaming platform now has much greater ambitions in the space. The move also echoes Spotify’s approach to podcasts, as the company used a number ofacquisitions to build out its catalog and creation tools. So while it’s so far unclear what exactly Findaway means for Spotify subscribers and would-be audiobook listeners, it seems there are a lot more audiobooks in the company’s future.