TECHNOLOGY
Watertown company raises $63 million in funding round
Watertown-based WiTricity, which makes wireless recharging systems for battery-powered devices, has completed a new $63 million funding round, including a $25 million investment from German manufacturing titan Siemens. That’s on top of $52 million the company raised last year. WiTricity, a 2007 spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, makes systems that use magnetic fields to wirelessly recharge batteries in devices ranging from smartphones to electric cars. Last year, South Korean automaker Hyundai became the first to add WiTricity technology to one of its vehicles. Kia is testing a version of its Genesis GV 60 electric car that can be recharged by parking the vehicle directly above a WiTricity recharging pad. — HIAWATHA BRAY
Advertisement
LABOR
Chipotle must pay NYC workers $20 million
Chipotle Mexican Grill will pay $20 million to current and former workers at its New York City restaurants for violating city labor laws, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday. According to investigators, Chipotle’s violations of the city’s Fair Workweek law included failing to post work schedules 14 days in advance, pay a premium for schedule changes, and offer available shifts to current employees before hiring new employees. The settlement between the city and the California-based fast-food chain covers about 13,000 employees who worked at the chain’s New York City outlets between 2017 and this year. It is the result of an investigation by the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection into complaints filed by 160 Chipotle workers and Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, city officials said. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
TECHNOLOGY
Apple is back on top
Apple is back in a familiar role as market leader after a painful first half of the year that saw hundreds of billions of dollars in market value disappear, and individual investors are a big reason for the rally. Since bottoming in mid-June, the iPhone maker’s shares have surged 27 percent, outpacing the S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq 100 Index. That’s put Apple back on top as the world’s most valuable company and within sight of turning positive for the year. Apple is now down just 7.2 percent in 2022, compared with a drop of 19 percent for the Nasdaq 100. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
Advertisement
LABOR
Lululemon workers in D.C. to vote on unionizing
Lululemon employees will vote this month on unionizing a store in Washington, D.C., testing the strength of an organizing wave that’s been sweeping through previously union-free US retail firms. The US National Labor Relations Board has approved an agreement between the company and the new labor group organizing the location, the Association of Concerted Educators, to hold an election on Aug. 26 and 27. The planned vote follows a series of landmark labor wins in elections at companies including Starbucks, Amazon, Apple, and Trader Joe’s. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
PHARMACEUTICALS
Novavax stock plummets
The sell-off in Novavax shares deepened on Tuesday, to erase $17 billion in market value from last year’s record high, after the COVID-19 vaccine maker slashed its revenue guidance. Novavax fell nearly 30 percent, after slashing its guidance and missing second-quarter estimates. The stock has fallen roughly 87 percent from its February 2021 high amid regulatory delays and questions on demand for a vaccine that trailed competitors in reaching the market. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
PIZZA
Domino’s says arrivederci to Italy
Domino’s Pizza’s footprint in the home of pizza proved to be short-lived with Italians favoring local restaurants over the American version. The last of Domino’s 29 branches have closed after the company started operations in the country seven years ago. It borrowed heavily for plans to open 880 stores but faced tough competition from local restaurants expanding delivery services during the pandemic and sought protection from creditors after running out of cash and falling behind on its debt obligations. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
Advertisement
ECONOMY
UK spenders turn to cash
The pandemic brought a shift toward digital payments, but now it seems more and more consumers are turning back to cold hard cash to help budget during the cost-of-living crisis. Britain’s Post Office, which has 2,700 ATM locations across the country, said its branches handled a record £801 million ($969.45 million) in cash withdrawals in July. That’s up almost 8 percent compared with June and 20 percent from the same period last year. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
AUTOMOTIVE
Kia recalling cars over ceiling plates
Kia is recalling nearly 260,000 older midsize cars in the United States because plates in the ceiling can come loose if the side curtain airbags inflate in a crash. The recall covers certain 2012 and 2013 Optima sedans. The automaker says headliner plates on both sides of the cars may not be secured properly and could detach and hit drivers or passengers. Kia says it has one report of a driver being hurt in a 2012 Optima. Kia says in documents posted Tuesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that dealers will put industrial-grade tape over the plates to help secure them. Notification letters will be sent Sept. 26. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
ECONOMY
Productivity was down again in the second quarter
US productivity slumped for a second-straight quarter as the economy shrank, driving another surge in labor costs that risks keeping inflation elevated. Productivity, or nonfarm business employee output per hour, decreased at a 4.6 percent annual rate in the second quarter after falling at a 7.4 percent pace in the previous three months, Labor Department figures showed Tuesday. That marked the weakest back-to-back readings in data back to 1947. On a year-over-year basis, output per hour fell by the most on record. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
Advertisement
SOCIAL MEDIA
Snapchat launches parental controls
Snapchat, the ephemeral messaging app, introduced its first parental controls Tuesday, as social media platforms face increasing scrutiny for exposing young users to potentially harmful content. Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, said in a blog post that its new tools would let parents see whom their teenagers were friends with on the app and whom they had communicated with in the previous seven days. Parents will also be able to report accounts that their children are friends with if they violate Snapchat’s policies. Parents will not be able to see their children’s conversations on the app. To gain access to the controls, people have to create Snapchat accounts and be friends with their children, who have to agree to the controls. — NEW YORK TIMES
AUTOMOTIVE
China projected to sell 6 million electric cars this year
Electric vehicle sales in China are forecast to hit a record 6 million this year as demand for cleaner cars surges. The China Passenger Car Association raised its estimate from 5.5 million, after releasing data showing deliveries of new-energy vehicles more than doubled in July to around 486,000 units — accounting for 26.7 percent of the new auto market. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
Advertisement
E-COMMERCE
Alibaba lays off nearly 10,000 workers
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba let go of 9,241 employees in the three months leading up to June, according to the company’s latest filing. The Hangzhou-based firm reported it had just over 245,000 employees at the end of the most recent reporting quarter, cutting back during a period that marked its first-ever contraction in revenue. — BLOOMBERG NEWS