A round up of some of the week’s most significant corporate events and news stories. Samsung kills off Note 7 as effort to fix fault backfires A burned Galaxy Note 7 smartphone which caught fire Samsung Electronics took the unprecedented decision to kill off its Galaxy Note 7 line after a plan to replace the safety issues that had caused the phablets to overheat and in some cases catch fire backfired spectacularly, writes Nic Fildes in London. The Big Read Far from securing the South Korean group’s place in the market, the exploding Galaxy Note 7, threatens it The South Korean company halted some parts of the production process at the start of the week but moved to retire the handset only a day later after deciding that the potential reputational damage of the safety incidents could lead to a contagion of its other product lines. That sent Samsung shares into a tailspin as the stock dropped 8 per cent, its biggest fall since 2008, as investors fretted over the financial impact of the withdrawal of the once-popular handset. Analysts estimated that the cost of the recall could be $2.3bn while Samsung would lose out on sales of up to $17bn. That was followed by confirmation that Samsung expects its operating profit to decline Won3.5tn ($3bn) over the next six months, taking the total cost of the safety debacle to more than $5bn. The Top Line History of recalls shows how response time usually equates to the share price hit, says Matthew Vincent. It has also come under pressure to reveal exactly what went wrong with the Note 7 given it replaced the original defective devices with new phones that also caught fire. The initial explanation that the battery was to blame has raised serious question marks over whether Samsung had failed to investigate the reasons for the malfunction and was too quick to blame an external supplier. The company also scrabbled to ensure that previously loyal Samsung Note fans did not defect to rival products by offering incentives. Yet few expect that it will be able to stem some of the market share losses that could threaten its position as the largest phonemaker in the world with Google and Huawei on the attack. “Domestic consumers may stick to Samsung phones but many overseas customers won’t,” said Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Securities. “Many Samsung customers will probably shift to Apple’s iPhone 7 while Chinese customers will probably opt for local phones.” ● Related John Gapper column: Samsung was too speedy for its own good● Lex note: first cut is the deepest Amazon to hire 20% more staff ahead of holiday season Amazon announced this week that it would boost its US seasonal hiring by 20 per cent in the coming months, as it anticipates a record-setting holiday shopping season — including for some of its own-brand gadgets, writes Leslie Hook in San Francisco. Amazon echo The Seattle-based retail and tech group has been heavily promoting its voice-enabled speaker device, the Echo. On Wednesday, it announced a new music streaming service that is similar to Spotify and Apple Music, but costs only $4 a month if accessed through an Echo device. Corporate Person in the News Bank’s new chief executive wi ll ‘go anywhere, do anything’ Amazon has said little about its music ambitions, but analysts say the new streaming service throws down the gauntlet for Spotify, ahead of the Swedish music company’s planned IPO. Amazon’s streaming service is more expensive for people who do not own an Echo, however, costing $10 per month. Previously, Amazon Music offered individual songs and albums for sale, and a limited selection of free music for Prime members. Separately, Amazon’s tech arm announced a partnership this week with VMware. Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing service, made a deal that makes AWS more compatible with tradition corporate IT. It also emerged that Amazon is experimenting with bricks-and-mortar storefronts that will allow customers to shop online, then drive to pick up their goods. The first such store is nearing completion in the Seattle area, while permits have been filed for two more pick-up hubs in the Bay Area. Amazon will report its third-quarter results on October 27. BP abandons exploration in Australian marine park © EPA BP abandoned a controversial multibillion-dollar plan to drill for oil and gas in the deep waters of an Australian marine park, writes Jamie Smyth in Sydney. Citing low oil prices, the British energy company said the project in the Great Australian Bight marine park — a pristine stretch of ocean off the coast of South Australia — would not be able to compete for capital investment with other opportunities in its global portfolio. Related article After Deepwater Horizon spill, chief executive aims for growth without deals “We have looked long and hard at our exploration plans for the Great Australian Bight but, in the current external environment, we will only pursue frontier exploration opportunities if they are competitive and aligned to our strategic goals,” said Claire Fitzpatrick, BP’s managing director for exploration and production, Australia. The global oil and gas industry has slashed spending on deep water exploration because of lower oil prices and the challenges of making a profit from riskier and more complex projects. Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil last year ditched plans to drill in the Arctic. BP is still trying to recover from the “Deepwater Horizon” oil spill disaster — the 2010 blowout at a BP-operated well in the Gulf of Mexico that resulted in the deaths of 11 people and cost the company $62bn. The decision to quit the Great Australian Bight project was welcomed by environmentalists, who opposed drilling because of fears of a similarly damaging oil spill disaster. The Wilderness Society urged other oil and gas companies to follow BP’s lead and quit exploring in the Great Australian Bight. Bentley chosen to replace McGregor-Smith at Mitie Ruby McGregor-Smith Struggling UK outsourcer Mitie this week named Phil Bentley as its next

The power management company, Eaton, works in order to offer their clients solutions to energy challenges that are efficient while tackling electric, hydraulic and mechanical power uses. Eaton has stated that they have managed to adjust their practices in order to make sure that they work within the OPC Unified Architecture Standard. This standard has now been put in to the company’s processes and their control schemes. In order to implement the OPC Standards the company has had to adapt a number of their products in order to make sure that they can be IoT-ready and can then be put in to different environments and perform in an effective manner. Eaton focuses on making sure that their products are suited to smart factories, and the adaptations to the solutions implemented needed to occur in order to make sure that there is the possibility for a simple path of communication between the different machines in the factory. The factory managers also have to be integrated in to these communications as well as the machines that work with cloud operated services. Eaton has a range of different solutions that can help their client’s machines and machine builders ensure that their equipment is utilized for IoT ready. It is thought that company that are looking for a solution that mixes operation and control system solution for their more compact machines. Eaton offers an XV300 HMI/PLC solution that has an OPC UA server integrated in to it has been suggested as the perfect option for the smaller machines. Eaton has been making sure their clients are able to get access to power management solutions in a safe and sustainable manner. The power management company focuses of making sure that industries are actively trying to improve the environment by using technology that makes sure that businesses are being efficient with their power usage.

An Australian company is helping to find unexploded mines in places such as Germany, the UK and Laos using its ground-breaking technology.  Gap Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) is using its unique technology, originally created for the resources sector, to now find unexploded bombs left over from both World Wars and the Vietnam War that are hidden underground and underwater.  Gap EOD Director, Dr Stephen Billings said they have developed and refined the technology over the past seven years and are one of the only companies in the world capable of finding these dangerous remnants of war to the depths required to make the areas completely safe for industrial, commercial and residential use.  “Gap EOD is the only company in the world with the technology capable of deep underwater detection of sophisticated aluminium sea-mines,” said Dr Billings.  “We were called in recently to sweep Portsmouth Harbour in the UK because of concerns an unexploded German sea-mine from World War II might be encountered during dredging work, potentially sinking the dredging vessels and killing the workers”.  “We found a large unexploded German bomb, resulting in the Harbour’s immediate closure and controlled detonation of the weapon,” he said.  “Most people don’t realise it, but unexploded bombs are still there, buried under the ground or the sea.”  “They’re all over the world and pose a high risk of detonation, especially when the land is being re-used for commercial or residential developments.”  “Using our UltraTEM system, which uses sensors to detect buried metal, we can scan up to 3.5 metres in depth”.  “It’s a faster, deeper technique that completely re-defines traditional exploration and tracing methods”.  “Unexploded ordnance are one of the most challenging environmental issues of our time, with more than 83 countries around the world being in possession of contaminated ground.”   Since 2014, Gap EOD has been involved in sweeps in and around Berlin, Germany for WWII aircraft bombs prior to the commencement of residential and industrial works. This was after construction workers had been killed after accidentally detonating unexploded bombs in recent years.  A number of large US bombs with dangerous chemical-delayed fuses have been found.  The team has also been commissioned to sweep for projectiles along the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos, where a staggering 80 million cluster munitions are believed to remain in Laos alone as a legacy of the Vietnam War. Numerous unexploded US bombs have been uncovered.  “What makes us unique is that we’ve been able to blend our expertise in minerals exploration with a comprehensive understanding of the science behind detecting buried metal in challenging environments,” said Stephen.  “This means when clients come to us with their unique scenarios, we’re able to develop effective solutions that involve equipment customisation.”  “Thanks to our experience working in hot, humid and remote locations in Australia, we’ve developed very robust, reliable equipment that can withstand the rigors of operating under difficult conditions, or that can be packaged and deployed underwater for marine applications.”   “Our future plans are to start making our technologies available in areas that have suffered recent conflicts, such as the Middle East, Africa and the Indian sub-continent.”  About Dr Stephen Billings and Gap EOD  Dr Stephen Billings is Director of Gap Explosive Ordnance Detection (Gap EOD), part of the Gap GEO group. Gap EOD specialises in the detection of explosive ordnance and other near-surface targets that require high accuracy and high fidelity results. Gap EOD was established as a joint venture between Gap Geophysics and Bridgewater Geophysics in 2013.

First ‘real world’ test results for a new toolkit for housebuilders show that it can achieve major improvements in the energy efficiency of new homes. The new Building Energy Performance Improvement Toolkit (BEPIT) is being launched today (1 June 2017). It is the fruit of a major government-funded research project and is now being offered as a service to the housebuilding industry.  Modern housing should waste far less heat than older homes and save its occupants hundreds of pounds a year in energy costs. This is because of successive uplifts of the energy efficiency standards set out in Building Regulations.  But new homes routinely fail to achieve their design levels of energy performance, research has shown. During the construction process, the high levels of insulation and air tightness that underpin this performance become compromised.  The £1.3 million, four-year-long BEPIT research project set out to understand precisely how this happened. Funded by Government innovation agency Innovate UK, it used a major low-carbon housing project in Oxfordshire as its laboratory and test bed.  On-site researchers spent thousands of hours looking and learning about what happened during a real-life build to compromise energy performance, liaising with the developer, the main contractor and sub-contractors.  The study examined the issue from design through procurement of building materials and then through all of the construction stages to completion, building up a large database of photographs and technical details.  The key conclusion was that “the devil is in the detail”; a collection of minor problems scattered through the construction process built up into one big problem of poor energy performance.  The research was used to create a toolkit. It’s a process for working in detail with all of the key players involved in the housing project, to alert them to these problems at the right time and help to overcome them throughout the construction process.  Initial tests have now shown highly encouraging results, with a 40% improvement in average air tightness between the first and second phases of construction. The BEPIT approach was fully applied during construction of the second phase.  Further testing is now needed to demonstrate that using BEPIT also achieves an improvement in insulation-performance, with less heat leaking out through the building fabric. But the air-tightness results demonstrate that the toolkit can deliver significant improvement.  Bioregional, an organisation which partners with businesses to deliver major sustainability improvements, is now offering BEPIT as a service to the house building industry. Bioregional was the lead partner in the research project, with other partners including developer A2Dominion and Loughborough University’s School of Civil and Building Engineering.  The new service is launched at an expert seminar on the energy performance gap in new homes, organised by Bioregional and hosted by international engineering consultancy Cundall at its City of London headquarters on the evening of Thursday, 1 June.  Bioregional Chief Executive Sue Riddlestone said: “After four years of in-depth research, we can now offer the housebuilding industry a service that really works to tackle a serious and long-standing problem – the energy performance gap.”  “This is an issue which harms the industry’s reputation, contributes significantly to carbon emissions and costs occupants billions of pounds in lost energy savings. We want to use BEPIT to make a real difference.”  Julian Sutherland, Building Services Partner at Cundall Global said: “With the UK finally about to start tackling its chronic housing shortage, it’s vital that we address energy performance issues before we start on a project of such huge strategic significance. The fact that many newly built homes exhibit a 50% gap in predicted and measured performance shows how urgently we need the BEPIT toolkit.  “It is great to see a new service emerge that tackles the thorny issue of construction stage knowledge and skills, leading to better and more reliable building performance. The BEPIT recommendations will lead to major improvements in the performance of new builds, leading to lower energy bills for owners, smaller impact on the environment and will also protect the reputation of the construction industry by providing a clear and measurable set of best practices for success.”  BEPIT research project partners alongside Bioregional were PRP Architects, Silver Development and Construction Consultancy, Wilmott Dixon Energy Services and A2Dominion.