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AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -The Netherlands' decision to take control of chipmaker Nexperia in September was due to fears the company's former CEO was already dismantling the company's European operations and moving production to China, four sources in The Hague familiar with the government's thinking said on Monday. A monthlong standoff between China and the Netherlands over Nexperia has prompted carmakers in Europe, the U.S. and Japan to warn of possible production problems due to chip shortages. Although the chips Nexperia makes are very basic, they are used in large numbers in the electronic systems of cars. The sources in The Hague said Nexperia former CEO Zhang Xuezheng, who is also the founder of Nexperia's Chinese parent company Wingtech, had planned to lay off 40% of staff in Europe and close a research and development facility in Munich. Before Zhang was suspended from the CEO role by a Dutch court on October 1, he had already transferred secrets from the company's plant in Manchester, Britain, to a Wingtech-owned plant in China, including chip designs and machine settings, they said. Physical equipment from the company's Hamburg production plant was slated to be taken next, they added. Zhang could not immediately be reached for comment. The Dutch government seized control of Nexperia on September 30, citing lapses in governance. On October 4, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce blocked exports of the company's products out of China. While most of Nexperia's chips are produced in Europe, around 70% are packaged in China before distribution.  The company's Chinese arm has taken steps toward independence and has resumed selling products to domestic Chinese customers. The sources said the Dutch government believes it can negotiate a resolution with China that will restore the company to a unified Dutch-Chinese structure. (Reporting by Toby Sterling, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

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(Reuters) -NXP Semiconductors NV forecast fourth-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates on Monday, as it recovers from sluggish demand and sees a rebound in the automotive segment. Shares of the Eindhoven, Netherlands-based company rose 2% in U.S. extended trading, having gained 6.6% so far this year. The chipmaker is benefiting from momentum across automotive end markets due to demand for its scalable processing solutions. Analysts say that the auto end market is improving following tariff-related pull-ins, benefiting companies like NXP. NXP provides manufacturers with chips and other technology essential for high-speed digital processing utilized in sectors like automotive, manufacturing, telecommunications and the Internet of Things (IoT). The company has made a string of acquisitions recently, having closed a $243 million cash deal for Aviva Links, an automotive networking company, last week. It completed its TTTech Auto purchase in June, looking to strengthen the automotive business. NXP has also received regulatory approvals for its acquisition of Kinara, which makes high performance, energy-efficient and programmable discrete neural processing units, and is working to close the transaction. The Dutch firm expects fourth-quarter revenue in the range of $3.20 billion to 3.40 billion, with the midpoint coming in above analysts' average estimate of $3.24 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. "Our outlook reflects the strength of our company specific growth drivers and signs of a cyclical recovery," incoming CEO Rafael Sotomayor said in a statement. For the third quarter ended September 28, NXP posted revenue of $3.17 billion, ahead of an estimate of $3.16 billion. Revenue from the automotive segment – NXP's biggest – grew 6% sequentially in the quarter. Mobile revenue was up 30%. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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(Reuters) -Australia's corporate regulator and the federal police have visited WiseTech Global's office, executing a search warrant for documents related to alleged trading in shares, the firm said on Tuesday.  The company said the allegations are against founder Richard White and three employees for trading from late 2024 to early 2025.  WiseTech said it is unaware of any charges against the individuals or allegations against the company itself.  The founder and previous chief executive White has been embroiled in controversy since October 2024, when he stepped down from the role after multiple media reports of  allegations about his personal life including payments to a past sexual partner. In February, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission had initiated "preliminary inquiries" into the logistics software maker following a mass exodus of executives and surprise return of White as the chairman.  The ASIC and the federal police did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.  (Reporting by Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Alan Barona)

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(Reuters) -Australia's corporate regulator and the federal police have visited WiseTech Global's office, executing a search warrant for documents related to alleged trading in shares, the firm said on Tuesday.  The company said the allegations are against founder Richard White and three employees for trading from late 2024 to early 2025.  WiseTech said it is unaware of any charges against the individuals or allegations against the company itself.   (Reporting by Sneha Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Alan Barona)

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(Reuters) -Cybersecurity firm F5 forecast annual revenue below Wall Street estimates on Monday, warning that a recent systems breach that triggered alarm over potential risks to U.S. and UK government systems would hurt demand for its services. Shares of the company, which serves most of the Fortune 500 firms in some capacity, were down 5.8% in after-hours trading. F5 disclosed earlier this month that hackers had "long-term, persistent access" to certain company systems, including the source code for one of its key cybersecurity services. Reuters later reported that two people briefed on the investigation attributed the breach to state-backed hackers from China. U.S. officials have said federal networks were among those targeted in the hack's aftermath and have urged immediate action. "F5 anticipates some near-term disruption to sales cycles as customers focus on assessing and remediating their environments following the recent security incident," it said on Monday. The company has not seen any impact to demand yet, executives said on a post-earnings call. The incident primarily affected BIG-IP customers in two ways. Some had to rapidly upgrade to latest releases following the disclosure of the incident, CEO Francois Locoh-Donou said on the call. The other was a small subset of customers that faced limited data exfiltration and were notified with details. Initial feedback indicated the data was not sensitive, Locoh-Donou said. F5 forecast full-year revenue growth of 0% to 4%, with any demand impacts expected to be more pronounced in the first half, before normalizing in the second half of fiscal year 2026. That was below the average analyst estimate of a 4.8% increase, according to data compiled by LSEG. It forecast first-quarter revenue between $730 million and $780 million, including potential disruption from the U.S. government shutdown. That was also below the estimate of $791 million. (Reporting by Nithyashree R B in Bengaluru and Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Maju Samuel and Shilpi Majumdar)

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By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) -A federal judge on Monday decertified a class action by tens of millions of Apple customers who accused the company of monopolizing the market for iPhone apps by banning purchases outside its App Store, leading to higher prices. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, reversed her February 2024 decision allowing Apple account holders who spent $10 or more on app or in-app content to sue as a group. Rogers said the plaintiffs failed to provide a model "capable of reliably showing classwide injury and damages in one stroke" by matching Apple accounts to consumers, while limiting the number of "unharmed" consumers in the class. She ruled after an expert hired by Apple found "alarming" errors in the plaintiffs' model. These included that named plaintiff Robert Pepper and supposed claimant "Rob Pepper" were different people despite sharing home addresses and credit card information. They also included the lumping together of more than 40,000 payment records for people whose first name was "Kim," but who otherwise had nothing in common. Mark Rifkin, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in an email said "we are of course disappointed" with the decision, and reviewing the next steps to protect consumers "harmed by Apple's unlawful App Store monopoly." Cupertino, California-based Apple and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Class actions can result in greater recoveries at less cost than if plaintiffs sue individually. The plaintiffs said Apple's monopoly included charging excessive commissions to app developers, which would be passed on to consumers through higher prices to download apps or make in-app purchases. Lawyers for the plaintiffs had estimated that classwide damages could total billions of dollars. The lawsuit began in December 2011, and the class had covered users of iOS-powered devices since July 10, 2008. The case is In re Apple iPhone Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 11-06714. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Nia Williams and Bill Berkrot)

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By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) -A federal judge on Monday decertified a class action by tens of millions of Apple customers who accused the company of monopolizing the market for iPhone apps by banning purchases outside its App Store, leading to higher prices. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, reversed her February 2024 decision allowing Apple account holders who spent $10 or more on app or in-app content to sue as a group. Rogers said the plaintiffs failed to provide a model "capable of reliably showing classwide injury and damages in one stroke" by matching Apple accounts to consumers, while limiting the number of "unharmed" consumers in the class. She ruled after an expert hired by Apple found "alarming" errors in the plaintiffs' model. These included that named plaintiff Robert Pepper and supposed claimant "Rob Pepper" were different people despite sharing home addresses and credit card information. They also included the lumping together of more than 40,000 payment records for people whose first name was "Kim," but who otherwise had nothing in common. Mark Rifkin, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, in an email said "we are of course disappointed" with the decision, and reviewing the next steps to protect consumers "harmed by Apple's unlawful App Store monopoly." Cupertino, California-based Apple and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Class actions can result in greater recoveries at less cost than if plaintiffs sue individually. The plaintiffs said Apple's monopoly included charging excessive commissions to app developers, which would be passed on to consumers through higher prices to download apps or make in-app purchases. Lawyers for the plaintiffs had estimated that classwide damages could total billions of dollars. The lawsuit began in December 2011, and the class had covered users of iOS-powered devices since July 10, 2008. The case is In re Apple iPhone Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 11-06714. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Nia Williams and Bill Berkrot)

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By Greg Bensinger SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Amazon is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs beginning on Tuesday, as the company pares expenses and compensates for overhiring during the peak demand of the pandemic, according to three people familiar with the matter. The figure represents a small percentage of Amazon's 1.55 million total employees, but nearly 10% of its roughly 350,000 corporate employees. This would mark Amazon's largest job cut since late 2022, when it started to eliminate around 27,000 positions. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment. Amazon has been trimming smaller numbers of jobs over the past two years across multiple divisions, including devices, communications and podcasting. The cuts beginning this week may affect a variety of divisions, including human resources, known as People Experience and Technology or PXT; operations, devices and services; and Amazon Web Services, the people said. Managers of impacted teams were asked to undergo training on Monday for how to communicate with staff following email notifications that will start going out on Tuesday morning, the people said. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is undertaking an initiative to reduce what he has described as an excess of bureaucracy, including by reducing the number of managers. He installed an anonymous complaint line for identifying inefficiencies that has elicited some 1,500 responses and over 450 process changes, he said earlier this year. Jassy said in June that the increased use of artificial intelligence tools would likely lead to further job cuts, particularly through automating repetitive and routine tasks. "This latest move signals that Amazon is likely realizing enough AI-driven productivity gains within corporate teams to support a substantial reduction in force," said Sky Canaves, an eMarketer analyst. "Amazon has also been under pressure in the short-term to offset the long-term investments in building out its AI infrastructure." The full scope of this round of job cuts was not immediately clear. The people familiar with the matter said the number could change over time as Amazon's financial priorities shift. Fortune earlier reported that the human resources division could be targeted with a cut of roughly 15%. A program begun early this year to bring employees back in the office five days per week, among tech's most stringent, has failed to generate sufficient attrition, said two of the people, citing that as another reason for the size of the layoff. Some of the employees who are not swiping in daily because they live far from corporate offices, or for other reasons, are being told they have voluntarily quit Amazon and must leave without severance, a savings for the company. Layoffs.fyi, a website tracking tech job cuts, estimated that about 98,000 jobs have been lost so far this year among 216 companies. For all of 2024, the figure was 153,000. Amazon's largest profit center, cloud computing unit AWS, reported second-quarter sales of $30.9 billion, a 17.5% increase that was well below gains of 39% for Microsoft's Azure and of 32% for Alphabet's Google Cloud.  Estimates indicate that AWS will have boosted third-quarter sales by about 18% to $32 billion, a slight slowdown from last year's 19% increase. AWS is still reeling from a roughly 15-hour internet outage last week that felled many of the most popular online services, like Snapchat and Venmo. Amazon appears to be expecting another big holiday selling season. It plans to offer 250,000 seasonal jobs to help staff warehouses, among other needs, the same as in the prior two years. Amazon on Friday also announced a reorganization of a segment of its PXT unit focused on diversity initiatives, a memo reviewed by Reuters showed. The changes largely involved promoting people to new roles. Amazon shares rose 1.2% to $226.97 on Monday. The company plans to report third-quarter earnings on Thursday.  (Reporting by Greg Bensinger in San Francisco; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Matthew Lewis and Richard Chang)

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(Reuters) -Educational technology company Chegg said on Monday it would cut 388 roles globally, or about 45% of the workforce, to reduce costs and streamline operations as it works to adapt to the growing shift toward AI-powered tools. The company, which offers textbook rentals, homework help and tutoring, said the "new realities of AI and reduced traffic from Google to content publishers have led to a significant decline in Chegg's traffic and revenue". Chegg also said Dan Rosensweig would return as CEO effective immediately, replacing Nathan Schultz, who has stepped down and would serve as an executive adviser. Rosensweig had previously led the company from February 2010 to June 2024. The Santa Clara, California-based company expects to incur charges of roughly $15 million to $19 million related to the restructuring by the first quarter 2026, and $12 million to $16 million by the fourth quarter of 2026. It had 1,271 employees as of December 31, 2024, according to its latest annual report. Chegg, which sued Google over its AI summaries hurting traffic, had initiated a strategic review and was exploring a sale or take-private transaction. The company said on Monday it had concluded the review and would continue to operate as a standalone company. Its shares have fallen more than 10% so far this year, after slumping 85.6% in 2024. (Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

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(Reuters) -Cadence Design Systems forecast fourth-quarter profit just shy of market estimates on Monday, as Sino-U.S. trade tensions threaten to hurt demand for its chip design software from key market China. Uncertainty around China-U.S. trade relations has cast doubt over Cadences' business in one of the largest markets for semiconductors, overshadowing the benefits of artificial intelligence-linked demand from American tech firms. Cadence forecast adjusted profit of between $1.88 per share and $1.94 per share for the fourth quarter. The midpoint of this range of $1.91 per share came in below analysts' estimates of $1.92 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG. That sent its shares down nearly 2% in extended trading. While the U.S. lifted brief export curbs on chip design software to China in July, tensions between the two biggest economies in the world have persisted with Beijing prompting domestic businesses to reduce reliance on American tech. Still, global firms elsewhere that either design or manufacture AI chips, such as Nvidia and TSMC, rely heavily on software from Cadence, boosting overall sales. The company expects fourth-quarter revenue of between $1.41 billion and $1.44 billion, compared with analysts' average estimate of $1.41 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. It also raised its 2025 revenue forecast to a range of $5.26 billion to $5.29 billion, up from its earlier expectations of $5.21 billion to $5.27 billion. Cadence reported third-quarter revenue of $1.34 billion, beating estimates of $1.32 billion. (Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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