Plus, Tesla’s EU sales tumble for the second consecutive month. And, shares of the parent company of Truth Social jump on ETF plans. Victoria Craig hosts.
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[00:00:01] Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Tuesday, March 25. I'm Victoria Craig for The Wall Street Journal. The sudden death of one of Samsung Electronics' co-CEOs has ignited a wave of uncertainty at the company. In a filing today, Samsung expressed condolences and said it appointed its other CEO, Junyong-huen, to serve solo in the joint leadership role.
[00:00:24] It's unclear whether Samsung will later appoint a successor for 63-year-old Jong-hee Han, who died from cardiac arrest today. The co-CEO system had been deployed at the electronics giant to better oversee its wide array of consumer products, which ranges from smartphones to home appliances. It also supplies components to other tech companies that sell products to compete with Samsung.
[00:00:47] Leaders have said today's news is another jolt for the South Korean firm, which has stumbled in the AI race and is facing U.S. tariff barriers. Elsewhere in the European Union, Tesla is stuck at a red light. For the second month in a row, sales of Elon Musk's vehicles have fallen despite an overall increase in demand there for electric cars. Tesla has been reworking its production lines in Berlin to accommodate a new Model Y SUV.
[00:01:13] That switchover might have limited supplies or made customers wait. Still, new Tesla registrations dropped by nearly half last month in the EU. That follows a steep drop in January, which first triggered a sell-off in Tesla's stock. Shares have continued their decline. They're off about 24 percent so far this year. Finally, shares of Trump Media and Technology rose more than 8 percent today.
[00:01:37] They were boosted by news that the parent company of President Trump's Truth Social platform will work with cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com to launch exchange-traded funds. The president is the majority owner of Trump Media, which trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol DJT. In January, the company said it was pushing into financial services. Yesterday, it said the ETFs will include securities with a Made in America focus.
[00:02:03] For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Wednesday's Tech News Briefing podcast.