Matsushita to foot 10-20 bln yen bill, squarely

You Say Toyota, I Say Toyoda
Reuters - USA
The company builds about half of its vehicles in Japan, "which works against it with the dollar squarely below 100 yen," he says. ...

In what the Los Angeles Times calls "a significant departure from the George W. Bush years," Obama barely mentioned foreign policy and focused squarely on the economy and other domestic priorities.

200708

日經

松下、電池回収に100億―200億円の費用

　松下電器産業は24日、発火発熱のおそれがあるノキア製携帯電話用のリチウムイオン電池の回収・交換に100億―200億円の費用がかかると発表した。 2007年9月中間期決算に費用計上する。これによる業績予想の修正はないとしている。一方、ノキアの日本法人であるノキア・ジャパン（東京・目黒）のタ イラー・マクギー社長は同日の記者会見で「9月中旬までに（日本での）回収作業を完了させる」との考えを示した。

　問題のリチウムイオン電池は子会社の松下電池工業製で、対象個数は4600万個。05年12月から06年11月にかけて全数がノキア向けに製造、納入さ れた。昨年12月以降、充電中に電池内部がショートし過熱、膨張する事故が全世界で約100件報告されたため、ノキアが14日に回収を発表した。

　費用の内訳は輸送費、交換電池代、コールセンター設置費用など。回収個数がどの程度まで増えるかなどは明らかにしていない。(22:43)

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Matsushita Electric Industrial Co will shoulder the cost of replacing defective batteries used in mobile phones made by Nokia estimated at between 10 billion and 20 billion yen, the Japanese electronics giant said Friday.

shoulder (ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY) Hide phonetics
verb
shoulder the blame/burden/responsibility/cost, etc. to accept that you are responsible for something bad or difficult:
It is women who mainly shoulder responsibility for the care of elderly and disabled relatives.
Teachers cannot be expected to shoulder all the blame for poor exam results.

shoulders Hide phonetics
plural noun
sb's shoulders used to refer to the responsibility that someone has or feels for something:
A huge burden was lifted from my shoulders (= I became much less worried and anxious) when I told my parents about my problem.
Responsibility for the dispute rests squarely on the shoulders of the president.

Earlier this month, the Finnish mobile phone maker recalled 46 million units of the BL-5C battery made by Matsushita after receiving reports of over-heating.

Matsushita will book the cost in its first-half to September financial statement.

However, despite the added cost, the company said it will keep its existing earnings projections for the first-half and the year to March 2008.

On July 24, Matsushita said it expects to post first-half operating profit of 181.0 billion yen and net profit of 82.0 billion. Revenue was put at 4.332 trillion yen.

For the full year, it forecasts operating profit of 477.0 billion yen and net profit of 246.0 billion on revenue of 8.78 trillion yen.

(1 US dollar = 115.95 yen)

yumiko.nishitani@thomson.com

AFX News Limited
Japan's Matsushita to foot 10-20 bln yen bill to replace Nokia phone batteries
08.24.07, 5:52 AM ET

foot (PAY) Hide phonetics
verb [T] INFORMAL
to pay an amount of money:
His parents footed the bill for his course fees.
They refused to foot the cost of the wedding.
The company will foot her expenses.

(from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

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squarely Hide phonetics
adverb (ALSO square)
directly and with certainty:
She refused to come down squarely on either side of the argument.
She punched him square on the jaw.

adv.

1. Mathematics. At right angles: sawed the beam squarely.
2. In a square shape.
3. So as to make solid contact; firmly: struck the golf ball squarely, sending it to the green.
4. Directly; straight: walked squarely toward the shoplifter and arrested him.
5. In an honest, straightforward manner: spoke squarely on the topic of drug abuse.

日本語 (Japanese)
adv. - 四角に, 直角に, 真正面に, 真っ向から, 公正に, 正直に, きっぱりと