Business News Roundup Oct. 3

Photo: Joey Ivansco, Associated Press

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Caption

Former Equifax CEO Richard Smith is set to testify at a hearing.

Photo: Joey Ivansco, Associated Press

Ex-Equifax

CEO apologizes

The former chief executive of Equifax Inc. plans to apologize for the credit reporting company’s massive data breach when he testifies Tuesday before a congressional committee, as well as detail the missteps in response to the hack that exposed the Social Security numbers and birthdates of as many as 143 million people.

“Equifax was entrusted with Americans’ private data and we let them down,” Richard Smith said in written testimony for the hearing that the House Energy and Commerce Committee released Monday. “To each and every person affected by this breach, I am deeply sorry that this occurred.”

Smith stepped down last week in the wake of the breach, which has sparked numerous federal and state investigations as well as outrage from lawmakers. His appearance Tuesday before the House panel will be the first of three before congressional committees this week.

Smith, who resigned after overseeing the company for a dozen years, said Equifax was hacked by a yet-unknown entity.

An additional 2.5 million consumers may have been affected by the massive data breach at Equifax, the company said Monday, bringing the new total of potentially affected consumers to a staggering 145.5 million.

Lawmakers are expected to question Smith on how the company allowed the breach to occur, why it took as long as it did to notify consumers and what’s it’s doing to help consumers protect themselves. The House subcommittee holding the hearing has jurisdiction over e-commerce and consumer protection issues.

Automakers

Tesla sales rise in 3rd quarter

Tesla Inc.’s vehicle deliveries rose in the third quarter as orders for its more expensive models perked up following Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk’s introduction of the cheaper Model 3 sedan.

The Palo Alto automaker shipped 26,150 cars and SUVs in the period, including a record number of Model S sedans and Model X sport utility vehicles. Tesla said it expects to exceed by several thousand units its forecast in July for a faster pace of deliveries in the second half of the year from the 47,100 shipped in the first six months of the year.

Production totaled 25,336 vehicles in the three months ended in September. The third quarter was the first to include early output of the car that starts at $35,000 before any incentives or options.

GM to roll out

2 new EVs

GM is promising two new EVs on Chevrolet Bolt underpinnings in the next 18 months and more than 20 electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2023. The company sees its entire model lineup running on electricity in the future, whether the source is a big battery or a tank full of hydrogen.

The news conference at the GM technical center north of Detroit was billed as a “sneak peek” into GM’s electric future. The company also pledged to start producing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for commercial or military use in 2020. And it promised an increase in the number of electric fast-charging stations in the U.S., which now total 1,100 from companies and governments, taking a shot at electric competitor Tesla Inc. by saying the system would not be “walled off” from electric vehicles made by other manufacturers.

Cloud computing

Oracle goes after Amazon

Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison said new features in its database service will help the software company go after Amazon.com Inc. in its expanding cloud-computing business.

During his big annual keynote in San Francisco on Sunday, the executive chairman said the new database has been overhauled with artificial intelligence, improving on speed, efficiency and pricing to help it outperform Amazon.

The Redwood City company is locked in an increasingly aggressive battle with Amazon over cloud products, an area the e-commerce company helped pioneer. Customers around the world are adopting the new type of service that lets them easily access computing power and software without having to build and install the technology on their own sites.

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