Yellowbrick, an online learning platform for student content creators, landed an undisclosed investment from the Sony Innovation Fund’s Innovation Growth Ventures, which Sony and Daiwa Capital Holdings formed two years ago to infuse cash into “mid to late-stage” tech startups in Japan, the U.S., Europe, Israel and India, said the platform Tuesday. Yellowbrick also said it acquired Animation Mentor, an online animation education platform created in 2005 by animators from Disney, Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic that enlists industry professionals to train student creators. Transaction terms weren’t released. Yellowbrick partners with Fashion Institute of Technology, the Parsons School of Design, New York University and other New York-area colleges to fill the growing demand for “educational opportunities” in content creation, it said.

LG Electronics launched an “innovation center” in Santa Clara, California, called LG Nova, to help speed startups and entrepreneurs toward “new business creation,” said the company Tuesday. The initiative will focus on scaling ideas that improve accessibility, mobility and connectivity for home, work and school, it said.

Lenovo’s PC-centric Intelligent Devices Group reported 28% revenue growth for fiscal Q1 ended June 30 to $14.7 billion, and profit of $1.1 billion that was up 43% year over year. “The pandemic has changed how people live and work, with PCs returning to the center of digital lives,” said Lenovo Wednesday. “The PC refreshment cycle has shortened, the penetration rate has increased and the total PC demand until 2025 will at least remain at current levels.” Average selling prices and profitability in PCs continue to trend higher, due to ongoing consumer demand in “premium and high growth PC segments,” including gaming and thin and light notebooks, it said. The stock closed 10.5% higher Wednesday at $21.14.

Sonos announced its first sports partnership Tuesday with the U.K.’s Liverpool Football Club to “heighten the sonic experience” at the soccer team’s Anfield stadium. As part of the multiyear agreement, Sonos will create “immersive sound experiences” with its home theater products in the stadium’s lounges and player areas, plus the club’s training center, said the company.

Responding to a surge of online shopping, Canon updated its consumer education website, expanding information on commonly counterfeited Canon products and informing consumers about battery recognition technology built into some of its cameras and camcorders, it said Monday. The website urges customers to buy directly from Canon or its authorized dealers and gives a phone number for reporting fraudulent products. It includes updated tips on how to spot counterfeits bearing the Canon logo, plus information on differences between gray market and counterfeit goods. It also informs about service and support companies passing themselves off as authorized Canon repair facilities. Canon didn't respond to questions on projected lost revenue from counterfeiting, citing company policy not to comment on financials.

Best Buy committed up to $10 million to Brown Venture Group for investing in entrepreneurs of color, said the venture capital firm Thursday. Best Buy and Brown, both Minneapolis-based, also agreed to work together to create “a stronger community of diverse suppliers,” and launch a “partnership program” at Best Buy Teen Tech Centers to help develop young entrepreneurs “through education, mentoring networking and funding access,” it said. Best Buy is “committed to taking meaningful action to address the challenges faced” by entrepreneurs of color, said CEO Corie Barry.

Amid the prolonged labor shortage, Target is the newest retailer to pump up employee perks with free education benefits. A week after Walmart announced a $1 billion employee college tuition program (see 2107270053), Target said Wednesday it will offer its 340,000 U.S.-based part-time and full-time employees debt-free education assistance, investing more than $200 million over four years. Beginning in fall, employees will be eligible for debt-free undergraduate degrees, certificates, free textbooks and other supplies with no out-of-pocket costs. The program is available on employees’ first day of work. The retailer will provide direct payments to employees’ academic institutions of up to $5,250 for non-master's degrees and up to $10,000 annually for master’s programs, it said. Target’s program, developed with education and upskilling platform Guild Education, will support employees taking courses for high school completion, college preparation, English language learning and select certificates, certifications, boot camps, and associate and undergraduate degrees. Associates can attend classes at more than 40 schools, colleges and universities and choose from 250 business-aligned programs including business management, operations, information technology, computer science and design. Those who opt in will have no out-of-pocket costs and “flexibility to find opportunities that fit with their interests, schedules and career goals.” Academic institutions include the University of Arizona, Oregon State University, University of Denver and eCornell, plus historically Black colleges and universities Morehouse College, Paul Quinn College and others, Target said.

S&P Global Ratings raised T-Mobile’s issuer credit and senior unsecured debt scores to BB+ from BB but said ratings could be hurt if the carrier makes “material” investments in the upcoming 3.45 GHz auction. S&P cited T-Mobile updates last week as it reported Q2 (see 2107290071), including higher than expected synergies from buying Sprint. “Notwithstanding the challenges of a massive integration,” T-Mobile’s “operating and financial performance remains strong,” said Tuesday night's note to investors.

Sony sold 2.2 million TVs globally in fiscal Q1 ended June 30, up 47% from the year-earlier quarter and a 10% increase sequentially from fiscal Q4, reported the company Wednesday. Sony sold 2.3 million PlayStation 5 consoles in Q1, 30% fewer than in Q4 and down 49% from peak shipments of 4.5 million in Q3 when the PS5 was introduced. There’s no change to Sony’s target of selling more than 14.8 million PS5s in the year ending March 31, the same number of PS4s sold in the first full fiscal year after its launch, Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki told analysts and reporters in Tokyo. “In the TV business, the market for high-value-added, large-screen products, which is our focus, remains strong, but we are beginning to see a decline in the stay-at-home demand that has continued since last fiscal year in the market for low-priced, small- and medium-sized products.” Though TV panel supplies are tight, said Totoki, “we have maintained price and shifted our focus to higher-value-added models, resulting in our average selling price rising a significant 38% year on year.” The increased mix of higher-priced, higher-margin TVs helped drive an operating income improvement of 80.6 billion yen ($736.4 million) in Sony's core Electronics Products & Solutions segment, said Totoki. COVID-19's recent resurgence in Southeast Asia “has caused governments to place restrictions on personal and corporate activity,” said the CFO. “We have had to reduce our operations at our factories in Malaysia from the end of May. There is a risk that parts of our component supply chain could also be negatively impacted.” Sony has secured the inventory of chips necessary to meet its PS5 sales target for the fiscal year, said Totoki. In consumer electronics, “we do use a lot of semiconductors in various areas, so some availability of parts and components is a source of concern,” he said. “But we do have access to second sources, and for parts and components, we have some strategic inventory as well.” For the short term, “we have been able to control the situation, but going forward, we cannot remain complacent,” he said. The scarcest commodity during the global chip shortage is “access to good information,” he said.

Vizio’s board on July 29 raised the base salary of Chairman-CEO William Wang to $900,000 retroactively to Q1 and to $975,000 for the rest of 2021, said an 8-K filed Monday at the SEC. It also boosted the base pay of President-Chief Operating Officer Ben Wong to $900,000 for Q1 and to $925,000 for the rest of 2021. Vizio also hiked quarterly and yearly bonus targets for both executives. Wang and Wong each drew $425,000 base salaries in 2020 and 2019, said a March 16 registration statement filed days before Vizio went public. Vizio upgraded the appearance and functionality of its WatchFree+ free video streaming offering, adding an “intuitive” new program guide and expanded content “custom-curated” using “first-party viewership data” collected through its proprietary Inscape audience-measurement service, said a separate announcement Monday. The program guide supports voice navigation for new SmartCast TVs that come with the latest Vizio voice remote, introduced in June (see 2106020050), it said. Vizio reports Q2 results Wednesday after the markets close.