The Conference Board’s CEO confidence index had a 1-point uptick in Q3 to 45 points from the second quarter, it reported Thursday. A reading below 50 reflects more negative than positive responses. The board compiled the index in collaboration with The Business Council. About 38% of the CEOs canvassed expect to trim their workforces in the next 12 months, the survey found. With “uncertain economic conditions likely to persist,” more than a third also don't foresee raising pay in the next year, but 37% expressed little worry in attracting qualified talent, said the board: “Without substantial containment of COVID-19, widespread uncertainty will continue being the dominant cloud hanging over America’s CEO community.” CEOs remained pessimistic about current economic conditions, “though to a lesser extent than in the second quarter,” said the board. Nearly 90% said conditions were worse compared with six months earlier, down from 100% who said so in Q2. Only 8% said economic conditions were better. About three-quarters said conditions in their own industries were worse compared with six months earlier, down from 82% last quarter. About 17% said conditions were better in their own industries, up from 10% in Q2.
CTA’s Tech Tracker survey found 17% of U.S. homes canvassed Aug. 7-9 bought laptops that week, “as many families prepare to go back to school remotely,” said the association Thursday. That’s the highest percentage of laptop purchases recorded since CTA launched the biweekly tech-use survey at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, it said. “For many, going back to school in person isn’t an option,” said CTA Director-Research Lesley Rohrbaugh. The “collaboration” that technology enables “will be crucial for remote learning and social connection,” she said. High demand for telework and remote-learning connectivity tools sent Q2 laptop and tablet imports soaring by triple digits from Q1 (see 2008090002).
Nearly two dozen iPhone and iPad models infringe five standard-essential patents for the enhanced voice services (EVS) codec for voice over LTE, alleged codec inventor VoiceAge in a complaint (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Apple is guilty of direct infringement because all its listed devices “include hardware and software that implements the EVS codec” without a license, said VoiceAge Wednesday. Apple also is inducing third parties to directly infringe the patents, it said. In nearly five months of phone and email “interactions,” Apple “never expressed a willingness to take a license” on EVS on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms, said VoiceAge. “Instead, Apple was nonresponsive, repeatedly delayed discussions, and refused to have good faith discussions” under a nondisclosure agreement, “contrary to the letter and spirit of FRAND,” it said. VoiceAge “was left with no other choice but to initiate this lawsuit,” it said. Apple didn’t comment.
Commissioner Rhonda Schmidtlein recused herself and her staff from participating in the International Trade Commission’s Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Nokia’s complaint that Lenovo computers, tablets and components infringe four H.264 video compression patents and one on user interfaces, said a notice (login required) posted Tuesday in docket 337-TA-1208. Administrative Law Judge Dee Lord set a Dec. 10, 2021, target date for completing the investigation, said her order (login required) Tuesday. Schmidtlein also disqualified herself from the Section 337 probe into Sonos allegations that Google devices infringe five multiroom audio patents (see 2003050020). In both recusals, she gave no reason for disqualifying herself. The agency didn’t comment.
“Sell-in” demand in the computing segment at Alpha & Omega Semiconductor (AOS) was “OK” for fiscal Q4 ended June 30, said Executive Vice President Stephen Chang on a Tuesday investor call. But the increased PC sell-through was “quite dramatic,” due to widespread COVID-19 work-from-home and remote-learning, he said. AOS supplies power semiconductors for laptops, LCD TVs, smartphones and other applications and can be a bellwether of consumer tech demand. Many AOS customers that paused production in calendar Q1 through the pandemic’s factory lockdowns “were catching up in the June quarter,” said Chang. “End demand” in computing remained strong through the quarter, “and we were able to meet it with ramping supply” from the fab in Chongqing, China, he said. Revenue in the consumer segment increased 37.5% sequentially and 31.7% year over year, said Chang. “COVID-driven home-sheltering boosted sales of gaming, TVs and home appliances, enabling those segments to achieve healthy growth,” he said. AOS expects double-digit growth in its consumer segment for the September quarter, “driven by home entertainment, gaming and TVs,” said Chang. COVID-19 robbed 2020 of much of its “normal seasonality,” said Chang. Work-from-home and remote-learning mandates are putting the computing segment on a “very healthy” track for the September quarter, said Chang. “We really need to wait and see how demand changes, but right now, it still looks strong.” Smartphone OEMs didn't “pull back production until the June quarter,” said Chang. “But then coming into the September quarter, they're actually starting up production pretty heavily again in anticipation of possibly another factory shutdown” for the next wave of COVID-19 cases in the fall, he said. The stock closed 21.4% higher Wednesday at $13.88.
Netflix and Hulu are defying Texas public utilities law by running their streaming service through local servers and “broadband wireline facilities located at least in part in public rights-of-way” without proper state authorization and payment of quarterly franchise fees, alleged the city of New Boston, Texas, in a complaint (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Texarkana. As video service providers, Netflix and Hulu were required to file for state-issued certificates of franchise authority through the state's Public Utility Commission, but didn’t do so, said the complaint, seeking class-action status on behalf of other Texas municipalities. The certificates would have freed them to use public ROWs in return for quarterly franchise fees equaling 5% of gross revenue to each city in which it provides service, “derived from their operations in that municipality,” it said. The complaint seeks the unpaid fees, plus declaratory judgment that Netflix and Hulu are violating the law. New Boston is about 20 miles west of Texarkana and 150 miles northeast of Dallas. Netflix and Hulu didn’t comment Wednesday.
Comscore is partnering with Consumer Orbit, an aggregator of consumer data, to develop “consumer intelligence” technology to tie local shopper behavior to TV viewership in “category-specific segments in near-real-time,” said CEO Bill Livek on a Q2 earnings call Monday. “This will allow media outlets, brands and agencies to plan, transact and evaluate local media performance in new and exciting ways.” The offering will be available in all local markets by year-end, he said. As more Comscore studio customers explore direct-to-consumer streaming service launches, “we, like them, are pivoting by developing a measurement solution that combines box office and direct-to-consumer viewing metrics in one combined product,” said Livek. “The movie industry has been on pause, but it’s not going away.”
Pixelworks hopes to save $3.2 million annually through a restructuring that includes a 14% head-count reduction, said the tech company Monday. Q2 revenue declined 48.3% from a year earlier, despite a 24% increase in mobile revenue from higher shipments of Iris-brand visual processors to six smartphone OEMs. “Our second quarter results reflected the anticipated headwinds associated with the broad impact from the COVID-19 pandemic on our target end markets,” said CEO Todd DeBonis on a quarterly call Monday. The stock plunged 25.6% Tuesday to close at $2.54. Pixelworks began seeing the “green shoots of the recovery in mobile demand in the current quarter,” he said. “We continue to believe there will be a high correlation between OEMs’ adoption of 5G technology and high-performance displays and smartphones, as video remains the most single compelling use case for 5G with consumers.” The smartphone industry is “still in the early innings” of the 5G transition, said DeBonis. “We are seeing a more rapid introduction of high-frame-rate displays into mid-tier phones than we previously anticipated, which is positive and increases the Pixelworks value proposition in mid-tier devices.”
Delisting Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) shares from the New York Stock Exchange is “not the only option” if President Donald Trump’s Aug. 6 executive order takes effect barring WeChat parent Tencent Holdings from doing business in the U.S. after Sept. 20 (see 2008070032 or 2008070061), said TME Chief Strategy Officer Tony Yip on a quarterly investor call Monday. It's "premature" to comment because the July 24 report from the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets on alleged Chinese threats to U.S. national security lists “alternative" remedies to an outright ban, he said. “We are evaluating all options” to be sure that when “further policy” directives come out, “we will be acting in the best interest of our shareholders to protect long-term value,” he said. The White House didn’t comment Tuesday. The stock closed 1.2% lower Tuesday at $15.50.
COVID-19 forced CTA to scrap New York’s Rainbow Room as the venue for its annual Consumer Tech Hall of Fame dinner in early November, emailed Cindy Stevens, senior director-publications. CTA “is currently planning to move ahead with the Hall of Fame dinner at this time but we are tracking the situation in NY closely,” she said Tuesday. “We plan to host it at the Metropolitan Pavilion with CES Unveiled to be held earlier in the day, and the dinner that evening.” CTA’s online calendar lists both events as “not yet announced.” New York state is in phase IV of its reopening plan, with social gatherings limited to groups of 50 people. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) continues to bar indoor dining at New York City restaurants. CTA canceled CES 2020 as a physical show, announcing July 28 it will hold it as an all-digital event in early January (see 2007280034).