Amazon needs to thwart price-gouging on hand sanitizer and facial masks on its platform during the coronavirus crisis, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., wrote the e-commerce giant Wednesday. He wants to know how Amazon determines price-gouging, how many warnings it gives third-party sellers before removing them and what “additional resources” it’s devoting to the problem. Amazon has a “particular responsibility” to fight unfair pricing in “current circumstances” because consumers are finding empty shelves and “may wish to avoid venturing into crowded stores and shopping malls,” he said. There's "no place for price gouging on Amazon," emailed a spokesperson. "We are disappointed that bad actors are attempting to artificially raise prices on basic need products during a global health crisis and, in line with our long-standing policy, have recently blocked or removed tens of thousands of offers. We continue to actively monitor our store and remove offers that violate our policies."
Boingo Wireless won’t comment on “rumors or speculation” that it’s putting itself up for sale, but “we can share that we have received multiple inquiries regarding a potential strategic transaction,” said CEO Mike Finley on a Q4 call Monday. Boingo’s board hired strategic advisers “to help us assess these opportunities,” so it's suspending 2020 forecasts “until further notice,” he said. Boingo's Wi-Fi offload services are "an important way that we partner with the carriers to help solve the insatiable growth of mobile data traffic," said Finley. "We remain confident that it is not a question of if, but when, every domestic carrier is participating in some form of offload to ease congestion on their cellular networks." Shares closed 18% higher Tuesday at $14.04.
“Many uncertainties” surround the coronavirus and its impact on the Chinese supply chain, said Roku’s 2019 annual report Monday. Unknown are the “scientific and health issues” about how coronavirus spreads, plus the “duration and extent of economic disruption in China and other markets,” said the 10-K filing. Coronavirus “may result in supply shortages of our products or our licensee’s products,” said Roku. “Any decrease, limitations or delays on our or our licensees’ ability to import, export, or sell our streaming devices would harm our business.” Roku players use specific SoC solutions and Wi-Fi front-end modules from various manufacturers, “for which we do not have a second source,” said the company. “Although this approach allows us to maximize player performance on lower cost hardware,” it also creates “supply chain risk,” it said. These “sole-source suppliers” may face “production, shipping, or logistical constraints” from the coronavirus outbreak, it said. “Any such interruption or delay may force us to seek similar components from alternative sources, which may not be available.” Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart collectively were 72% of Roku player revenue in 2019, up from 68% in 2018, said Roku.
The next two to eight weeks will be “telling” for whether the coronavirus brings down additional trade shows as it did the MWC 2020 event in Barcelona (see 2002120056), Jack Buttine, president, John Buttine Insurance, told an International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) webinar Friday. CTA belongs to IAEE, as does NAB. Buttine’s firm sells event-cancellation insurance, and advises trade-show organizers to add communicable-disease coverage to their policies. “The question arises often what show organizers should tell their exhibitors if they see loss coming,” said Buttine. “The big peril facing a show is rumors. Will this show cancel or not?” He thinks “getting out in front of the rumors” through website messaging is critically important, he said. The NAB Show is "proceeding as planned" April 18-22 in Las Vegas, blogged organizers Friday. The show "is committed to ensuring our response during this challenging time is responsibly based in facts, not driven by fear," they said. "We continue to closely review all guidance from global, federal and local health authorities to implement what is needed for the good of our show community and the good of our industry." The FCC is revising its pandemic plan, in case the virus becomes one (see 2002280046).
Allegations that Google smart speakers and other products infringe Sonos multiroom audio patents are based on “revisionist history,” said Google in docket 337-TA-1191 at the International Trade Commission in its first official reply (login required) to the Jan. 7 Sonos complaint. Commissioners voted Feb. 5 to open an investigation into the complaint (see 2002060070), which seeks an import ban on a wide variety of allegedly infringing Google products. Google “did not obtain ‘deep’ access to Sonos technology" and then develop the Google Chromecast products at issue, as Sonos alleges, it said Thursday. “Google launched Chromecast before Google and Sonos ever agreed to collaborate.” When they began working together, Sonos repeatedly asked for Google’s “assistance,” it said. “Google was willing to help. Google gave Sonos significant assistance designing, implementing, and testing a solution that would bring Google’s voice recognition software to Sonos’s devices.” Sonos seems to think that “no good deed should go unpunished,” said Google. “Sonos now asks the Commission to impose sweeping remedial orders barring the importation of multiple Google products,” it said. “There is no basis for Sonos’s claims. The technologies Google uses were all independently developed by Google.” Sonos didn’t comment Friday.
Chinese tech company Baidu “open-sourced” its facial-recognition and artificial-intelligence technologies to help contain the coronavirus by deploying “fever-screening systems” in rail stations, hospitals and municipal buildings across China, said CEO Robin Li on a Q4 call Thursday. “Our systems remotely measure the temperatures of up to 200 people per minute,” including those wearing protective face masks and hats, he said. The technology also can “identify those who are not wearing masks or wearing them improperly,” he said. The “near-term impact” on the Baidu business has been negative, “as many of our top industries, such as travel, real estate, auto, health care and franchising, suffer from reduced off-line activities,” said Li. But the positive “side effect” is that people are “staying home more, and they have the opportunity to get to know Baidu's products and services better,” he said. “Search queries on coronavirus exceeded 1 billion during the Chinese New Year, as users came to Baidu for fact checking and finding more reliable information.” Baidu expects Q1 revenue down between 5% and 13% from a year earlier, said Chief Financial Officer Herman Yu. The coronavirus situation in China is “evolving, and business visibility is very limited,” he said. The Q1 forecast is based on a “current and preliminary view, which is subject to substantial uncertainty,” he said. The Chinese New Year holiday was originally scheduled to end Jan. 30, but many shops, restaurants and malls “remain closed down, as we speak,” he said. “Consequently, the rebound for online marketing after Chinese New Year has been slow this year.” Business conditions in the past two weeks “have started to pick up as people return to work,” said Yu. Baidu employees “are gradually returning to the office,” he said. “We assume businesses across China will do the same.”
Sonos plans to produce “relevant” evidence to “establish” that Google is guilty of Tariff Act Section 337 violations through the “unlawful importation” of smart speakers and other goods that infringe its multiroom audio patents, said Sonos in a joint discovery statement (login required) it and Google filed Wednesday in docket 337-TA-1191 at the International Trade Commission. Google denies the allegations, saying the Sonos patents are “invalid,” but will produce evidence “concerning the proper scope of any remedy” if the ITC decides in favor of Sonos, it said. Commissioners voted Feb. 5 to open an investigation into the Sonos complaint, which seeks an import ban on a wide range of Google products (see 2002060070). Google served Sonos Feb. 13 with discovery requests for 16 classifications of evidence, including information on “the alleged significant investment in plant and equipment” Sonos spent to bring its multiroom audio products to market and how many employees it hired, said the statement. Sonos also served Google with discovery papers, but the statement didn’t say when it did so or what it asked for. Sonos and Google agree to “participate in settlement conferences and mediation,” and will “explore reasonable possibilities for settlement,” they said.
CTA’s application to register the NEXTGEN TV logo as a certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant consumer TVs was published for opposition Tuesday, confirmed the Patent and Trademark Office. The application, published in the agency's Trademark Official Gazette, advances to a notice of allowance if no one opposes it at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board by March 26. CTA would then have six months to file a statement of use as one of the final steps in the registration process. CTA unveiled the logo in the fall as the keystone of its consumer-facing branding campaign for when broadcasters in the top 40 U.S. markets begin rolling out 3.0 services later this year (see 1909190066).
HP Inc. expects to report earnings between 49 and 53 cents a share for fiscal Q2 ending late April that includes an 8 cent hit from coronavirus-induced business disruptions, said Chief Financial Officer Steve Fieler on a Q1 call. Apple also is being affected by the coronavirus (see 2002250050). HP is “reaching out” to Xerox to “explore” a possible “combination,” said CEO Enrique Lores. Xerox offered to buy HP for $24 a share Feb. 10. “We firmly believe that this is not in the best interest of HP shareholders,” said Lores Monday. The $24-a-share bid “meaningfully undervalues HP,” said Lores. HP shares closed 5.5% higher Tuesday at $23.35. The two companies aren’t a good match because they lack “synergies,” the HP chief said. There’s “no overlap” between Xerox and 90 percent of HP’s businesses, he said. The would-be buyer didn't comment Tuesday.
In tapping 27-year company veteran Bob Chapek as new CEO, Disney chose a loyalist with experience in managing the company’s home entertainment, consumer products and theme parks businesses but not its media networks or direct-to-consumer operations.