Paul Gluckman

About one in 10 U.S. online shoppers bought something on eBay during the holiday season, said CEO Jamie Iannone on a Q4 call Wednesday evening. In Germany, it was one in seven, and in the U.K., one in four, he said. The platform experienced “unprecedented traffic levels” for most of 2020, he said: “More than 100 days in 2020 exceeded peak 2019 traffic levels.” The holiday contributed to record volume “with high velocity in hard-to-find and sold-out items,” he said. “Refurbished gifts also emerged as a top trend, and we saw many products from top brands in our certified refurbished experience sell out.” The stock closed 5.3% higher Thursday at $61.12.

The production capacity shortage in global semiconductors “appears to be a long-term phenomenon” spanning many industries but seems worst in the automotive sector, Himax CEO Jordan Wu told a quarterly call Thursday. “The shortage has become more severe.” The integrated circuit maker “engaged early,” leveraging its “long-term business relationships” with foundries and “back-end suppliers,” and “successfully secured more capacity for 2021, compared to the level of Q4," he said (see Q4 materials here). The company’s “aim” is to “fully utilize the capacity accessible to us” through its network of foundries. There’s little likelihood of a “significant” industry capacity increase “anytime soon,” he said. “Strong demand is likely to persist longer than expected.” Another “impressive quarter of high growth” is expected for notebooks, said the executive, citing "persistent remote working and e-learning.”

When the pandemic began, “consumers in lockdown had no choice but to do all of their shopping online,” said PayPal CEO Dan Schulman on a quarterly call Wednesday. The vast majority of consumers now say that post-COVID-19 crisis, “they will continue to shop online at their current elevated levels because it is more convenient,” he said. “Retailers are rapidly adapting to a new landscape.” PayPal estimates the pandemic “accelerated a digital wave of change across almost every industry by three to five years, unleashing a profound and permanent structural transformation,” he said. The service added 16 million net new active customers in the quarter, he said. The stock closed Thursday up 7.4% at $270.43. See Q4 materials here.

Google grew its “merchant community” by more than 80% in the past year, “with significant growth in small- and medium-sized businesses,” said Google Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler on a Q4 call Tuesday. The pandemic has obviously been “a very, very challenging environment for SMBs,” said Schindler. “Many weren't online” at all, and others “lost line of sight to demand overnight” due to COVID-19, he said. About a year ago, “as soon as we saw the scale of the impact, we really accelerated product” that gave SMB customers “signals to help them actually navigate and pivot” to the new reality, he said. As more consumers moved online during COVID-19 lockdowns, “and advertisers obviously responded by reactivating spend, we also saw our advertiser base grow,” said Schindler. “As traditional TV ratings continue to decline, TV advertisers are turning to streaming platforms like YouTube to reach people who are no longer watching TV.” Smart TVs “are our fastest-growing screen” for YouTube viewing, said Schindler. The stock closed 7.3% higher Wednesday at $2,058.88.

SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz is unfazed by Google creating services and capabilities for Ford customers beginning in 2023 (see report, Feb. 2 issue of this publication), she said Tuesday on a Q4 call, her first with investors as chief. “We’ve always had a clear competitive advantage in the car.” The satellite radio platform continues “strengthening our OEM relationships,” said Witz. Reversing declining Pandora ad-supported listener hours remains a problem, as it was before SiriusXM’s 2019 acquisition of the music-streaming service, conceded Witz. Listener hours fell 7% last year to 12.5 billion. “We’re clearly focused on decline in listenership,” the CEO said. “We’re continuing to find ways to work at that,” including “improving engagement across connected devices and in the car,” she said. “It has been harder than we expected.” The “valuation” of the SXM-7 satellite is underway after it “suffered damage during in-orbit testing that resulted in the failure of certain payloads,” said new Chief Financial Officer Sean Sullivan. Though the “full extent of the damage to the satellite is not yet known, we do not expect our service to be impacted,” he said. SXM-7 launched successfully aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in December, he said. The SXM-3 and SXM-4 satellites “are expected to support our service for several years,” said Sullivan. SXM-5 “remains available as an in-orbit spare.” he said. Development of SXM-8 is “well underway, and we expect it to be launched later this year,” he said. SiriusXM bought a $225 million insurance policy on SXM-7 for its “first year of in-orbit operations,” he said. “We have notified the underwriters of a potential claim.”

Cirrus Logic’s “engineering progress continues to be really positive” on a power component it’s developing for introduction later in 2021, said CEO John Forsyth on a quarterly call Monday. “We continue to be very excited about the journey we're on with our customer,” he said in obvious reference to Apple. “We are optimistic about our ability to execute on this strategic plan,” he said. “While we understand there is intense interest related to our largest customer, in accordance with our policy, we do not discuss specifics about our business relationship.” Apple didn't respond to questions Tuesday. Cirrus Logic stock closed down 8.1% on $89.98.

There’s “mounting enthusiasm” to return to the physical NAB Show Oct. 9-13 in Las Vegas, reported the association Tuesday. Freeman Event Research canvassed 1,000 previous NAB Show attendees online Nov. 9-16, finding that nearly seven in 10 plan to return to the in-person show, which NAB postponed from its customary April run due to the pandemic. About 60% said their decision to attend would hinge on the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 88% “said they are likely to return once they feel the threat of the virus is mitigated,” said NAB. The survey was done about a month before the Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for emergency deployment. The situation on the ground in Las Vegas remains precarious, prompting resort operators to downplay the possibility of a “visitation spike” before 2022 (see 2101280006). Freeman manages exhibitor services for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Mike Fidler had no “preconceptions” about how long he would stay when he became UHD Alliance president in summer 2017 and didn’t foresee then taking on “a long-term role,” he told us now. The Sony and Pioneer veteran stepped down last week (see personals section, Jan. 28 issue). UHDA won’t seek a replacement, Chairman Michael Zink, Warner Bros. vice president-technology, emailed the board last Tuesday. Zink is adding the president title. Fidler thinks most of what UHDA “set out to do” under his watch, “we really met,” he told us. “We were able to complete the initiatives we put focus on, including Filmmaker Mode and the work we were doing on interoperability.” Fidler regrets that COVID-19 inhibited UHDA from “getting out in front of people," as “with something like Filmmaker Mode, it would have been advantageous to be able to really effectively promote it by seeing it, demonstrating it. That was very difficult, if not impossible." Fidler in hindsight “thought we could get more traction with manufacturers and retailers” on the Ultra HD Premium logo: “That’s a disappointment.” The group's website lists 32 current members, including Amazon and Qualcomm. Founders including Disney and Netflix are gone, while AT&T bought DirecTV and Warner after UHDA's formation and doesn't now belong to the organization.

On Semiconductor's new CEO Hassane El-Khoury won't make a "short-term decision” about U.S. semiconductor production “based on politics that will hinder us from potentially achieving our maximum value creation,” he said Monday on a Q4 call. He was asked about federal incentives under the National Defense Authorization Act to promote U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and R&D (see 2101030002). He entered the role vowing to cease investments in product sectors or markets with low potential for revenue or margin growth, with a comprehensive plan of possible divestitures due by late summer. “If at the end of that first tranche" of decisions there's "alignment with where the administration is going or what state we are in, that’s great,” said El-Khoury, the former Cypress Semiconductor chief. On stock was up 6.6% to $36.77.

Movie pricing for Kaleidescape’s new rental option (see 2101280046) is “generally around" $7.95 per title, “though premium VOD can be higher,” emailed CEO Tayloe Stansbury Thursday. “Of the 12,000 titles available in our movie store in the US, 8,000 are available for rental (5,500 available for rental in Canada).” Kaleidescape’s main rationale for offering the rental option was that “sometimes a customer is interested in a movie, but not enough to purchase a perpetual playback license,” he said. “They get the rental in the same high-bitrate format as a purchase, and if they love it and want to keep it, half the rental price is applied to purchase.” Most movies in the Kaleidescape store cost $15-$20 to buy, with some priced at $25 and $35. Rental viewing is for a 48-hour window, and the purchase option is available within 30 days of the rental transaction. PVOD movie titles “will sometimes be made available early for rental only,” and that was another rationale for the offering, he said.