FTC moves up Patty McDermott to Anticompetitive Practices Division deputy assistant director ... Cox Media Group hires Daniel York, from AT&T, as president-CEO, succeeding interim CEO Steve Pruett, who remains executive chairman (see this section, May 8) ... Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz to step down, staying through transition ... Producer Tara Duncan joins Disney's Freeform as president; ABC Owned Television Stations elevates Rob Elmore to president-general manager, WTVD Durham, North Carolina ... Meredith hires Deborah Collura, ex-Tegna, for vice president-general manager, WGCL-TV and WPCH-TV, both in Atlanta, and promotes Corey Hanson to vice president-general manager, WALA-TV Mobile, Alabama.
A chip company that supplies carriers and others expects 5G and bandwidth demand to keep increasing post-pandemic, its CEO said. Marvell expects the demand for bandwidth “to continue to grow stronger,” said CEO Matt Murphy on a Thursday investor call. “Major cloud and service providers are facing unprecedented demand for their services as a result of so many people working from home and are scrambling to add capacity to their networks. 5G has become a strategic priority for many nations.” Quarterly sales rose about 5% to $693.6 million from the year-ago period. That's about $14 million above the midpoint of its March 4 guidance, despite COVID-19's “massive disruption,” Murphy said. Q1 ended May 2. “The impact of COVID-19 turned out to be greater than expected in our storage business and lower than expected in our networking business,” he said. Marvell experienced stronger than expected demand from its data center and 5G infrastructure “end markets,” he said. The company just started shipping 5G products to Samsung. “We are still at the very beginning of the industry transition from 4G to 5G,” Murphy noted. His company's stock closed up 8.8% Friday at $32.62.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that would remove liability protections for online platforms that censure or edit content (see 2005270016). There would be a role for antitrust agencies and the FCC, whose commissioners reacted along party lines to the EO. “We’re here today to defend free speech from one of the greatest dangers,” Trump said, claiming tech monopolies have “unchecked power” to censor and restrict human interaction.
Samsung's latest stand-alone turnkey security system offers protection for booting, isolated storage and mobile payments, it said Tuesday. The chip is Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 6+ certified, it said. Consumers expect smartphones to be highly secure to protect personal data and enable mobile banking, stock trading and cryptocurrency transactions, said Dongho Shin, Samsung senior vice president-system LSI marketing, calling the S3FV9RR chip a “deadbolt on smart devices." The chip is due in Q3.
Industry and public interest groups asked the FCC Tuesday to reallocate 500 MHz at 12.2-12.7 GHz for 5G. The Competitive Carriers Association, Computer & Communications Industry Association, Incompas, Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge asked the agency to act on a longstanding petition by the MVDDS 5G Coalition (see 1802070045). “Technical rules for 12.2-12.7 GHz are obsolete and burdensome, preventing use of this spectrum for 5G,” said the letter in RM-11768: “Given the changes in technology since these rules were first set by the Commission in 2002, maintaining these restrictions appears to be unwarranted.” If the FCC allows two-way, 5G wireless broadband, “initial use cases” would include fixed broadband, mobile 5G and the IoT, the groups said. “There is broad support for the FCC to move forward with conversations on the 12 GHz band, which will benefit consumers and the economy and help close the digital divide,” said CCA President Steve Berry. "It’s time for the FCC to kick start the 12 GHz conversation, get every argument out in the open," said Incompas CEO Chip Pickering.
BSA|The Software Alliance announces Heidi Obermeyer, ex-CTIA, as manager-policy ... Aparna Patrie, ex-Senate Judiciary Committee, becomes Facebook public policy manager ... Belden promotes Roel Vestjens to president-CEO, succeeding John Stroup, who becomes executive chairman; also appoints Vestjens and Nancy Calderon, ex-KPMG, to board ... MagnaChip Semiconductor hires Young Soo Woo, ex-CoreeGroup, as chief financial officer ... ImOn Communications advances Jake Ryan to chief financial officer ... Bernie Colpitts, ex-GameStop, returns to ON Semiconductor as chief accounting officer and vice president-subsidiary Semiconductor Components Industries ... F5 promotes Tom Fountain to executive vice president-global services and chief strategy officer, succeeding Steve McMillan, becoming president-CEO of Teradata, effective June 8 ... Hearst moves Shawn Oswald back to KETV Omaha as president-general manager.
Several petitions for reconsideration of the FCC's Ligado L-band plan approval were filed, as expected, (see 2004200039). The company's backers told us the likely audience is Capitol Hill, with the aim of trying to generate interest in a legislative solution. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said in an interview he's siding with the FCC amid continued headwinds from the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees and some other lawmakers (see 2005080043).
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. hired outside counsel to “conduct legal analysis and ensure a comprehensive examination and interpretation” of new U.S. restrictions on Huawei (see 2005190030), a TSMC spokesperson emailed us Tuesday, declining to answer some of our questions about the companies' relationship. TSMC reportedly halted processing of all new orders by Huawei. Hours before the Commerce Department further stepped up controls on Huawei, TSMC announced plans to build its first U.S.-based chip factory. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and two other senior Senate Democrats pressed Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Defense Secretary Mark Esper Wednesday to tell them about U.S. government involvement in TSMC’s decision to build the U.S. chip factory, including if any “federal subsidies” were part of the negotiations. “We have serious questions as to how this project takes into consideration national security requirements and how it aligns with a broader strategy for building a diverse U.S. semiconductor manufacturing supply chain,” the Democratic senators wrote Esper and Ross. “We ask that you cease any such negotiations or discussions until you have briefed the relevant authorization and appropriations committees with your plans, including any commitments you have made to funding, tax breaks, licensures, or other incentives.” A “one-off investment like the proposed TSMC facility is inadequate to rebuilding U.S. manufacturing capacity in microelectronics, which is essential to our national and economic security,” the senators said. “Unfortunately, there is no evidence that the Administration has a comprehensive, integrated plan for achieving this.”
China promised countermeasures to respond to increased U.S. restrictions against Huawei, slamming “abuse of export controls” and violation of international trade laws. License requirements on shipments to Huawei for foreign-made chips containing U.S. content (see 2005180018) are a “serious threat” to China’s chip industry, China’s Commerce Ministry said Sunday, per an unofficial translation. State media said China is considering placing U.S. companies on its unreliable entity list. The rule will “complicate” operations for communication equipment manufacturers and could lead to drops in revenue and R&D efforts, emailed a U.S.-China Business Council spokesperson. “More transactions will require export licenses, adding additional expense and delays with no guarantee that licenses will be granted.” Chinese companies “of course would very much like to ... indigenize all aspects of the supply chain,” said Keith Krach, State Department undersecretary-economic growth, to reporters last week. “But at least for the moment … U.S. companies still have a very significant comparative advantage when it comes to the largely software-facilitated design tools that are involved in producing the very best chips.” National Foreign Trade Council Vice President Richard Sawaya said the rule falls short of industry’s worst fears, and members “realize that national security-related technology controls are warranted.” He said industry would have appreciated more transparency as the rules were being considered and a comment period. “That’s really what industry is asking for,” Sawaya told us: “Due process.” Monday, Huawei criticized the increased restrictions, saying they “ignore the concerns of many companies and industry associations.” It said the rule will “undermine” the global semiconductor industry. “The U.S. is leveraging its own technological strengths to crush companies outside its own borders,” the company said. Huawei’s rotating chairman, Guo Ping, said he's “confident” the company will work around the curbs. “Our experience over the past year has made us confident that we can find a solution, that our customers and suppliers can continue to stand with us and minimize the impact of this discriminatory rule,” he said. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., called the rule “long overdue.” The U.S. “needs to strangle Huawei,” Sasse said. “Modern wars are fought with semiconductors, and we were letting Huawei use our American designs.”
Dialog Semiconductor's Wireless Ranging software development kit is designed for companies to ensure safe distances during “controlled reopening” of workplaces as COVID-19 restrictions ease. The Bluetooth low energy SoCs with a 2.4 GHz radio use “radar-like implementation” to improve distance measurement accuracy between BLE connected devices, said Dialog Monday.