The San Mateo County (Cal.) Superior Court granted final approval late last month to a settlement in a class action employee suit against Electronic Arts (EA), the publisher said in a 10-Q SEC filing Wed. The suit, filed July 2004, claimed the publisher improperly classified “image production employees” in Cal. as “exempt.” The court granted preliminary approval in Oct. of a settlement in which EA agreed to pay a lump sum of $15.6 million. EA said it paid that to a 3rd-party administrator during 2005’s 4th quarter to cover all claims allegedly suffered by the class members, as well as plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees and other case costs. EA’s filing also said a consolidated class action securities lawsuit by investors against it and some officers and directors was dismissed with prejudice Jan. 26 by a U.S. Dist. Court in northern Cal. But EA said there were still a shareholder derivative action pending in the same court and 2 shareholder derivative actions pending in Superior Court, San Mateo, that made the same basic claims as the earlier suits. EA also revealed that it agreed Feb. 7 to lease 94,782 sq. ft. of facilities space in Guildford, U.K. It said the deal was subject to renovations by the Standard Life Assurance Co. that expects to be done about June 1. At that time, EA said, it will enter into a 10-year lease and take possession of the facilities. The company said it plans to use the facilities “primarily as studio space for the development of our games.” Separately, another law firm -- Federman & Sherwood in Oklahoma City -- filed a lawsuit seeking class action status in N.Y.C., claiming that EA rival Take-Two Interactive violated securities laws by making material misrepresentations of its performance that artificially inflated the market price of Take-Two stock.
VeriSign gave ICANN a “last, best offer” to settle a suit over the .com domain. Changes proposed to the pact were posted for public comment Sun., after a private conference call last week involving ICANN board members and staff and Verisign representatives (WID Jan 24 p8). The proposal shows significant changes from an Oct. version that irked some in the industry who said it raised antitrust concerns and expanded VeriSign’s preeminence in the space (WID Nov 30 p1). The debate sparked a hue and cry at ICANN’s year-end meeting in Vancouver, as well as lawsuits, Congressional attention and gripes to the Justice and Commerce Depts.
The FCC should open a rulemaking to protect ILECs from excessive pole attachment fees charged by electric companies and other utilities, ILECs said in comments filed late Fri. Backing a USTelecom petition, the National Telecom Co-op Assn. said the FCC pole attachment rules “unreasonably discriminate against… ILECs” through an inaccurate reading of Sec. 224(b) of the Communications Act. The section, which once protected only cable systems, was expanded by the Telecom Act to include CLECs and other “telecommunications carriers.” But the Act seemed to exclude ILECs from the “telecommunications carriers” definition, so FCC pole attachment rules don’t cover them. And other language in Sec. 224 uses the term “provider of telecommunications service,” which does include ILECs, NTCA said. Sec. 224(b) “should not and was never intended to be exclusive of ILECs,” NTCA said. BellSouth said “ILECs are increasingly experiencing unfair and unreasonable treatment when seeking to attach to the poles of other utilities.” Energy utilities, not ILECs, own the most poles nationwide, so “the assumption that ILECs are always in a superior bargaining position is simply not the case,” BellSouth said in its filing. Some energy utilities “have demanded excessive rates that bear no relation either to the amount of pole space occupied by BellSouth or comparable increases in the Consumer Price Index,” BellSouth said. USTelecom asked the FCC to clarify that ILECs are entitled to reasonable rates under Sec. 224, urging they be allowed to use Commission pole attachment complaint procedures.
EchoStar reported strong 2004 results in a timely 10K report filed Wed. in the shadow of last week’s news regarding an internal investigation and an SEC inquiry into the company’s financial reporting. The inquiries were instigated by allegations in a letter of resignation by an unnamed EchoStar employee, CEO Charles Ergen said in a Thurs. conference call. EchoStar human resources forwarded the letter to general counsel and the audit committee for additional review, Ergen said.
EchoStar reported strong 2004 results in a timely 10- K report filed Wed. in the shadow of last week’s news regarding an internal investigation and an SEC inquiry into the company’s financial reporting. The inquiries were instigated by allegations in a letter of resignation by an unnamed EchoStar employee, CEO Charles Ergen said in a Thurs. conference call. EchoStar human resources forwarded the letter to general counsel and the audit committee for additional review, Ergen said.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Cal. -- Despite their boasts about broadband superiority and their put-downs of the phone companies’ new video plans, cable executives are running scared these days. That message was clear at the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers’ (SCTE) Emerging Technologies conference hear last week.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Cal. -- Despite their boasts about broadband superiority and their put-downs of the phone companies’ new video plans, cable executives are running scared these days.
High tech companies, anxious to open up more spectrum for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed uses, strongly supported an FCC proposal to allow the use of “white spaces” between TV channels, in comments on a proposed rulemaking. In general, high tech companies view the lower-frequency spectrum as especially valuable for unlicensed use because of its superior propagation characteristics. As expected, broadcasters slammed the plan. Cable operators cited a potential threat to their operations.
Technology companies, anxious to open up more spectrum for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed uses, strongly supported an FCC proposal to allow the use of “white spaces” between TV channels, in comments on a proposed rulemaking. The CE industry, though expressing optimism at the range of potential new products and services that could be deployed in the unused TV spectrum, urged caution so as to avoid interference that could harm existing markets and, more importantly, the DTV transition.
LOS ANGELES -- HDNet’s strategy in HDTV content delivery is to “break the mold, not stick to it” by proving that being consumer-driven and profit-driven aren’t “mutually exclusive,” its chmn., Mark Cuban, told the HDTV Forum here Wed. In a provocative keynote, he sought to rally TV display makers to support him in resisting those who would put “quantity over quality” in the delivery of HDTV programming. He also called on the CE industry to “ignore Hollywood” in building alliances he said have the effect of stifling innovation and working against what’s best for the consumer.