COVID-19 forced Mozilla into a restructuring that will eliminate 250 jobs, including the shutdown of operations in Taiwan, said CEO Mitchell Baker in a memo to employees Tuesday. Mozilla’s pre-pandemic plan for 2020 was “a year of change” by speeding the infusion of more “product value” in Firefox and “adjusting our finances to ensure financial stability over the long term,” she said. The pandemic “accelerated the need and magnified the depth for these changes,” said Baker. “Our pre-COVID plan is no longer workable. We have talked about the need for change -- including the likelihood of layoffs -- since the spring. Today these changes become real.” Mozilla’s “new focus” will be on product, technology, community and economics, blogged Baker: “Recognizing that the old model where everything was free has consequences, means we must explore a range of different business opportunities and alternate value exchanges.”
Retail landlord Simon Property Group took a $315 million hit to its Q2 operating profit from COVID-19 through “rent abatements” and a “higher provision for credit losses,” said CEO David Simon on a quarterly call Monday. The company runs about 200 malls and other retail properties in 37 states. “Given the lack of local, state and federal government support for our industry, we went out of our way to abate rent for thousands of local small businesses, entrepreneurs and restaurateurs and other retailers for the period they were closed,” said Simon. The company estimates 91% of its properties were “open and operating” through Aug. 9, he said. Reopened stores reported their June sales exceeded 80% of their 2019 volume, he said. Movie theaters, gyms and restaurants are the bulk of “remaining tenants” that are still closed due to “restrictive governmental orders limiting or prohibiting their operations,” he said. The Great Recession of 2008 “pales in comparison to what we're dealing with” in the pandemic, said Simon. The number of bankruptcies “in our sector” is “tremendous,” he said.
The personal health and safety risks of COVID-19 are casting autonomous driving in a more positive public light than before the pandemic, Motional President-CEO Karl Iagnemma told an Axios webinar Tuesday. The Hyundai-Aptiv autonomous vehicle joint venture was rebranded Tuesday as Motional.
More state commissions are eyeing contribution and other USF changes. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission may vote later this year on a USF administrator recommendation to switch to a connections-based mechanism. The Texas Public Utility Commission asked legislators to consider USF contribution changes next year. Oregon, New Mexico and Nebraska commissions are also reviewing state USF.
The FCC Wireless Bureau approved requests allowing reviews to proceed under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act for various critical infrastructure projects by Windstream and Frontier Communications, during the pandemic, said orders in Monday’s Daily Digest.
Gogo took a “devastating” Q2 hit from the COVID-19 pandemic's obliteration of commercial airline passenger traffic, said CEO Oakleigh Thorne on a Monday investor call. “It certainly was an extraordinary quarter, but for all the wrong reasons,” he said. “If you sell internet on an airplane and no one’s on the plane, it’s tough to make a living.”
The broadcast TV industry expects improvement in Q3, but it's still (see 2008050063) too uncertain to promise specifics, said executives from Gray Television, Univision, E.W. Scripps and Tegna. “The situation is still fluid and visibility is limited,” said Gray Chief Financial Officer Jim Ryan. “The impact of the pandemic remains uncertain,” said Tegna CFO Victoria Harker. "Scripps has suspended issuing new guidance because of the economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," said the company.
FCC staff settled with another radio licensee over political file issues (see 2008050046). Christian Family Media Ministries' renewal applications for three Kentucky stations didn't certify such compliance, and Media Bureau Audio Division employees found problems, said a bureau order and consent decree Friday. Christian Family Media agreed to "implement a comprehensive compliance" that includes reporting to the bureau, and the regulator will continue processing its renewal requests, the document said. The "pandemic has caused a dramatic reduction in advertising revenues which, in turn, has placed the radio broadcast industry, including the Company, under significant financial stress," it said. "The Company’s disclosures in its license renewal applications combined with the exceptional circumstances brought about by the pandemic present a unique situation."
Due to COVID-19 disruptions to schools and libraries, the FCC Wireline Bureau granted waivers for E-rate FCC Form 471 applications submitted within 60 days after the filing window closing April 29. The order in Friday's Daily Digest directs Universal Service Administrative Co. to process the late filings. The bureau extended the deadline by 35 days in March due to the pandemic.
The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a request allowing reviews to proceed under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act for various wireless facilities that FirstNet plans to build, during the pandemic.