Image Entertainment will close its Las Vegas distribution center, cutting 64 full- (44) and part (10-20)- time jobs as it shifts production to Sonopress’s Grand Prairie, Wisc. facility, Senior Operations Vp Rick Eiberg said.. Sonopress, which replicates Image’s titles at its plant in Louisville, Ky., recently competed the purchase of the Wis. factory from Deluxe. The shift to the Sonopress plant is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, Eiberg told us. When the transition is complete, titles will be produced in Ky. and driven 350 miles to the Wis. facility, Eiberg said. The distribution pact is an extension of the 5-year replication that Image signed with Sonopress last year. Discussions regarding shifting some distribution to Sonopress started before Image’s proposed sale to BTP, Eiberg said. BTP struck an agreement to buy Image for $132 million. Image opened a leased 76,000-sq.-ft. Las Vegas distribution center in 1999. It also had a lease that expires in Nov. for 4 acres of adjacent land for possible expansion.
A Dept. of Justice antitrust probe of the graphics processor market triggered 42 suits against Nvidia, it said in its 10-K report at the SEC. Nvidia was subpoenaed in Nov. by DoJ’s San Francisco office. “No specific allegations” were made against Nvidia, but the suits allege price fixing and other “anti-competitive” agreements between Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), which last year bought rival ATI Technologies. The suits are “without merit,” Nvidia said. Meanwhile, Nvidia’s supply agreement for Sony PlayStation 3 yielded $92.9 million in revenue in fiscal 2007, not enough to offset the loss of Microsoft’s Xbox console business. Nvidia CE revenues, which include those related to PS3, fell 42.5% in fiscal 2007 to $96.3 million from $167.4 million a year earlier. Nvidia recorded $49 million in PS3-related revenue in fiscal 2006, it said. Overall, Nvidia fiscal 2007 revenue rose to $3.06 billion from $2.37 billion a year earlier, led by its graphics processor unit (GPU) business, which posted a 20.3% gain in sales to $1.99 billion. Nvidia posted strong sales of GeForce-7 and GeForce-8 GPUs for notebook and desktop PCs. Nvidia nForce integrated processor sales jumped to $661.5 million from $352.3 million, due partly to shipment of Intel- based products in the 2nd half, it said. Nvidia has a 53% share of the integrated graphics processor business for AMD 64 chipsets, the company said. NForce shipments for AMD grew 113% in fiscal 2007, the company said. Nvidia graphics processor sales for handhelds, including Motorola cellphones, jumped to $108.5 million from $58.7 million. Nvidia’s work force rose to 2,668 employees as of Jan. 29 from 1,654, including addition of 934 workers to its international operation. In buying PortalPlayer earlier this year, Nvidia acquired land and a building under construction in Hyderabad, India.
The Journal of Commerce reports that the Florida Legislature may kill a state law establishing a Florida Universal Port Access Credential now that the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) is moving forward. The article notes that Florida is the only state facing duplicate credentials for port access when the TWIC program is implemented. (JoC, dated March 19, 2007, www.joc.com.)
Congress’s promised oversight of telecom issues has resulted in many hearings but little legislation the first 3 months of the 110th Congress. For telcos, cable and related telecom companies, that’s a good thing, lobbyists and industry sources told us. Democrats are taking their time studying issues before framing an agenda, and oversight hearings have helped tighten operations at the FCC and NTIA, sources said.
The FCC excluded other audio entertainment from a review of competition in satellite radio. But the analysis “may not reflect the appropriate markets to be considered” in a merger review, the Commission said. XM and Sirius have tried to justify their proposed merger based on competition from iPods, HD Radio and other forms of audio entertainment (CD March 21 p2). The satellite competition report was written at Congress’s request.
Recent fires on commercial airliners have prompted the U.S. Dept. of Transportation (DoT) to issue new safety guidelines on packing and handling lithium-ion batteries for notebook PCs and other portable electronic devices. Spare lithium-ion battery packs should be enclosed in plastic bags and packed in carry-ons, never in checked luggage, DoT said. Spares should be packed in their original retail packaging, and loose cells should be wrapped in insulating tape to prevent contact with other metal objects, the department said. Only chargers matched to a specific battery type should be used, and low-price knockoffs should be avoided, it said. Care also should be taken to prevent powerpacks from being crushed, punctured or dropped, DoT said. Fire broke out in an overhead baggage compartment on a JetBlue flight Feb. 10, and a preliminary investigation found that loose batteries may have been the cause, DoT said. And last week, the agency said it received reports that a battery ignited aboard an American Airlines flight from Argentina. In both cases, flight attendants put out the fires and the planes landed safely, DoT said. The agency said it’s talking with battery and device manufacturers on enhanced safety requirements that include improved battery design, testing, labeling, and packaging standards.
Sea Launch said it will use the Land Launch vehicle to lift in mid-2009 a SES satellite different from AMC-21 communications satellite initially agreed upon. Land Launch will use a Zenith-3SLB vehicle to launch the medium-weight satellite from Baikonur Space Center.
In January 2007, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued an electronic notice which announced the phased enforcement of mandatory Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) electronic manifest: Truck (e-Manifest: Truck) for advance cargo information purposes at all land border ports in Washington and Arizona as well as the ports of Pembina, Neche, Walhalla, Maida, Hannah, Sarles and Hansboro, North Dakota.
CBP has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that recent changes to the 2007 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) records, Harmonized System (HS) Update (No. 0705) include the following:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recently posted to its Web site its quarterly reports on the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) entitled Report to Congress on the Automated Commercial Environment. These reports cover the four quarters of calendar year 2006.