The CEA criticized a N. Mex. bill sponsored by Rep. Gail Chasey (D-Albuquerque) to charge a 1% excise tax onto TVs, videogames and videogame gear sold in N.M. A state treasury- run “healthy kids outdoor fund” would get 95% of revenue collected by the tax. “While this bill tackles a laudable goal of providing more outdoor programs for kids, it seeks to do so through misguided punitive taxation on a few targeted products,” a CEA spokeswoman said Tues.
Jakks Pacific is “close to signing a new lease in a location close to the International Toy Center” in N.Y., a company spokeswoman said Tues.: “We expect to vacate our current office space in the next few months.”
The Sirius-XM Satellite Radio merger may slow retail sales short term as consumers await the outcome of the proposed $4.87 billion combination, dealers told us. Retailers are already coming off a holiday season in which satellite radio sales declined from a year earlier, when the category had benefited from Sirius’s launch of Howard Stern’s show. And many are anxious about whether a combined company would favor Sirius’s retail focus or XM’s strategy weighted toward automotive OEM.
KVH Industries is sharpening the focus of the TracVision A7 mobile satellite system ($2,995) within the RV retail channel on small independent dealers, company officials told analysts in an earnings conference call Wed. As a result, KVH expects to business to decline with national RV chains like Camping World, while it grows with independents like Lazydays RV Center in Fla. Camping World, which was a major retailer of the original TraceVision A5, accounted for less than 1% of KVH’s Q4 revenue, company officials said. KVH markets the TracVision system with the DirecTV service. The TracVision A7, which launched sales in Aug., also is being sold through CE chains like Tweeter, a spokesman said. KVH stopped making the TracVision A5 when it shipped the A7, but “scattered” amounts of inventory might remain on some retailers’ shelves, a KVH spokesman said. Tweeter was promoting the A5 at $1,998, down from its original $3,499 price. The A7 added several features including the ability to receive local channels, a “whisper quiet” motor and integrated GPS. “We've been in the process of refocusing our RV business for the last 12 months so it won’t have any impact on revenue other than being positive,” CEO Martin Kits van Heyningen said. KVH sells TracVision A7 direct to “several hundred” RV retailers and reaches others through distributors including River Park Inc. and Stag- Parkway. Meanwhile, KVH is working closely with DirecTV in trying to secure design wins with auto manufacturers for embedded systems, company officials said. “They're attending meetings with us at the highest levels and seem to be serious about pushing this,” van Heyningen said. A KVH spokesman declined to comment on the status of talks with auto manufacturers, but noted that motor vehicle designs are typically a 2-3-year process. KVH has sold the TracVision system through Cadillac dealers as an option. KVH reported Q4 net income declined to $108,000 from $1 million a year earlier as revenue declined to $17.4 million from $17.8 million amid a “soft” market for marine products and a 30% decline in the company’s defense business, company officials said. Mobile communications revenue rose 19% to $12.1 million, while that from defense products declined 30% to $5.3 million. KVH’s land-based satellite systems posted 34% growth in Q4 revenue, while the marine business was hampered by high gas prices that cut into sales of smaller boats, a company spokesman said. Brunswick, parent company of Sea Ray boats, closed plants in Md. and Canada in Nov. amid a slumping market. In the defense segment, KVH’s Tactical navigation business recorded a 60% declined in Q4 revenue as contract issues were resolved with a customer. An order for KVH’s fiber optic gyro system also was postponed by a customer until this year to allow for additional testing, a spokesman said. The downturn in defense revenue was driven “by the lumpy nature of the military navigation business, which can come in spurts,” CFO Patrick Spratt said. The tactical navigation business is expected to “step up” in Q2 and be “more significant” in Q3 and Q4, Spratt said.
GENEVA - Counterclaims of harmful interference involving the U.S. and Cuba resurfaced at the ITU Radio Regulations Board meeting here. Also on the agenda are 2 satellite issues.
HannStar postponed plans for building a 6G LCD panel plant because of an “uncertain industry outlook,” the company said in a filing with Taiwan Stock Exchange. As a result, HannStar will use the $179 million euro-convertible bond originally intended to for the factory for “overseas materials purchases,” the company said. The convertible bond, issued in 2004, will be used for purchases in Q3, the company said. The land for the plant is being prepared and HannStar may resume plans “should demand pick up,” the filing stated. In May, HannStar switched the focus of the proposed factory to 7G from 6G with volume production to start late this year. It has already spent $303 million on the site, company officials said. HannStar currently operates 3G, 3.5G and 5G plants. HannStar earlier this week cut its proposed 2007 capital spending 17.2% to $1.5 billion. Among HannStar’s customers is a U.S. subsidiary that sells LCD TVs and monitors under the Hannspree brand.
STANFORD, Cal. -- Spyware-fighters are shifting some emphasis from lobbying toward pressing big companies to break off ties with intrusive online intermediaries, said a Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) staffer. State spyware laws haven’t been effective, contributing to low expectations for legislation that will be pushed in the 110th Congress, CDT Policy Analyst Alissa Cooper said in a Stanford Law School presentation this week. Meanwhile, researchers have found success researching the money chain that lands big companies’ brands in front of Web users through software they didn’t want installed, she said. CDT’s recent strategy is to press companies to adopt adware policies and “clean up their acts” by enforcing the rules with affiliated businesses, Cooper said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted the February/March 2007 issue of its Modernization Monitor newsletter to its Web site. Articles in this issue include (partial list):
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a press release which highlights aspects of President Bush's fiscal year (FY) 2008 budget request for CBP. According to the press release, President Bush's FY 2008 budget request for CBP represents an increase of $2.43 billion, a 31.4 percent increase over FY 2007 (excluding funds provided in FY 2007 as emergency appropriations).
For the first time, sales in the domain name secondary market sales are exceeding those in the primary registration market, said experts at the DomainPulse meeting near Zurich. On domain name trading platform Sedo alone, sales grew to $40 million in 2006, up from $20 million in 2005, said CEO Marius Wuerzner. Vodka.com sold for $3 Million. Domain name sales for more than $10,000 grew even faster than sales of less expensive ones. Many people have given up jobs to make careers of domain trading, said Christoph Grueneberg, CEO of domainvermarkter.com. He called them “the estate agents of the Internet.” Trends include the sale of large domain name portfolios, the growing interest of investment companies in the value of domains, and growing integration of the primary and the secondary market. Some registrars expressed concerns about speculation and land-grabbing. Land-grabbing is a problem, said Wuerzner, but it will disappear soon because a more mature market is aware of the value of domains. Wuerzner said he doesn’t expect new TLDs to decrease demand for attractive .com domains that make up over 80% of the secondary market sales.