Circuit City shares were down more than 10% Wed. on chain’s announcement it would cut 2,000 jobs and shift to straight hourly wage structure from commissions for salespeople on floor. Changes will mean elimination of 3,900 commissioned sales positions that, when offset by adding new hires at hourly wage, will result in net reduction of 1,800 jobs -- about 3 per store, CEO Alan McCollough told analysts in conference call. Another 200 jobs will be cut with shutdown of 10 service and repair facilities, Circuit City said.
Wireless carriers raised concerns to FCC late Mon. that “interference temperature” touted by agency’s Spectrum Policy Task Force report wasn’t yet backed up by real-world information, such as noise floor data. Responding to task force recommendation, several commenters cautioned Commission against basing spectrum allocation and policy decisions on technology advancements that hadn’t yet materialized. Among common themes that emerged in comments this week was need for more unlicensed spectrum, requirement for additional public safety bands, concern over auctioning of satellite spectrum.
Only hours after THQ cut its earnings forecast for its current quarter (CED Dec 24 p3), Midway Games drastically reduced its estimate for 4th quarter ending Dec. 31. Midway said it now expected revenue for 4th quarter would be $78-$83 million, down from $105-$155 million company had predicted. Also, instead of $15-$40 million profit Midway had forecast, it said it now expected loss, although it didn’t say how much. Announcement spurred disappointing reactions from analysts, and shares in game maker dropped.
Best Buy, crediting strong sales of digital products, reported slight increase in 3rd-quarter net income to $85 million from $80 million as overall sales rose 16% to $5.5 billion on 0.4% decline in same-store sales.
France Telecom (FT) said it reduced its debt by 301 million euros by selling its 10.85% stake in Greek mobile telecom company Vodafone-Panafon to Vodafone International Holdings. FT said it completed sale at price per share of 5.28 euros. FT also said it had acquired from Vodafone Group Plc cash settled option to cover its potential financial obligations under its 4.125% exchangeable notes due Nov. 29, 2004, for 10 million euros. That transaction will generate capital gain of 276 million euros, FT said.
Langhorne, Pa., value-priced publisher eGames said in SEC filing it had stockholders’ equity of $346,000 and working capital of $301,000 as of Sept. 30, end of its first quarter. PC game publisher reported $213,000 profit for quarter and said it “experienced $429,000 in negative cash flow… We believe that our projected cash and working capital may be sufficient to fund our operations through June 30, 2003, but there are significant challenges that we will need to successfully manage in order to be able to fund our operations through that period of time. These challenges include, but are not limited to: Agreeing to and maintaining acceptable payment terms with our vendors; increasing the speed of receivable collections from our customers; and maintaining compliance under the covenants set forth in the forbearance agreement [the company] negotiated with Fleet Bank.”
National Security Agency added extra day to next month’s FY 2003 technology acquisition conference (CD Oct 18 p12). Event is Nov. 14-15, Hanover, Md. -- 301-688-3598.
National Security Agency (NSA) will host commercial technology acquisition conference Nov. 14 to discuss anticipated business opportunities in FY 2003 with potential contracting partners. Event is unclassified but access is restricted to U.S. citizens. Conference will be held at Acquisition Resource Center, 7471 Candlewood Rd., Hanover, Md. -- 301-688-3598.
National Institute of Standards & Technology’s Computer System Security & Privacy Advisory Board scheduled series of meetings Sept. 17-19. Agenda items include update from Office of Management & Budget on privacy and security issues and discussion of matters related to Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Meetings are 9 a.m., General Services Administration hq. Oral comments from public will be permitted, limited to 5 min. per speaker. Persons interested in speaking are encouraged to contact board in advance -- 301-975-3669.
Verance said it received 2 new U.S. patents for digital watermark technology, increasing its total to 20. U.S. Patent No. 6,427,012 uses watermark to track content over broadcasts and Internet. U.S. Patent No. 6,430,301 marks content in order to track it back to specific source, such as CD, DVD, public performance.