It will take “years” for AMC to repay its debt burden, Wedbush's Michael Pachter wrote investors Monday, despite increasing optimism about the exhibition industry as it nears a post-pandemic environment. “Demand for theatrical content is high, and plenty of high-quality content is awaiting audiences,” said Pachter. While theaters have been closed or in limited use for over a year, AMC has “successfully expanded its liquidity, raising enough to last through midsummer without an incremental box office boost,” said the analyst.
Labor organization United for Respect urged Walmart shareholders to support creating a Pandemic Workforce Advisory Council of hourly workers to advise the Walmart board, ensuring policies and practices are designed and implemented "in a way that best reduces the spread of COVID-19" and future pandemics through Walmart stores and distribution centers, said a Thursday SEC filing. The group cited an April Human Impact Partners report saying it’s “likely” there have been over 125,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 2,200 deaths among Walmart associates and that if the retailer had had adequate paid sick time policy in place before the pandemic, 8,000 fewer employees would have become sick with the coronavirus and 133 lives could have been saved. To respond effectively to the pandemic, the Walmart board “needs -- and does not currently have -- direct, open feedback loops with associates on the frontlines,” it said. The proposal “could lead to improved employee health outcomes, retention and productivity, build good will among associates and customers, and enable the Board to better protect Walmart from further operational problems, legal risks, and reputational harms related to the COVID-19 pandemic, or future pandemics,” it said. United for Respect urged shareholders to vote for Proposal 7 on their proxy cards for the June 3 annual shareholder meeting to include hourly associates as director candidates. The Walmart board recommended that shareholders vote against the proposal. Walmart didn’t comment Thursday.
The FCC is accepting applications for COVID-19 telehealth program round two Thursday (see 2104120055), said a news release. The opportunity for eligible providers closes May 6 at noon EDT.
The “ongoing impact” of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the Sept. 9-12 High-End 2021 audio trade show as an in-person event at the MOC Event Center in Munich, said promoters Wednesday. The show, produced by the High-End Society, was rescheduled for May 2022. “Although the halls and atriums of the MOC are fully booked and a detailed hygiene and infection protection concept has been carefully developed, the organiser believes that taking this action at an early stage is necessary given the current situation,” said promoters. “Given that the pandemic is not being curbed as rapidly as hoped, nobody can foresee whether an international trade show would actually be able to take place with satisfying results for everyone involved in September.” IFA 2021 plans a “full-scale and real-life return” Sept. 3-7 to the Messe Berlin fairgrounds after a vastly downsized hybrid 2020 event (see 2104150017).
Jabra introduced meeting room cameras designed for the “new normal” workspace. The PanaCast 50 ($1,195, June), with the form factor of a sound bar, has a meeting "director" that intelligently adjusts the video stream to follow a meeting's action. It detects who is speaking and the flow of conversation and has three 13-megapixel cameras that create a 180-degree field of view in 4K video. Eight beamforming mics with precision voice detection are backed up with intelligent algorithms that remove disruptive noise, Jabra said. The device can deliver two video streams simultaneously, allowing one to focus on meeting participants, while the second targets an area of interest in the room. The PanaCast 20 camera ($299, August) has intelligent zoom and light optimization, picture-in-picture, and 4K video with HDR; its edge AI processing is said to offer extra security.
Job satisfaction climbed to 56.9% in the Conference Board’s annual November survey, the highest in 20 years, despite the pandemic, economic crisis, mass layoffs and the increase in the unemployment rate, reported the think tank Monday. Nielsen canvassed 5,000 U.S. employees in its consumer confidence survey, finding job satisfaction improved because respondents “gave higher marks this year to many factors within the company’s control," like health plans and performance reviews, it said. Remote work “did not boost job satisfaction” among the nearly four in 10 who say they worked mainly from home during the pandemic. “There may have been offsetting factors that precluded remote work from affecting job satisfaction,” said the board. “While some respondents may have appreciated the increased flexibility and the elimination of the daily commute, others may have suffered from the lack of in-person interaction and perhaps a less-than-ideal working environment at home.”
So “historic” has been the growth in consumer tech sales during the pandemic that the U.S. installed base of connected goods now numbers more than a billion computers and mobile and connected-TV devices, reported NPD Monday. It canvassed 5,000 U.S. adults Jan. 25-Feb. 11, finding ownership of TV-connected and mobile devices increased by 100 million units from a year earlier. The average U.S. internet home owned 9.5 installed and connected devices in February, up from 8.5 in February 2020. Stay at home orders "played a part in the tremendous growth we saw in TV-connected and mobile devices last year as consumers looked for new or different ways to consume content,” said analyst John Buffone. “This influx of newer hardware and the growing installed base will continue to facilitate the accelerated growth in free and subscription streaming video.”
Imax is a “COVID recovery story,” Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Friday, upgrading the stock to “outperform.” Pent-up demand in Q1 for out-of-home entertainment drove “outsized market share” for Imax in Asian markets, he said. Wedbush expects similar demand to play out in North America and Europe “once the film slate returns to a normal cadence." As the vaccine rollout continues and large markets reopen with increasing theatrical capacity limits, “studios are less likely to further postpone tent-pole titles,” said the analyst. The next upcoming catalyst will be the Memorial Day weekend release of A Quiet Place Part II, which the analyst believes will “drive attendance back to normalized levels.” Imax reports Q1 earnings Thursday.
The Satellite 2021 show is moving from July at the Washington Convention Center in downtown D.C. to September at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center at National Harbor, Maryland, said event organizer Access Intelligence Thursday. It said the relocation is due to the Washington Convention Center's use as a mass COVID-19 vaccination site. Registrations automatically transfer to the new dates, Sept. 7-10.