San Antonio specialty retailer Bjorn’s began cutting back hours Thursday to limit the number of staff and customers in store in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for COVID-19. Temporary store hours are 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday CDT, it emailed Friday. Sales staffers are available by phone, text or video chat, said the retailer, which is offering free home delivery, tech support by phone and private shopping appointments. It's encouraging customers to shop 24/7 at Bjorns.com.
Wedbush downgraded its target for AMC Entertainment to “neutral” to account for COVID-19-related global theater closings in effect second half of March through the end of May. If closures last longer, AMC “would need additional relief" from government assistance, rent waivers or new sources of cash to avert "a potential breach of debt covenants." wrote analyst Michael Pachter Friday. If pent-up demand resumes once theaters re-open -- assuming improved margins and operating expense control -- shares could “materially appreciate,” Pachter said. Wedbush projects Q1 revenue at $953 million, down from its previous $1.2 billion estimate. Its Q2 revenue outlook is now $600 million, versus $1.4 billion. Pachter maintained an “outperform” rating on Cinemark, “a well-managed company with relatively stable results despite industry fluctuations,” but lowered the price target to $20 from $39. The analyst reduced first half estimates on theater closures mid-March through May, now expecting Q1 revenue of $575 million, down from previous estimates of $727 million, and Q2 revenue of $388 million from a prior $911 million. AMC’s stock closed 5.6% lower Friday at $3.19. Cinemark shares finished 0.2% higher at $11.42.
AT&T cancelled the $4 billion “accelerated” stock buyback it had planned for Q2 with Morgan Stanley, said an SEC filing Friday. The business “continues to operate effectively during the COVID-19 global pandemic,” it said. But canceling the buyback and other stock repurchases will help AT&T “maintain flexibility and focus on continued investment in serving our customers, taking care of our employees and enhancing our network, including nationwide 5G,” it said. That will enable AT&T to be “well positioned when the pandemic passes and economies begin to recover,” it said. The “evolving nature” of COVID-19 makes it impossible to “estimate the impact on our financial or operational results,” it said.
Organizers of Music Biz 2020, May 11-14 at the JW Marriott in Nashville, postponed their conference to Aug. 16-19, they said Friday. “All conference registrations and hotel reservations will be honored and automatically transferred for the postponed dates.” The decision to postpone was made in “conjunction” with the JW Marriott and local health authorities, they said. The conference bills itself as the music industry’s "premier business-focused event."
AT&T began closing 40% of company-owned retail stores Wednesday in response to COVID-19, blogged AT&T Communications CEO Jeff McElfresh. Closures will continue as the carrier concentrates resources on select stores to meet the immediate service needs of customers, including first responders and healthcare providers. The carrier cut back store hours to 11 a.m.-7 p.m. local time and is closing all stores on Sundays. It cut back call center capacity due to leave accommodations for employees with children in schools that have closed or who are at a higher risk for contracting COVID-19. The company implemented interactive voice response messaging encouraging self-help tools at att.com. Field technicians will prioritize repair and service for existing customers, followed by broadband installations for healthcare providers, it said. Boost Mobile announced Thursday customers will automatically receive free international calling rates from the U.S. to Level 3 countries defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- and then waive reconnection fees -- through April 30. Customers on an unlimited data plan get 20 additional GB of mobile hot spot access on their plans, and tiered plans get 20 more GB free. Earlier this week, Sprint said it's closing stores (see 2003170051), as did other telecoms. AT&T said Thursday its consumer home internet wireline and fixed wireless broadband customers can use unlimited internet data. It will continue to offer internet access for qualifying limited income households at $10 monthly and expanded eligibility to the Access program to households participating in the National School Lunch Program and Head Start. It's offering customers new to Access two months free.
Dish Network is giving AT&T 20 MHz of its AWS-4 spectrum and all of its 700 MHz portfolio at no cost for 60 days, said Dish Thursday. It began lending T-Mobile all its 600 MHz spectrum last week. With the AT&T and T-Mobile agreements, Dish “has activated most of its spectrum portfolio to enhance national wireless capacity as the nation confronts the COVID-19 crisis,” it said. T-Mobile said Thursday it has now deployed additional 600 MHz spectrum from multiple companies (see 2003160063), “effectively doubling total 600 MHz LTE capacity across the nation.” The extra spectrum “will help ensure T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile and partner customers can stay connected during this critical time,” the carrier said.
Help Lightning is pushing its remote expertise solution for custom integrators as a social distancing option during the COVID-19 outbreak. At the ProSource Summit in Las Vegas last week, Vice President-Business Development Mike Giffin demonstrated the product, which uses a tablet's camera for remote troubleshooting. The solution uses merged reality, where objects from virtual and real worlds are merged and interact. Giffin focused an iPad camera on the rear panel of a router to simulate a connection to a technician located far away. The Help Lightning option “allows you to be virtually with them,” Giffin told us. Unlike remote support programs that take over a customer’s screen, Remote Expertise guides customers on their screen to physical actions such as turning a dial or unplugging a wire and plugging it in elsewhere, he said. The tech and the customer can circle problem spots to better identify issues, he said. Sessions are recorded so customers can go back to them later. They can also take snapshots that are stored on the local device and in the cloud. Integrators buy one license for each tech on staff at $360 per year; dealers can pass on the costs or not to their customers, Giffin said. The solution is available at a time when integrators have been looking for ways to minimize expensive truck rolls and improve productivity of technicians, whose average productivity rate is just under 60% due to travel time: “For every 10 hours they work, they’re working six that they can bill,” Giffin said. In the coronavirus period, it's especially important to have a virtual tech house call as customers don’t want to open their homes to outsiders, he said.
Ad-supported over-the-top video might be able to tap into the $70 billion TV advertising market thanks to live sports' mass cancellations due to COVID-19 and advertisers that had depended on those events to reach viewers, nScreen Media analyst Colin Dixon blogged Wednesday. He said the longer pandemic issues go on, the more time advertisers will have to see if advertising on OTT works.
The Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry shot back Thursday against “high-level” U.S. officials it alleges were “stigmatizing China” for the COVID-19 pandemic. Their “slanders” have “triggered strong indignation among the Chinese people,” said a spokesperson. “China firmly opposes and condemns such smears.” President Donald Trump defended calling COVID-19 “the Chinese virus” at a White House briefing Wednesday. The pandemic “comes from China,” said Trump. He also thinks China could have given the U.S. “a lot earlier notice” about the outbreak, he said. The foreign affairs spokesperson responded that China has given “timely updates” to the World Health Organization “and other countries and regions, the U.S. included,” since the pandemic began. China by “international consensus” brought “precious time” to the “global fight against COVID-19.” he said.
MGM Resorts completed the rolling closure of hotels and casinos nationally with Tuesday’s shutdown of all Las Vegas properties, said the company Wednesday. “We regret the dire choices we have had to make,” said CEO Jim Murren. An attendee of the Women in Power Summit March 5-8 at the Mirage in Las Vegas tested positive for the coronavirus after returning home to New York, MGM announced last week. The Southern Nevada Health District in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, reported 42 confirmed cases of COVID-19 through Tuesday, including one death. Only four confirmed cases were in the area March 11 when NAB announced the cancellation of its April 18-22 event at the Las Vegas Convention Center (see 2003110036).