The U.K. and Ukraine began talks on a new digital trade agreement during a meeting Tuesday between British Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko. The agreement will seek to drop barriers to digital trade in a bid to boost Ukrainian jobs following Russia’s invasion, said the U.K. Department for International Trade Wednesday. The U.K. decided earlier to eliminate import tariffs on all goods from Ukraine.

HP is starting to see “some weakness” in its consumer PC business in Europe, CEO Enrique Lores told a Bernstein investor conference Thursday. Lores thinks their “proximity” to the war in Ukraine has made consumers “more concerned about investment,” he said. “It's hard to know where this is going to go, but we have started to see some of these signals.” HP hasn’t seen any hesitancy from enterprise customers in Europe due to the Russian hostlities in Ukraine, but “given the situation, it is one of the areas that we're watching closely,” he said.

The global macroeconomic environment “has definitely deteriorated further and faster” than Snap expected April 21 when it issued second-quarter guidance for 20%-25% revenue growth, CEO Evan Spiegel told a J.P. Morgan investors conference Monday. Snap repeated the warning in an SEC filing Monday evening that sent the stock plunging 43.1% Tuesday, closing at $12.79. Though Snap’s revenue continues to grow year over year in Q2, it’s likely that revenue and profit “will come in below the low end of our guidance range,” said Spiegel. It’s “certainly something that we’re working through along with many other businesses” affected by supply chain issues, inflation, concerns about interest rates and the war in Ukraine, said Spiegel. “There’s a lot to deal with in the macro environment today,” he said. “Our general perspective and strategy has been to invest through it.” Though Snap is “changing some of the pacing” of its hiring, he said, “this is certainly going to continue to be a period of significant investment for the business.”

Qorvo downgraded its projections on global 5G smartphone shipments for calendar 2022 to 650 million-675 million from 700 million-750 million phones because “we also believe the smartphone market itself is also coming down,” CEO Bob Bruggeworth told a J.P. Morgan investors conference Monday. The company supplies RF components to the world’s top smartphone OEMs, and much of the forecast downgrade “has to do with our customers in China, which is one of the growth areas for 5G,” he said. “Consumer sentiment” for 5G in China has been declining, and the COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai and elsewhere “continue all the way up to this day,” he said. The war in Ukraine “also is impacting some of the export market for some of our China based handset customers,” plus that of Samsung, in Eastern Europe, he said. “So when we integrated all that, we felt it was best to bring down our numbers for 5G.” Qorvo views this as a “temporary” lull, said the CEO. “We don't see this as a structural change in our end markets.”

Western Europe’s economic output will remain “heavily weighed down by high inflation and the ongoing war in Ukraine,” said Canalys Monday, saying PC shipments in the region dropped 3% year on year in Q1 after “after a long period of high growth.” Shipments reached 15.8 million in the quarter, led by Lenovo (4.1 million), HP (3.9 million), Dell (2.2 million), Apple (1.8 million) and Acer (1.2 million). “With the current economic outlook for 2022, consumer spending is expected to soften as spending power weakens,” said analyst Trang Pham. After consumers deemed PCs “essential” for the past two years, they are now expected to delay new purchases and upgrades “unless completely necessary,” Pham said. Businesses are expected to prop up demand as “multiple markets have officially moved toward business-as-usual operations,” she said. Tablet shipments fell 22% in Q1, with demand having passed its peak in key markets that are “near saturation,” said the analyst.

Harmonic anticipates losing about $6 million in 2022 revenue by ceasing its video business in Russia due to the war in Ukraine, said CEO Patrick Harshman on a Q1 earnings call Monday. “We expect this Russia gap to be largely filled” by video appliance and streaming “upside” in other parts of the world, where Harmonic is having “stronger than originally forecast demand,” he said. The streaming upside in quarters to come “is due in part to a major new sports-driven win during the first quarter with a Tier 1 streaming media company, as well as continued expansion of livestream and sports delivery for customers that have already launched,” he said.

Eutelsat, Mavenir and other telecom companies continuing to operate in Russia "communicate a tacit disregard for the oppression of Ukrainians and callous desire to profit from the warmongering Russian regime despite the costs," blogged Strand Communications Saturday. It said Eutelsat has options, including ending service in Russia, asking U.S. and E.U. leaders to compel it to do so, or continuing to provide connectivity there, but also transmitting non-Russian media channels. Eutelsat emailed that it is in compliance with current international sanctions "and remains attentive to their potential evolution in coordination with the competent authorities." It said many international channels remain available for Russian viewers in free-to-air packages. Eutelsat said it implemented the March 1 E.U. Council Regulation suspending broadcast of Russia Today.

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America wants the FCC to designate the license of a Reston, Virginia, translator for hearing over the station’s broadcasting of content from Russian-sponsored news channel Radio Sputnik, said a petition filed Thursday. The Ukrainian American citizens’ group filed two previous petitions targeting stations owned by Arthur and Yvonne Liu (see 2204060070). The translator, owned by retired Womble Bond broadcast attorney John Garziglia, rebroadcasts the signal from the Lius’ station WZHF(AM) Columbia Heights, Maryland. “By broadcasting paid Russian propaganda, Garziglia is aiding and abetting Russia’s continuing war crimes in Ukraine,” said the petition. “It is unlikely that torture, mass murder or the rape of children troubles Garziglia’s sleep. No doubt, he falls asleep counting the money Russia pays him to broadcast its agitprop.” First Amendment and broadcast attorneys told us it's unlikely the FCC would revoke the license of a station over its content (see 2203230054). The petition also asks the FCC to investigate whether Garziglia is evading sanctions against Russia to continue collecting money for the broadcasts. “If Garziglia is working with the Russian government to evade the sanctions, it is not only against the law, but for the purposes of this petition, raises serious questions as to his character qualification as an FCC licensee,” the petition said. Garziglia didn’t comment on this petition, but after NAB urged broadcasters to cease airing Russian-sponsored content in March, he said blocking his broadcast would violate the First Amendment and the station had value because it communicates the Russian point of view.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. believes it’s well-insulated from disruption in the supply of raw materials due to the war in Ukraine, said CEO C.C. Wei on a Q1 earnings call Thursday. TSMC “operates a well-established enterprise risk management system to identify and access all relevant risk and proactively implement risk mitigation strategies,” he said. “In terms of material supply, TSMC’s strategy is to continuously develop multi-source supply solutions to build a well-diversified global supplier base and to improve the local supply chain.” For specialty chemicals and gases, including neon -- available in large volumes from Ukraine before the Russian invasion -- “we source from multiple suppliers in different regions, and we have prepared a certain level of inventory stock on hand,” said Wei. “We are also working closely with our suppliers to further strengthen the resilience and the sustainability of our supply chain. Thus, we do not expect any impact on our operations from materials supply.”

Renesas is donating a million euros ($1.08 million) to the U.N. refugee agency to support humanitarian aid for Ukraine, said the Japanese chipmaker Thursday. Renesas established a crisis response team at “an early stage” of the Russian invasion “and has been in close contact with its employees in Ukraine,” it said. Besides offering financial support to employees and their families still in Ukraine and those who left the country, Renesas built a shelter in the basement of its office in Lviv for those unable to leave, it said. The company didn't respond to our questions about the status of its business in Russia.