Walmart shares hit a 52-week low Tuesday after it reported a 24.8% net-profit decline to $2.1 billion in fiscal Q1 ended April 30. Revenue grew 2.4% to $141.6 billion, below analysts' expectations. The stock closed 11.4% lower at $131.35.
U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council negotiators, meeting over the weekend in Paris, agreed to set up an early warning “alert system” to share information about possible disruptions in the semiconductor supply chain, and “incentivize increased production” of chips, said the group in a joint statement Monday. The TTC also agreed to put a “mechanism” in place to avoid chip “subsidy races” among local governments, it said.
China has a growing presence in telecom standards bodies like the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, but experts said during a USTelecom webinar Thursday that the U.S. still has significant influence. Experts agreed the election of American Doreen Bogdan-Martin as ITU secretary-general is important to the development of industry-led standards (see 2205110039). The President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) is scheduled to vote at a May 24 meeting on a draft letter to the president on standards.
The war in Ukraine, plus rising inflation and rolling COVID-19 lockdowns throughout China, “have significantly impacted the supply chain and consumer electronics demand, leading to a particularly abnormal business environment,” said Himax Technologies CEO Jordan Wu on a Q1 earnings call Thursday. The company supplies display-driver chips to major panel makers, and its financial performance can be a bellwether of health in the display industry. Its stock closed 13.2%. higher Friday at $9.41
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., will meet with ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Monday afternoon for renewed privacy negotiations, a committee member told us last week.
As predicted, Snap One will institute another price hike (see 2203230053) June 6 in an “evolving pricing strategy” to address rising supply chain costs, “competitive forces” and “affordability of solutions,” said CEO John Heyman on an earnings call Thursday for Q1 ended April 1.
Vizio’s “dual-revenue business model” and an “aggressive pricing strategy” implemented in Q1 on select TV models “paid off,” said CEO William Wang on an earnings call Thursday. Hardware revenue in the quarter fell 16% year on year to $382.9 million on an 11% decline in TV shipments, the company reported Thursday. Vizio was the second-leading TV brand in March in the U.S., he said.
Nearly three years after it bought Paris-based voice technology company Snips for $37.5 million (see 1911210045), Sonos announced a proprietary voice experience for all mic-equipped Sonos speakers. CEO Patrick Spence underscored privacy in announcing the Sonos-dedicated voice feature on a Wednesday earnings call, saying voice commands are done entirely on the Sonos speaker or sound bar, with no audio or conversation transcript “sent to the cloud, stored, listened to or read by anyone.”
The FTC should look “very closely” at Amazon’s purchase of MGM (see 2203170007), Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said Thursday. The agency didn’t challenge the deal before it closed in March, but Chair Lina Khan has been without a Democratic majority since October. The Senate confirmed Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya this week, restoring the majority (see 2205110069). The FTC said in August the “the law permits the antitrust agencies to determine that a merger is illegal even after the companies have merged.”
Tech groups could soon go to the Supreme Court, after the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals lifted a lower court’s temporary ban on Texas’ social media law. Judges issued the 2-1 order, without written explanation, two days after oral argument (see 2205100002). The order signals that the 5th Circuit is likely to reverse the district court soon, said supporters and opponents of the state law, in interviews. They predicted litigation will quickly heat up.