It’s premature for Wisconsin to discuss how it would renegotiate the 2017 contract for Foxconn to build an LCD fab, said Melissa Hughes, CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., Tuesday on the WisconsinEye public affairs network. The state agreed to pay Foxconn up to $2.86 billion in cash credits to build a Gen 10.5 fab on a 32 million-square-foot campus in Mount Pleasant if the company met specific construction and labor milestones, including hiring up to 13,000 workers at a $54,000 average wage (see 1708040056). The “deal that was struck” under former Gov. Scott Walker (R) “is no longer in play” after Foxconn significantly downsized the project, Gov. Tony Evers (D) told reporters in April (see 1904190038). Hughes hasn’t visited Mount Pleasant since taking the WEDC post two months ago but hopes to meet with Foxconn leaders at the site in the next few weeks, she said. “It would be disingenuous to express anything I think I know or might know until I have a chance to sit down with them and meet them face to face,” she said. She wants to ask Foxconn officials if “they’re satisfied with the state’s performance” under the contract, she said. “The state’s been doing a tremendous amount of work” on the project especially at the local level, she said. “Foxconn being successful is really important. The state being successful is really important. How do we make sure that we find that path toward success for both?”

Wedbush Securities scaled back FY 2020 revenue projections for Logitech to $2.95 billion from $2.97 billion, citing Q2 results, more impact from tariffs and lower revenue growth in gaming in the holiday quarter. After Logitech’s Tuesday Q2 report (see 1910220028), analyst Michael Pachter said in an investor note it’s unclear if the holiday quarter will fare as well as Q2 where Logitech had a 4 percent revenue bump to $720 million, but “it is prudent to err on the side of caution.” While maintaining an “outperform” rating, Pachter noted Logitech expects to pull forward inventory ahead of List 4B Section 301 tariffs that may be implemented Dec. 15, to relocate more manufacturing or to raise prices “where appropriate.” Logitech reaffirmed FY ’20 revenue guidance of mid-to-high single-digit sales growth Tuesday but didn't break out guidance for the holiday quarter.

GoPro began shipping quantities of the new Hero8 Black to consumers who preordered the camera at GoPro.com, said the vendor Friday. It also started shipping the camera to retailers in advance of Tuesday’s official release date, it said. Consumers who trade in an old GoPro camera can get $100 off the Hero8 Black, which lists for $399, said the company

TiVo announced a new video network said to make it easier to find content across live TV, DVR and online streaming services, along with two DVRs. The TiVo Plus network, coming to TiVo customers in the “coming weeks,” delivers live and streaming channels, movies and TV shows to viewers in “an app-free environment” in a way that makes them easy to find, said the company Tuesday. Categories are presented alongside TV and subscription services subscribers already use, it said. TiVo partnered with Xumo, Jukin Media and other publishers to make channels such as TMZ, Outside TV Plus, PowerNation, FailArmy, Unsolved Mysteries, Hell's Kitchen, Food52 and Ameba for launch; others will follow from Gannett, Loop Media, Revry, Newsy, Tastemade, Latido Music and Mobcrush, it said. New Edge DVRs from TiVo include Dolby Atmos, and, for the first time, Dolby Vision HDR. The Edge comes in two versions: the 4K Ultra HD ($399), designed to work with HD antenna or digital cable, it said, and an antenna-only version for cord-cutters at $349. The antenna model has a 2 TB hard drive for up to 300 hours of HD recording and four tuners; the cable version has the same storage but six tuners. Service plans are $7 monthly, $70 annually or $250 lifetime for the antenna-only model and $15 monthly, $150 annually or $550 lifetime for the cable model, it said.

VuWall combined its Canadian and German operations under a “single umbrella” called the VuWall Group, said the AV network management solutions provider Tuesday. Joining together the two operations enables the combined company to “leverage the best talent” and operate “more efficiently,” it said. Software development and R&D will continue to be based in Montreal, and production will be “consolidated exclusively” in Germany, it said.

Facebook suspended tens of thousands of apps from some 400 developers Friday in an investigation related to its Cambridge Analytica privacy breach. The company analyzed millions of apps, and the investigation is ongoing, said Vice President-Product Partnerships Ime Archibong. Many apps were in their “testing phase,” or didn’t respond to requests for information, he said. Others were banned “completely,” he said. Reasons for the latter included “inappropriately sharing data obtained from us, making data publicly available without protecting people’s identity or something else that was in clear violation of our policies.” The FTC should investigate the app developers, said Future of Privacy Forum CEO Jules Polonetsky: “If apps that misuse Facebook members’ data escape legal penalty, developers will get the message that there is no legal risk to improper data-sharing. Every company, and especially app developers, needs to understand that there are consequences for abusing consumer data.” The agency declined comment.

CEO Randall Stephenson defended AT&T's vertical integration strategy Tuesday at a Goldman Sachs media conference, a week after an activist investor questioned such focus (see 1909090020). Stephenson said if he had been asked five years ago whether it made sense to vertically integrate media and network assets, he would have been hard-pressed to say yes, but content creation is changing radically, and growth now is digital. Having a direct path to consumers provides a better way to offer new digital platforms such as HBO Max. Though Stephenson, 59, has no immediate plans to retire, WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey would be in a good position to be heir apparent if he executes on the company's strategy of integrating premium content and distribution, the current AT&T chief said. Stephenson doesn't plan to participate in more consolidation. He noted that given regulatory uncertainty over mergers and acquisitions, it's hard to predict outcomes. Among current deals is T-Mobile's buying Sprint, which states are challenging (see 1909170035). Stephenson noted AT&T has 170 million customer relationships in pay TV, broadband and mobile, plus it's in 55,000 retail locations: "We touch customers 3.2 billion times a year." Dish Network did a "hard drop" of HBO in Q2 after they failed to reach contract renewal (see 1902130039), but the network grew 3 percent that quarter, he said. AT&T shared the activist letter with its board, Stephenson said, and will see what makes sense for shareholders.

Sony’s board voted unanimously to keep its semiconductor operations inside the Sony group, rejecting calls from hedge fund Third Point to spin off the chips business into a stand-alone public stock, said CEO Kenichiro Yoshida in a shareholder letter Tuesday. The "valuation discount" in Sony’s stock is “attributable primarily to portfolio complexity, which will be a permanent problem unless it is decisively addressed,” said Third Point, a $1.5 billion Sony investor, in a June 13 letter to shareholders. But Sony’s board, after a 90-day review, decided keeping the semiconductor business “is the best strategy for enhancing Sony’s corporate value over the long term,” said Yoshida. The chips business “is a crucial growth driver for Sony that is expected to create even more value going forward through its close collaboration with the other businesses and personnel within the Sony Group,” he said. The board and management team “are excited about the immense potential” the semiconductors business brings Sony, he said. “We expect it to not only further expand its current global number one position in imaging applications, but also continue to grow in new and rapidly developing markets, such as IoT, autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, said Yoshida. Third Point declined comment Tuesday.

Communications Workers of America urged AT&T to reject Monday's investor proposal (see 1909090020). CWA said Elliott Management's plan could eliminate jobs. Instead, the union wants AT&T to invest in its core business to develop broadband, video and wireless services "and invest in its workforce through improved training and retention." AT&T declined to comment beyond its earlier statement. The investor didn't comment.

Gracenote launched a video identification system for content providers Thursday designed to streamline the process for distributing movies, TV shows, short-form videos and other content to over-the-top services, smart-device makers, and cable and satellite TV providers. Citing the “massive growth cycle” of the current entertainment industry, as new services, platforms and devices look for additional content, more descriptive metadata and universal identifiers are needed so viewers can easily search for and find what they want to watch, including via voice assistants, said the company. With the Gracenote Video ID Distribution system, studios and networks can register content with the Nielsen company’s video database and obtain certified Gracenote IDs to improve search and discovery in program guides, interfaces and OTT catalogs, it said. They can also submit their own descriptive metadata, tags and imagery, to be reviewed by Gracenote and then prepared for broad distribution. Gracenote said the system's IDs and metadata provide common links between TV series, seasons and episodes, related TV and movie genres, celebrities, and other descriptive information. It has the potential to improve how Hollywood blockbusters, independent films and short-form videos are distributed to and surfaced in pay-TV and OTT catalogs, it said, and how consumers access them. Streaming service catalogs average 40,000 TV episodes and movies, creating “discoverability challenges,” said Gracenote. It highlighted short-form videos that delve deeper into storylines and characters of popular TV shows as a category that can benefit from Gracenote connected metadata and content IDs: Short-term video content can be easily displayed next to related long-form content, it said. Content creators and owners can submit movies, TV programs or short form video content to the database, which consolidates metadata, linear schedules, VOD and OTT catalogs for more than 85 countries, Gracenote said.