Samsung continues to evaluate “new investment needs in the U.S. that can help us best serve our customers,” a spokeswoman emailed us Thursday in response to questions on reports the company is exploring a bigger U.S. manufacturing presence for major appliances. "The U.S. is an important market for Samsung Electronics and we have been making significant investments,” the spokeswoman said. She cited Samsung’s Austin semiconductor plant, where the company has invested $17 billion. An article in the English-language The Korea Herald Friday said Samsung officials in Seoul remained “confused” over a tweet by President Donald Trump praising the tech giant for considering a U.S. factory. After reports went viral on plans for the U.S.-based plant, Trump tweeted: “Thank you, @Samsung! We would love to have you!”
As the Trump administration considers Google antitrust issues, the European Commission likely will issue a ruling against the search company, Cowen and Co. analyst Paul Gallant emailed Wednesday. One EC investigation on search bias in online shopping "is still in the pipeline," Gallant said, but "a negative ruling against Google" is likely in the coming months. Such a ruling will be the first of several verticals, including travel and local search, that the EC could use as leverage against the company, which probably won't settle, he said. A second investigation on Android dominance likely will occur in Q3, he said. Citing last week's The New York Times story about Google being an issue for the White House, Gallant said the company "is still viewed as a Democratic company in a Republican town, and [Executive Chairman] Eric Schmidt's campaign efforts for Hillary Clinton may make Google more of a target." Gallant said if either FTC Acting Chairwoman Maureen Ohlhausen or former Commissioner Joshua Wright ultimately helms the commission, their "past statements ... would seem encouraging for Google." But it's unclear if EC action would help or hurt the company in the U.S., Gallant said. The FTC would get cover to reopen its probe and wouldn't appear politically motivated, but the White House may also react negatively to European meddling in a U.S. company, he said. The company didn't comment.
The FCC set a pleading cycle on the planned transfer of undersea cable rights and other authorizations from Amper units to Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (ATH). Comments and petitions to deny are due March 1, with replies due March 16 on the proposed transfer of control to ATH of international licenses, wireless licenses, satellite earth station authorizations and a cable landing license held by Amper's AST Telecom (doing business as Bluesky), American Samoa Hawaii Cable (ASHC) and Samoa American Samoa Cable (SASC), said a public notice in docket 16-420 in Tuesday's Daily Digest. The parties also request a foreign ownership declaratory ruling "to permit investment of 100 percent in AST by ATH," a public company of the Republic of Fiji. Amper is a Spanish holding company with a 91.8 percent interest in eLandia International, the Miami-based U.S. direct parent of AST and indirect parent of ASHC and SASC. Another eLandia unit has invested in the American Samoa-Hawaii Cable System that AST operates.
The 37-member Alliance for Competitive Taxation supports the House tax reform agenda, it said in a Thursday news release. The group, which includes Dell, Disney, Google and Verizon, offered approval without specifically mentioning some controversial “border adjustability” elements that would subject imports to taxation while exempting U.S. exports. "The ‘Better Way for Tax Reform’ blueprint includes many of the policies that our businesses support, including setting a competitive corporate tax rate at 20 percent, establishing a modern international tax system, promoting investment and job creation in the U.S., and providing a level playing field for U.S. and foreign companies competing to sell their goods and services at home and abroad," the group said. Border adjustability was mentioned in House Speaker Paul Ryan's tax reform agenda last year and continues to be seen as a key element, though no legislation has been introduced. Retailers, which generally depend heavily on imports, are largely opposed to such a provision.
A Missouri woman was sentenced to two years in prison by a U.S. district judge for selling more than $90 million worth of counterfeit cellphone components imported from China, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sherrie Householder, 59, pleaded guilty May 26 to mail fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, it said. From 2012 through 2016, Householder managed U.S. operations of Flash Technology, selling counterfeit cellphone replacement screens, batteries, cases and internal circuitry but representing they were made by Apple, LG, Microsoft, Samsung and other manufacturers. Wang Luo, a Chinese citizen, apparently shipped the counterfeit components to Householder from China. After numerous seizures of shipments by Customs and Border Protection, Householder continued selling the cellphone components despite knowing they were counterfeit. The court also ordered Householder to forfeit $556,938 seized from her accounts and pay a money judgment of nearly $9 million, ICE said.
Qualcomm stock closed down 12.7 percent Monday to $54.88 after Apple sued it for damages totaling $1 billion. In its complaint (in Pacer) filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego, Apple said Qualcomm overcharged the smartphone maker “billions of dollars” and that Qualcomm owes $1 billion to Apple, which Qualcomm claims Apple forfeited by responding to requests as part of an investigation by the Korea Fair Trade Commission. “If that were not enough, Qualcomm then attempted to extort Apple into changing its responses and providing false information to the KFTC in exchange for Qualcomm’s release of those payments to Apple. Apple refused.” In a statement, Qualcomm General Counsel Don Rosenberg called Apple’s claims baseless. “Apple has intentionally mischaracterized our agreements and negotiations, as well as the enormity and value of the technology we have invented, contributed and shared with all mobile device makers through our licensing program. Apple has been actively encouraging regulatory attacks on Qualcomm’s business in various jurisdictions around the world, as reflected in the recent KFTC decision and FTC complaint, by misrepresenting facts and withholding information. We welcome the opportunity to have these meritless claims heard in court where we will be entitled to full discovery of Apple’s practices and a robust examination of the merits,” he said. Also last week, the FTC sued Qualcomm (see 1701170065).
Dolby Labs, continuing the Dolby Vision momentum it showcased at CES (see 1701050004), will bring the high-dynamic-range technology to two models of Skyworth OLED TVs in China through a collaboration with Warner Home Entertainment and Tencent Video’s over-the-top streaming service, the companies announced Thursday. Nine Warner titles will be in the “first slate” of Dolby Vision OTT content offerings, they said: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Lego Movie, Edge of Tomorrow, Jupiter Ascending, The Great Gatsby, San Andreas, Man of Steel, Pacific Rim and Run All Night.
Since the EU high court rejected the old safe harbor trans-Atlantic data sharing framework in October 2015, corporate legal concerns over cross-border data transfers have spiked, said BDO Consulting in a Thursday news release outlining its third annual e-discovery survey of more than 100 senior in-house counsel at "leading" U.S. firms. Sixty percent of corporate counsel -- up 9 percentage points from Q4 2015 -- said "their biggest challenge in cross-border e-discovery comes from numerous -- and often conflicting -- international privacy and security laws." That worry topped other issues including access to data, communication barriers and coordination with local resources. While BDO said safe harbor's successor, the EU-US Privacy Shield, harmonizes some privacy protections, individual country requirements still vary (see 1602290003). The general data protection regulation (GDPR) also provides more clarity on data protections, but also increases the EU's privacy scope and enforceability (see 1604140021), it said. BDO said 74 percent of respondents ranked data breaches as a top data-related legal risk, with 68 percent saying the legal department is more involved with cybersecurity now than a year ago. Mobile data management and under- or over-preservation of data also were listed as top legal risks. The company said independent research firm ALM conducted the survey but didn't indicate when.
Outgoing U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman asked the International Trade Commission to do investigations of business-to-business and business-to-consumer digital technologies developed for overseas sale, including the IoT, cloud and software, in a letter to the ITC released Tuesday. He asked the ITC to review: the broad landscape and recent developments of B2B digital technology principally used by the private sector; foreign market policies that affect U.S. firms’ overseas supplies of B2B digital products and services; and foreign measures that affect international inventories of U.S. firms’ business-to-consumer digital products and services. The investigations would help the Office of USTR evaluate ways companies and workers use the internet and related data networks to ship innovative products and services overseas, and will help the agency assess the impact of trade barriers on manufactured goods trade powered by data networks and digitally enabled services, Froman said. He asked the ITC to complete the first report by Aug. 30, the second report by Oct. 29, 2018, and the third report by March 30, 2019. USTR plans to make the first report public and Froman asked that it not contain confidential business or national security classified information, and asked the ITC to make portions of the second and third reports confidential for 10 years, where warranted.
Gilat and AirMedia Group signed a deal to provide in-flight connectivity services over mainland China, Gilat said in a news release Tuesday. It said the service will use its own high-throughput satellite platform alongside ChinaSatcom's Ka-band capacity to be launched this year, and should begin commercial rollout in early 2018. Gilat China General Manager Jun Xiang said the company is in talks with several other potential Chinese and international partners about similar in-flight connectivity ventures in China.