Future of work spending will be nearly $656 billion this year, up 17% over 2020, as technologies including cloud and mobile computing transition the work model toward human-machine collaboration, said IDC Wednesday. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a shift toward a work environment “un-bounded by time or physical space,” it said. Organizations need to invest in technologies and services that support automation, human-machine collaboration, new organizational structures and leadership styles, dynamic learning opportunities and a reimagined, digital workplace, said analyst Holly Muscolino. The largest area of investment in 2021 will be $228 billion in hardware, for endpoint devices, enterprise hardware, infrastructure as a service, robotics and drones, said the researcher. More than $13 billion will be spent on services, including business, information technology and connectivity, it said. Software, including analytics and AI, will have the fastest spending growth, with a compound annual growth rate of 21% over the 2020-2024 forecast period.
Internet stocks had strong June results, rising 6.7% vs. 2.2% for the S&P 500, reversing a trend for the first five months of 2021, Canaccord Genuity wrote investors Thursday. Many internet companies will begin to face difficult 2020 comparables as they come up against COVID-fueled results from 2020, though two-year stacked revenue increases suggest growth across the category “remains strong and that the pandemic-driven acceleration of digital adoption is likely to persist,” said analyst Maria Ripps. Digital advertising momentum is expected to continue, while e-commerce should have “robust growth.” With millions of new customers acquired over the past year during the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce companies are focusing on retaining the most recent customers amid the reopening, said the analyst.
Sony Interactive Entertainment completed the acquisition of Netherlands-based Nixxes Software, it said Thursday. The Nixxes team will join PlayStation Studios providing in-house technical and development capabilities, said SIE. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
CES is adding two categories for the January show: space tech and food tech, said CTA Wednesday. Technology is “advancing opportunities for space exploration and space living conditions,” creating new communications services and opportunities in biology and human health, said Karen Chupka, CTA executive vice president-CES. Exhibitor Sierra Space, a subsidiary of Sierra Nevada, will showcase its Dream Chaser spaceplane at CES, said Chupka. The food technology category covers agriculture, ingredient innovation, meal kits and deliveries, nutrition, plant-based proteins, traceability, sustainability and vertical farming and more. Grov Technologies, Impossible Foods and John Deere will return as CES exhibitors, she said.
AT&T should modify certain claims comparing its fiber internet service upload speed with cable, the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division recommended Wednesday. NAD recommended AT&T modify its “better internet” and “faster internet experience” claims when comparing its service with cable. NAD also recommended AT&T “modify the implied claim that Comcast’s internet is unreliable to avoid conveying the messages that cable users are unable to video chat, upload large files, expand their businesses, or sell their homes.” Comcast challenged AT&T’s claims that appeared in five television commercials and one internet advertisement. NAD said AT&T’s evidence to substantiate its claims was “not a good fit” and “the record did not demonstrate that the problems presented to consumers in the advertisements exist to the degree and duration suggested by the ads.” AT&T said it will appeal the decision: The phrases at issue are “perfectly legitimate.” Comcast didn’t comment.
North American box office is trending 41.1% lower year to date, to $1.01 billion, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Tuesday. Q2 domestic box office is “significantly higher” than last year when theaters were closed in April and May during COVID-19 lockdowns; June’s $368 box office receipts, to date, were above last year’s $4 million but 68% below June 2019 receipts, said the analyst. Wedbush estimates 2021 domestic box office will end up 129% over 2020 and down 58% from 2019. It’s predicting a 126% year-on-year increase in 2022, 4% down from 2019, though “studios are hedging through the end of the year by releasing several titles day-and-date with their streaming platforms so that they can both drive box office while boosting monthly subscribers.” Pachter expects studios to revise strategies for 2022 as attendance trends become clearer through the summer and into the holidays, then to employ “near-normalized exclusive theatrical windows for blockbusters in 2022.” Smaller budget films will likely have shorter exclusive windows, benefiting from combined theatrical-streaming marketing, he said.
E-commerce “utilization rates” remain high in the U.S., even as COVID-19 mask mandates ease, stores reopen and nearly 60% of American adults are fully vaccinated, a Pitney Bowes survey found. It canvassed 2,000 U.S. adults, finding consumers “have mixed reactions to the easing of mask mandates,” it said. Slightly more than a fifth, 22%, plan to shop in-store more often than before mask mandates were lifted, while 17% will shop online more often, it said. Fewer than half of U.S. consumers, 47%, shop online more often today than they did before the pandemic, it said. Though e-commerce experienced record growth after the pandemic began, preferences for online shopping were down 7 points from January, it said. It’s also the “longest sustained” drop below 50% since Pitney Bowes started tracking the metric last August.
Nearly half of U.S. TV viewers are already cordless, and 44% of cable subscribers “anticipate pulling back or cutting service in the coming year,” The Trade Desk reported Tuesday. The analytics company hired YouGov to canvass a nationally representative sample of 4,000 U.S. adults April 27-May 5, finding only 19% of TV viewers “are returning to their pre-pandemic sports viewing habits,” it said. Nearly half, 44%, who watch sports “are choosing a primary viewing source outside of linear TV,” it said. That number increases to 65% among adult sports viewers 34 and younger. The study found more U.S. TV viewers report watching streaming content with ads (44%) than without ads (33%). Nearly two-thirds are unwilling to spend more than $30 a month on streaming services, “making free or lower-cost ad-supported services more attractive,” it said.
Voxx’s Premium Audio subsidiary and Sharp formed a joint venture to acquire assets of Onkyo Home Entertainment, as the next step after an asset purchase agreement signed in early June (see 2106030071). Onkyo shareholders approved the proposed transaction on Friday, said Voxx Monday. Purchase price is $30.8 million, plus the assumption of liabilities and future commission payments to Onkyo on select product sales, Voxx said. Premium Audio, which will own about 75% of the joint venture, will handle distribution worldwide and be responsible for all sales and marketing. Sharp, with 25% share, will be responsible for manufacturing through its Malaysia facility. The joint venture will have ownership of the brands, intellectual property, engineering, and manufacturing rights of the Onkyo and Integra brands. The Onkyo deal is expected to be finalized on or before Aug. 30. "It will take time to ramp up production and secure parts, given near-term industry headwinds," said Voxx CEO Pat Lavelle, but Voxx expects the transaction to lead to "significant growth and improved profitability in the years ahead." It anticipates net sales of about $50 million in fiscal 2022, ending in May, "with upside thereafter as we leverage our distribution domestically and abroad." Voxx also signed a new licensing agreement with Pioneer to market and sell the Pioneer and Pioneer Elite brands worldwide through Premium Audio, excluding China.
The Vtex software-as-a-service digital commerce platform processed orders worth $7.5 billion in “gross merchandise value” (GMV) for its online customers in 2020, nearly double its 2019 volume, said the company in an F-1 registration filing Friday at the SEC for an initial public offering of Class A common stock. The platform enables customers to deploy their e-commerce strategies, “including building online stores, integrating and managing orders across channels, and creating marketplaces to sell products from third-party vendors,” it said, claiming 2,000 customers in 32 countries, mostly “enterprise brands and retailers.” Brazilian company Vtex is “a leader in accelerating the digital commerce transformation in Latin America,” and is expanding globally, said the IPO. It drew 43% of its revenue last year from customers outside Brazil, up from 29% in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated e-commerce adoption when consumers increased their online spending “due to extensive stay at home orders,” it said. Global e-commerce GMV was an estimated $4 trillion in 2020, and is expected to reach $6 trillion by 2024, based on an 11% compound annual growth rate, it said: “As we continue to expand our platform offerings as well as our global reach, we expect to capture more of this GMV. We believe that our market will expand as consumers continue to shift purchases to online channels and brands and retailers adapt to evolving consumer preferences.”