Boeing said its 3-month trial with Lufthansa for its Connexion by Boeing service was a success. The test ended April 18, it said. Both companies will analyze the data and incorporate results into continuing the service, Boeing said. Preliminary results showed that 50-80 passengers used the service simultaneously and 95% of respondents were “very or extremely satisfied,” it said. In a separate announcement, IONA said Connexion would use its Orbix and Orbix/E technologies to control and monitor the satellite communication link facilitating the service.

3DO plans special shareholders meeting May 20 at its Redwood City, Cal., hq, for vote on whether to issue 1.76 million shares to CEO William (Trip) Hawkins and warrant for another 441,176 shares in cancellation of $3 million in company debt he holds, company said SEC proxy statement filed Mon. Filing said 3DO board believed proposal was “the most effective means” to avoid delisting of its shares by Nasdaq. 3DO received Nasdaq letter in Feb. warning that company failed to meet $10 million minimum stockholders equity required for continued listing. Filing said issuance of common stock and warrants that would allow 3DO to meet minimum requirement must be completed by May 23, Nasdaq told 3DO in followup letter. If proposal isn’t approved, 3DO said, “we may attempt to increase our stockholders’ equity in other ways” but if it’s “unsuccessful, we may be delisted” from Nasdaq. Company said it “expects to announce preliminary voting results shortly after completion of the meeting” and then announce final voting results via 8-K SEC filing. It said proposal “must receive the affirmative vote of a majority of shares of common stock” for approval.

Largest individual beneficial owners of Macrovision common shares as of April 1 were Matthew Christiano, company’s former chief technology officer, and his wife, Sallie Calhoun, a former Macrovision employee, company said in preliminary proxy statement filed with SEC. Christiano and Calhoun owned 4,935,653 shares (10.2% of those outstanding), while Chmn. John Ryan held 1,326,590 shares (2.7%) and CEO William Krepick, 605,987 (1.3%), filing said. Christiano, founder and former CEO of Globetrotter Software before its acquisition by Macrovision, resigned as chief technology officer July 1 and has remained consultant, for which he’s being paid annual $180,000 fee under agreement that expires Aug. 31, 2003, filing said. Krepick drew 2002 salary of $250,000 plus $55,000 bonus and had stock options for 80,000 shares vs. year earlier when he had options for 170,000 and was paid same salary but no bonus, filing said. Amendments to 1996 employee stock purchase plan, including increasing reserve by 1.5 million shares and extending term additional 2 years, are among proposals on agenda for annual shareholder meeting May 27 at Macrovision’s Santa Clara hq, filing said.

BellSouth said it won an injunction Wed. in U.S. Dist. Court, Atlanta, against Access Integrated Networks (AIN) for sales practices that confused small businesses into thinking they were dealing with BellSouth. “AIN repeatedly used BellSouth’s name and reputation to its own benefit and misrepresented its relationship with BellSouth” to get customers to switch their phone service to AIN, BellSouth charged. Granting BS’s motion for a preliminary injunction, the court said such activity was “widespread” among AIN sales staff and it was “in the public’s interest to restrain AIN from creating further confusion.” The injunction prohibits AIN from saying it’s an affiliate of BellSouth, that AIN’s products are those of BellSouth or that a customer’s telephone service will remain with BellSouth if the customer accepts an AIN offer of service. BellSouth met with members of the FCC Enforcement Bureau Wed. to outline its concerns about the AIN issue but a bureau spokesman wouldn’t comment other than to confirm the meeting.

D&M Holdings, which announced Wed. it had won bankruptcy court auction bid to acquire ReplayTV and Rio assets from SonicBlue for $36.2 million, believes it’s “not a party” in copyright infringement suit pending against ReplayTV and former owner SonicBlue by major entertainment companies, D&M CEO Merle Gilmour told Consumer Electronics Daily.

Leap Wireless filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the weekend in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, San Diego. The wireless carrier said Mon. that it and its principal operating subsidiary, Cricket Communications, were close to reaching an agreement on a plan to restructure outstanding debt. Leap said it had been involved in “active negotiations” with its creditor groups for a month. It said that during its voluntary reorganization in bankruptcy, it would continue daily operations and network service wouldn’t be interrupted. The operator said it didn’t plan to trim its work force, and suppliers would continue to be paid. Leap plans to have an agreement with creditors on a plan of reorganization in several that could differ from a preliminary draft plan filed with the court Mon. The company said it had been working with creditors to restructure its debt since Aug. “We currently have more than $100 million in cash and short-term investments at Cricket and, based on our current performance and our projections for the future, we believe that our restructured company will have adequate cash to operate the business while continuing to offer our service to customers without interruption and providing good opportunities for our employees,” Leap Chmn. Harvey White said. Leap said there would be “little or no value available for distribution” to its common shareholders.

Top U.S. govt. and private sector officials involved in planning for the World Radio Conference 2003 agree no one theme is driving this WRC, whose agenda is far-flung. WRC Ambassador Janice Obuchowski said at an FCBA seminar late Wed. that WRC-97 had 11 agenda items, compared with 20 in 2000 and 44 this year, when the conference runs June 9-July 4. She spoke in a panel discussion sponsored by FCBA’s wireless and international practice committees.

Telefonica Moviles, T-Mobile and Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) said they created an alliance that covered 162 million customers in Europe, the Americas and the Mediterranean Basin, strengthening their ability to compete in cross-border markets. The companies said they would cooperate in several areas, including the development of joint services in roaming, voice, data and mobile Internet, the rollout of joint multinational marketing offers and development of handsets. They said the benefits to customers would include simplified tariff schemes and the capacity to access the same service offering on a global scale as well as lower prices. The alliance will be open to other operators, the carriers said. They were in process of contacting authorities about the preliminary steps of the alliance.

Zenith will introduce limited-distribution line of CE gear under LG brand in 2nd half, marking first appearance of LG- labeled products in CE market since Goldstar goods were pulled 7 years ago.

The U.S. Dist. Court, Manhattan, denied a request for a preliminary injunction filed by EchoStar against TV Azteca, a producer of Spanish-language TV programming in Mexico, Azteca said. EchoStar sued Azteca in June, claiming the latter was breaching the exclusivity clause of its contract with the DBS provider by distributing portions of its local programming to U.S. affiliates whose programming was carried over cable and satellite TV services. The injunction, if granted, would have prevented Azteca from distributing its programming before or during trial. The trial now will proceed normally and could result in either a damage award payable to EchoStar or a permanent injunction against it, Azteca said, or a decision in EchoStar’s favor.