Sega of America (SOA) and its ad agency, Leagas Delaney, were sued last week by Nike for copyright infringement and unfair competition. Separately, BlackSnow Interactive (BSI) sued Mythic Entertainment charging game maker with various antitrust, copyright and anticompetitive activities.
Although he signed FCC filing on Transportation Dept.- funded research on ultra-wideband, Stanford U. Prof. Bradford Parkinson said he wasn’t involved in conducting study, meaning his corporate ties to GPS developer Trimble posed no conflict. In Sept. 2000, Parkinson, who is widely viewed as “Father of GPS,” jointly submitted to FCC ex parte filing with other Stanford researchers outlining preliminary results of UWB tests conducted by GPS Research Lab at Stanford and funded by DoT. “We urge the Commission to proceed with great caution and deliberation,” said filing by 4 professors, including Parkinson, that described research challenges of analyzing UWB-to-GPS interference. But Parkinson said Mon. his role in research, which had been among studies cited by federal agencies concerned about potential of UWB emissions to cause harmful interference to GPS, was to evaluate results after test phase was complete. He said Assoc. Prof. Per Enge oversaw research itself.
IP telephony equipment maker Nx Networks said it was seeking approval from U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Alexandria, Va., to sell its business at auction. Company Nov. 1 filed for protection under Chapter 11. Nx Networks had received letter of intent offer for its assets from Nsdata.com, with preliminary valuation of more than $2 million, company said. It also sought approval to retain investment bank RCW Mirus to oversee bankruptcy auction. Company said it would continue to “fully support” customers. Nx Networks’ IP telephony products include toll bypass, voice VPN, Internet access, packet data equipment.
Consumer intentions on buying TV sets rose in Jan. from Dec. for 2nd straight month, according to preliminary data in Conference Board monthly survey. Of 5,000 households polled, 7.2% said they planned to buy TV set in next 6 months, vs. 6.7% in Dec., 7.7% in Nov., 6.7% in Jan. 2001. Consumer Confidence Index jumped nearly 3 points from Dec., Conference Board saying: “While the economy has not turned around yet, the worst may well be over, and the upturn in confidence is being driven by growing confidence about the business outlook and job prospects.” Board said consumer expectations for near-term future “are now higher than they have been in more than a year.”
Verizon Wireless said its total subscribers grew to 29.4 million by year-end 2001, nearly 10% over 2000. In preliminary financial results released Mon., carrier said it added 715,000 net new customers in 4th quarter 2001. Carrier, which is joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone, said total customer turnover (churn) dropped in 2001 to monthly average of 2.1%. Verizon Wireless invested $4 billion in national network last year, which it said resulted in 13% increase in cell site coverage, deployment of 2-way short- messaging service throughout its network and conversion of more than 20% of its network to 1XRTT version of CDMA. Carrier plans to release full financial results Thurs.
LAS VEGAS -- While conceding major changes are needed in way Assn. conducts business and serves its diverse membership, “there will always be a NATPE,” Pres. Bruce Johansen pledged at first general session of annual conference here. While “a lot of the fun and glamour of our business our gone… for now,” need for NATPE services is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago, and need will still be there “40 years from now,” he said.
UBS Warburg revised 12-month price target for Sprint PCS to $37 from $41, but kept “strong buy” recommendation on carrier’s stock. Earlier this week, Sprint PCS had disclosed preliminary 4th quarter results, including addition of 1.1 million net subscribers, which was on low-end of analyst consensus estimates. UBS itself had forecast 1.3 million subscriber additions. Most of deviation from projection was due to higher-than-expected cost of each gross subscriber additions, UBS said.
Lindows.com filed motion to dismiss trademark lawsuit filed against it by Microsoft. In suit, filed last month, Microsoft sought to stop Lindows from using terms “LindowsOS” and “Lindows.com.” Lindows said Microsoft also demanded it turn over its entire database of names, e-mail addresses and physical addresses for people who have expressed interest in operating system it’s planning to make available that will run Microsoft Windows and Linux software. In challenging Microsoft, Lindows said Tues.: “Because Lindows.com has no presence and conducts no business in the state of Washington” -- where Microsoft is based -- “Lindows.com has filed a motion to dismiss the claim citing a lack of personal jurisdiction over” San Diego-based Lindows. Motion by Lindows to dismiss lawsuit and motion by Microsoft for preliminary injunctions are set for hearing Feb. 1, Lindows said. Lindows was formed by Michael Robertson, who became its CEO after stepping down from MP3.com as CEO. Robertson said Tues.: “We're looking forward to showing the court the widespread use of the term ‘windows’ or variations thereof by literally hundreds of companies which are not endorsed or sponsored by Microsoft. The fact that Microsoft has chosen not to sue these companies demonstrates their true motivation in this case is to crush competition from a promising new technology which threatens their illegally obtained monopoly… We're not happy that a company known for illegal business practices took the unnecessary step of gaining access to our database. In spite of their assurances it will not be used for any purpose outside this case, we've alerted our users of Microsoft’s actions.” Development of Lindows operating system was “continuing,” Robertson said, despite delays caused by producing almost 15,000 pages of documents demanded by Microsoft. Sneak preview of LindowsOS “is expected shortly,” Lindows said.
CEA officials Mon. emphasized quality over quantity of attendees at Las Vegas CES in preliminary post-show report that event’s total turnout declined to 97,962. Official tally will be released in spring following audit by ABC Expomark that in past years has shown higher attendance count than that of preliminary estimate.
Toronto game provider Hip Interactive said it expected 3rd quarter sales to climb 50% from same quarter year ago to $75 million ($120 million Canadian). Company said it expected to post earnings of 8-10 cents (Canadian) per share in quarter vs. 4 cents (Canadian) year earlier. CEO Arindra Singh said: “We are extremely pleased with our preliminary 3rd quarter results… We look forward to reporting improved results for the full 2002 fiscal year end.” Company also said it had completed sale of Canadian Microplay franchise business to Jumbo Entertainment.