Zynga shares closed 6.5 percent lower Thursday at $3.13, after the company reported mixed results for Q1 ended March 31 and gave a weaker-than-expected Q2 forecast. Revenue fell 18 percent year-over-year to $263.6 million. But it swung to a $4.1 million profit from a loss of $85.4 million in Q1 last year. Zynga was “encouraged by” the “progress” in Q1, CEO Mark Pincus said on an earnings call Wednesday.
Efforts to head off an FCC vote in favor of giving Vonage direct access to numbers in a few pilot markets appear to have fallen flat despite a big push last week by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, consumer and public interest groups. FCC and industry officials said Monday that Chairman Julius Genachowski appears to have lined up at least three votes for the Vonage trials, with commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel ready to vote yes. The NARUC-led coalition came in too late in the game, bringing with it public interest and consumer groups that had never lobbied on the issue to change votes on an order set for Thursday’s meeting, agency officials said. Supporters of the letter hoped they would raise enough questions to give Clyburn and Commissioner Ajit Pai pause, organizers said last week. “It seems to me the trial gives the bureau a chance to get real world data on porting and routing and number exhaust and intercarrier comp,” an agency official said. A second official said it’s hard to make a case against a pilot. Vonage lawyer Brita Strandberg of Wiltshire Grannis reported on recent calls with aides to Genachowski and Clyburn to address lingering concerns about the trials. “I explained that Vonage is committed, and has been committed throughout this proceeding, to working with the states to address their concerns about direct access to numbers,” said an ex parte filing posted Monday (http://bit.ly/XCJDsP). “Vonage does not seek access to any numbers other than those it can access indirectly today. Vonage has thus agreed to conditions suggested by states to address number and area code exhaust concerns. Vonage also believes any participant in a trial should work closely with relevant states to address those concerns.” The company also agreed to “a very high level of number utilization -- 65 percent,” as a condition of the waiver, Strandberg said. “In contrast, the CLECs from whom Vonage currently buys numbers are among the most inefficient users of numbers, with utilization averaging less than 35 percent.” The letter said the pilots will “test the feasibility of direct access and provide information about routing, porting, and intercarrier compensation that is critical to informed decisionmaking; it will not prejudge the rulemaking.” Prior to the release of a sunshine notice on the FCC meeting, Vonage CEO Marc Lefar also left a voicemail for Zach Katz, the commission’s chief of staff, on “the importance of the trial to provide real-world data to support the NRPM [sic], and noted that recently raised concerns about the Commission’s consideration of direct access have been addressed extensively in the record,” said a second ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/XNtqDs). Also posted by the FCC Monday was an ex parte filing on a meeting between Level 3 and Bandwidth.com officials and officials in the Office of General Counsel. The two companies have been leading opponents of the pilots. “CLEC Participants articulated that Vonage and other Petitioners have failed to meet the legal standard for a waiver of Section 52.15(g)(2)(i) and that due process demands that the Commission act only after issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, including the question of whether changes to the Commission’s numbering rules are warranted,” said the filing (http://bit.ly/Zt0zj4). Matt Wood and Derek Turner of Free Press said they had received a call from Genachowski adviser Michael Steffen on Free Press’s support for the NARUC letter. “Together we questioned the reported decision to grant Vonage a waiver for direct access to numbering resources prior to the conclusion -- or even initiation -- of a notice and comment rulemaking on the same topic,” the filing said (http://bit.ly/ZsWF9L).
Dish Network’s $25.5 billion bid to buy Sprint Nextel, proposed Monday, offers $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. The FCC would seemingly have no more reason to reject that than a Softbank bid, agency and industry officials said Monday. However, they said that unlike SoftBank, Dish holds spectrum in U.S. markets, so that will require a competitive analysis not triggered by the SoftBank deal. FCC officials said they had expected an order approving the SoftBank/Sprint transaction to circulate as early as this week.
Dish Network’s $25.5 billion bid to buy Sprint Nextel, proposed Monday, offers $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. The FCC would seemingly have no more reason to reject that than a Softbank bid, agency and industry officials said Monday. However, they said that unlike SoftBank, Dish holds spectrum in U.S. markets, so that will require a competitive analysis not triggered by the SoftBank deal. FCC officials said they had expected an order approving the SoftBank/Sprint transaction to circulate as early as this week.
Efforts to head off an FCC vote in favor of giving Vonage direct access to numbers in a few pilot markets appear to have fallen flat despite a big push last week by NARUC, consumer and public interest groups (CD April 15 p1). FCC and industry officials said Monday that Chairman Julius Genachowski appears to have lined up at least three votes for the Vonage trials, with commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel ready to vote yes.
As interim chair of the FCC, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn would likely take on a number of issues, starting with her big issue of late, prison calling, FCC and industry officials said last week. Another big issue for Clyburn has been 700 MHz interoperability, but how much she would be able to do on that with a 2-1 commission is unclear. A former top FCC official said Clyburn’s staff should already be looking around for a few issues on which she can make her mark as the first woman to head the agency.
EchoStar’s Sling Media filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission and is suing Belkin, claiming its Belkin @TV set-top products infringe patents at the heart of its video placeshifting technology.
EchoStar’s Sling Media filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission and is suing Belkin, claiming its Belkin @TV set-top products infringe patents at the heart of its video placeshifting technology.
Several Senate Commerce Committee members want Congress to modernize rules that govern the communications market. From federal E-rate polices, to video regulations, lawmakers at Tuesday’s FCC oversight hearing said it’s time to take a hard look at what should be done to modernize the 20th century rules that govern the market now.
Common Cause doesn’t like the prospect of the FCC relying on an outside group’s study of the impact of a draft order’s media ownership rule changes on minorities and women. The agency Tuesday paused a proceeding on some cross-ownership deregulation pending the study by BIA/Kelsey paid for by the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (CD Feb 27 p1). The FCC “should take the time necessary to conduct careful, independent research on how proposals to relax its rules on media consolidation would impact levels of broadcast ownership by women, African-Americans and other minorities,” Common Cause said in a news release Wednesday. Common Cause Special Adviser Michael Copps, a former FCC member who is an opponent of media mergers and acquisitions, is “troubled by the process” the commission is following, he said. BIA/Kelsey “has longstanding ties to the industry,” Copps said of the broadcast research firm. “The FCC itself should be driving the research process, setting the parameters and teeing up the questions needed to satisfy anti-discrimination requirements set by the courts and guarantee an independent and data-driven outcome.” But it’s MMTC, not broadcasters, that’s paying for the study, the council’s executive director, David Honig, told us of the concerns of groups opposing media M&A.