Best Buy updated its comparable-sales guidance Wednesday for fiscal Q2 ending Aug. 1, saying it now expects a 13% decline vs. 19.6% sales growth in the year-earlier quarter. In May, Chief Financial Officer Matt Bilunas said the retailer expected Q2 comp sales to be "very similar" to the 8.5% Q1 comp sales decline. CEO Corie Barry noted Wednesday that the retailer expected FY 2023 financial results to be “softer than last year as we lap government stimulus support and unusually strong consumer electronics industry demand.” As high inflation has continued “and consumer sentiment has deteriorated, customer demand within the consumer electronics industry has softened even further, leading to Q2 financial results below the expectations we shared in May," she said. Best Buy “remains committed to its quarterly dividend of $0.88 per share” but has paused share repurchases. The company reports Q2 results Aug. 30.
Although President Joe Biden criticized President Donald Trump's China tariffs on the campaign trail, Peterson Institute for International Economics Senior Fellow Chad Bown said he always thought it was unlikely Biden would roll any of them back, because there are "huge political costs" to doing so, because opponents could label you as "weak on China."
The Missouri Public Service Commission will continue suspending state USF assessments for the rest of the year, the PSC said Friday. Commissioners agreed 5-0 to the order in docket TO-2019-0346. The USF surcharge will return at a rate of 0.15% Jan. 1, it said. The PSC first suspended the rate Jan. 1, 2020, and the freeze had been set to expire Sept. 30. The commission had considered raising monthly state USF support for voice-only Lifeline services to $24 last year from $18.75 if the FCC stopped paying $5.25, but the FCC paused phasedown until Dec. 1 this year (see 2111050058). Meanwhile, the Wyoming Public Service Commission plans to vote Tuesday on a proposal (docket 90072-49-XO-22) to keep the state USF surcharge at 2.7% for the fiscal year starting July 1, said a Thursday agenda. In an attached May 24 memo, Wyoming USF Manager Melisa Mizel recommended paying monthly distributions of $11,394.70 to All West Communications, Chugwater Telephone, Lumen, Silver Star Telephone and Union Telephone.
Owners of Skullcandy Push Active and Grind headphones will be able to have their devices upgraded to include multi-simultaneous wake word functionality using Native Voice technology, said the software company Wednesday at Amazon’s Alexa Live 2022 developer conference. Native Voice’s technology will give hands-free access to multiple voice services. The Push Active and Grind series headphones are Skullcandy’s first to include both Alexa and the Skullcandy assistant simultaneously, in addition to other voice assistants, said the companies. Amazon established the Voice Interoperability Initiative to enable more customer choice and flexibility with multi-assistant capabilities, said Erin Egan, Amazon voice interoperability initiative lead. Skullcandy launched the Skull-iQ technology in September, with a priority to give users more access to services via voice control. That technology will be part of a variety of products to be launched, which will include Native Voice and direct access to Alexa and other voice assistants, they said. Skullcandy customers will be able to choose which voice services are most suitable for their lifestyle and needs. The headphone maker’s voice technology provides functional control of various devices with play, pause, and answering or rejecting calls; Alexa handles voice requests such as getting a recipe, or checking a sports score or weather forecast. Headphone users have to use multiple wake words, a spokesperson emailed. The free Native Voice updates for Push Active and Grind users are expected by year-end.
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington’s call last week for the FCC to examine its dependency on Nielsen Media Data (see 2207140055) has broadcaster and programmer support, but an accredited alternative isn't available, said broadcast and ratings industry officials in interviews. In some instances, moving away from Nielsen could be prohibitively disruptive, they said. “For some rules there are viable alternatives,” said Rob Folliard, Gray Television senior vice president-government relations and distribution. “But the entire industry is built on Nielsen" designated market areas. “We believe that this could open up competition and allow for competitors to Nielsen,” said LPTV Broadcasters Association Executive Director Peter Saad.
The House of Representatives voted 421-2 to remove tariffs on imported formula through the end of the year, just over three weeks since a bill was introduced by Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., to pause the tariffs.
The FCC again asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to extend abeyance on a lawsuit by the League of California Cities challenging the FCC’s June 2020 wireless infrastructure declaratory ruling. The court previously stretched the pause last spring (see 2204050033). The FCC sought another 120 days until Nov. 11. “Further abeyance will provide an opportunity for a fully-constituted Commission to consider how to proceed in this case,” wrote the commission Wednesday in case 20-71765. The FCC noted Senate confirmation of Gigi Sohn as commissioner is pending.
TikTok should end plans to “force personalized ads” on users, Access Now said in a statement Tuesday. Access Now wrote a July 5 letter to TikTok asking the company to cancel plans to target users over 18 with personalized ads in the European Economic Area, U.K. and Switzerland. Access Now cited a report that TikTok is pausing those plans in favor of working with regulators. Access Now Global Data Protection Lead Estelle Masse said the company “must end” the practice for good: “When we rang the alarm bells, data protection authorities from Italy, Ireland, and Spain listened. With their swift action to protect people’s rights, they shut down a problematic practice and potential harmful precedent before TikTok could implement it.” TikTok didn't comment.
TikTok should end plans to “force personalized ads” on users, Access Now said in a statement Tuesday. Access Now wrote a July 5 letter to TikTok asking the company to cancel plans to target users over 18 with personalized ads in the European Economic Area, U.K. and Switzerland. Access Now cited a report that TikTok is pausing those plans in favor of working with regulators. Access Now Global Data Protection Lead Estelle Masse said the company “must end” the practice for good: “When we rang the alarm bells, data protection authorities from Italy, Ireland, and Spain listened. With their swift action to protect people’s rights, they shut down a problematic practice and potential harmful precedent before TikTok could implement it.” TikTok didn't comment.
T-Mobile asked the FCC to pause new high-cost USF programs until programs funded through the American Rescue Plan Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act have been implemented, in a meeting with Wireline Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics staff (see 2203180062). The carrier also met with an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, said an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 21-476. The new funding "largely overlaps" with the goals of the high-cost programs and is "equivalent to more than two decades' worth of support, T-Mobile said. There's also "no need for immediate contributions reform" if new support is paused, T-Mobile said, noting "recurring appropriations" for programs like the affordable connectivity program would "more efficiently distribute the burdens of the USF to different stakeholders and appropriately account for the shared benefits to society of expanded connectivity." Absent direct appropriations, the carrier said it backed assessing "network capacity usage" or "revenues generated over USF-funded networks."