Thursday, August 26, 2010

Sigma Designs Reports Revenue of $73M, up 12%

Sigma Designs, which provides silicon solutions for set-top boxes, reported Q2 revenue of $73.3 million, up $8.1 million, or 12%, from $65.2 million reported in the previous quarter and up $22.0 million, or 43%, from $51.3 million reported for the same period last year. GAAP net income for the second quarter was $0.5 million, or $0.02 per diluted share. This compares to GAAP net income of $1.1 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, for the previous quarter and $4.8 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, in the same period last year. In Q2, Sigma wrote off $5.2 million associated with a strategic investment in a privately held company which reduced Sigma's net income after taxes for the quarter by approximately $0.10 per diluted share.


"We are pleased to report over $73 million in revenue for the second quarter, representing more than 12% growth over our first quarter, with contributions from all three of our primary business segments. Our largest increase came from sales in our IPTV media processor segment, representing the bulk of this quarter's growth, and reflecting a fundamentally strong market. Connected media players were also up this quarter and continue to provide a substantial revenue contribution, demonstrating the popularity of consumer products such as network players that enable Internet access for playback of over-the-top content. Likewise, revenues from our Home Connectivity Business Group were up, largely a result of our continued leadership in all-wire network solutions. Moving forward, we are continuing to pursue major design wins in our current market segments with special initiatives for penetrating the hybrid IP Cable set-top box industry and the increased adoption of Z-Wave based home control solutions," stated Thinh Tran, chairman and chief executive officer, Sigma Designs.
http://www.sigmadesigns.com/IR

Time Warner Cable to Launch SPEED2 Sports Channel for Broadband

Time Warner Cable is preparing to launch a broadband service that aggregates live and on-demand streaming of motor sport events and enthusiast programming. SPEED2 will launch nationally for Time Warner Cable Sports Pass subscribers (formally known as Time Warner Cable Sports Tier) -- at no additional charge -- on August 29. A complement to the offerings of the linear SPEED network, a FOX Sports property, SPEED2 allows motor sports enthusiasts to view racing content from any Internet based connection (wired or wireless), at home or on the go.
http://www.timewarnercable.com

IBM Acquires Sterling Commerce from AT&T

IBM completed its acquisition of Sterling Commerce from AT&T for approximately $1.4 billion in cash. AT&T, which acquired Sterling Commerce in 2000, expects to record a one-time pretax gain of approximately $800 million in the third quarter of 2010.


Sterling Commerce provides software for cross-channel commerce and integration of customer, partner and supplier networks across a wide range of industries.


"In combination with IBM's existing offerings, Sterling Commerce, Coremetrics and Unica are expanding IBM's ability to help companies automate, manage and accelerate core business processes across marketing, selling, order management and fulfillment," said Craig Hayman, general manager, IBM Industry Solutions.


AT&T said the divestiture is consistent with its focus on developing and providing a full portfolio of networking-based solutions and services, including network- and cloud-based data storage and managed hosting, application and computing services, to its business customers.


AT&T also stated that it remains committed to its strategic alliance with IBM, its largest customer, to provide a unified set of telecommunications and computing services to multinational corporations across the globe.
http://www.ibm.com
http://www.att.com
  • The deal was first announced in May 2010.

Nortel to Sell Multi Service Switch Business for $39 million

Nortel Networks will sell its Multi Service Switch business to private investors for US$39 million in cash.
The deal includes Nortel's North America, Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) and Asia Multi Service Switch (MSS) business and the assets of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) portion of its MSS business. The buyer is PSP Holding LLC, a special purpose entity to be fully funded at closing by Marlin Equity Partners and Canadian based Samnite Technologies Inc.


Nortel's MSS business consists of its Data Packet Network and Shasta product groups and associated intellectual property. Nortel expects all MSS employees would have the opportunity to continue employment with PSP as envisioned by the sale agreement.

Commenting on the announcement, John Luszczek, General Manager of Nortel's MSS business said: "Today's announcement is welcome news to all MSS customers, suppliers, partners and employees. The proposed transaction represents a clear and positive step forward and is a testament of our continued commitment to innovation and customer support that resulted in the creation of the business value evident by today's announcement. Throughout this process we will remain focused on providing our customers with the highest level of service, support and responsiveness that they have come to expect."
http://www.nortel.com
  • In 1999, Nortel Networks acquired Shasta Networks, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, for $340 million in stock and cash. Shasta has developed a new class of service-enabling gateways and subscriber policy management systems for the "subscriber edge" of business IP networks.

SK Telecom Selects ALU's MPLS-TP Packet Optical Backhaul

SK Telecom, Korea's largest mobile service provider, has selected Alcatel-Lucent's packet optical transport solution to upgrade its nationwide wireless data network. The project, which is currently being deployed, will increase backbone capacity for the delivery of its WiFi and WiBro services. In addition, it will support SK Telecom's WCDMA traffic and lay a solid foundation for LTE-based services.


Alcatel-Lucent's packet optical transport solution is based on its 1850 Transport Service Switch (TSS) and is managed by its 1350 Optical Management Suite (OMS). Featuring T-MPLS/MPLS-TP, the Alcatel-Lucent 1850 TSS provides a graceful evolution path to packet backhaul in support of all mobile generation from 2G/3G to LTE-based 4G. MPLS-TP provides an evolution path from SONET/SDH-based networks to packet transport networks by enabling convergence between the transport and service routers.


Alcatel-Lucent noted that major global service providers, including BT, China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo have selected this solution for their mobile backhaul and transport networks.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Royalty-Free End-User Licensing for H.264 AVC Internet Video

MPEG Licensing Authority has decided to extend royalty-free licensing to end-users of the H.264 video codec (known as "Internet Broadcast AVC Video") during the entire life of this License. MPEG LA previously announced it would not charge royalties for such video through December 31, 2015.


MPEG LA's AVC Patent Portfolio License provides access to essential patent rights for the AVC/H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) digital video coding standard.


In addition to Internet Broadcast AVC Video, MPEG LA's AVC Patent Portfolio License provides coverage for devices that decode and encode AVC video, AVC video sold to end users for a fee on a title or subscription basis and free television video services. AVC video is used in set-top boxes, media player and other personal computer software, mobile devices including telephones and mobile television receivers, Blu-ray Disc™ players and recorders, Blu-ray video optical discs, game machines, personal media player devices and still and video cameras.
http://www.mpegla.com