Vice President of Sales Jerry Satoren is leaving Toshiba America Consumer Products (TACP) as the company combines with Toshiba America Information Systems (TAIS) and moves its headquarters to California, retail sources said.

With a new spec in hand, the first products bearing the five-pin mobile high-definition link (MHL) will hit the market in 2011, MHL Consortium President Barry McAuliffe told us. The MHL 1.0 spec was released last week. It replaces HDMI’s 19-pin connector with a five-pin version and provides for a 2.25 Gbps link consuming 60 milliwatts.

British radio broadcasters are hatching a new plan to address what some are calling the “elephant in the room” for the U.K. government’s planned 2015 hard cutoff of analog radio: The huge numbers of cars and trucks on the road without DAB receivers.

Jon Myer’s new MyerConnex custom installation business (CED July 1 p6) will rely on distributors to buy its CE products, bypassing direct relationships with manufacturers, he told Consumer Electronics Daily Friday. “I will definitely not go direct with any video manufacturers and I will acquire all the products through distribution. I have absolutely no interest in being in a direct relationship” with manufacturers, he said.

Two former Koss Corp. accounting department employees “colluded” with ex-Vice President of Finance Sujata Sachdeva to bilk the company out of $31.5 million over the last five fiscal years, the company said in several SEC filings last week. Koss fired the employees Jan. 4, the same day it terminated Grant Thornton as its outside auditing firm, the filings said.

CULVER CITY, Calif. -- Nearly four months into operation, the Sony 3D Tech Center is still drawing a packed house, said Buzz Hays, executive Stereoscopic 3D producer at Sony Corp. and chief instructor at the 3D Technology Center. With a waiting list that at one time numbered 500, more than 300 cinematographers have passed through the free, three-day program, an integral part of Sony’s plan to raise the bar of 3D technology throughout the industry, Hays told journalists last week on a tour of Sony Pictures. “All of this training was designed to get people up to speed quickly on 3D and to have people avoid the pitfalls that we've gone through in making 3D films,” Hays said. The Tech Center is also expanding class offerings to directors and film editors and will hold classes in London for cinematographers in the coming months.

Congress should reject online sales tax legislation introduced last Thursday, eBay said. The bill is merely an attempt to give bricks-and-mortar shopkeepers the same advantages as online retailers, said bill sponsor Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass.

CE makers and green groups, once vociferous opponents in the CEA lawsuit to stop New York City’s e-waste program from taking effect, vowed to work arm in arm to set up a network of convenient public and private e-waste drop-off locations to serve residents in the city’s five boroughs, now that the lawsuit has been settled and dismissed (CED June 29 p1). In complying with the New York state e-waste measure signed into law May 28, they have acknowledged facing daunting challenges in establishing e-waste collection sites in a city known for its population density and low car ownership, especially in the city’s Manhattan hub.

Bondholders have given Blockbuster some breathing room, postponing a $42.1 million payment deadline as the struggling chain continues efforts to restructure its balance sheet.

BEVERLY HILLS -— At a time when other mid-level audio companies are broadening distribution to boost revenues, Sony is tightening distribution on its high-end ES-series line by limiting product to specialty AV and custom installation dealers who can demonstrate the benefits of the advanced-feature products and provide the education and installation expertise to get the most out of those features, it said. At the launch of Sony’s 2010 ES line last week, Brian Siegel, vice president of the company’s home audio and video group, told reporters that the company has a responsibility to specialty dealers, enthusiasts and shareholders to use the ES line to create new opportunities in a challenging environment.