Though consumer tech hardware spending “has been reported to be weak, very weak,” infrastructure and enterprise spending, “from our vantage point,” is “very much holding,” said Broadcom CEO Hock Tan on an earnings call Thursday for fiscal Q3 ended July 31.

The House Commerce Committee’s bipartisan privacy legislation isn’t strong enough to replace privacy laws like those in California, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement Thursday. Some 50 public interest groups demanded she hold a vote on the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (see 2208250040).

“Tumultuous times” loom this year and next for the PC and tablet industries due to worsening inflation, a weakening global economy and “the surge in buying over the past two years,” reported IDC Thursday. It forecast global shipments of “traditional” PCs, including desktops, notebooks and workstations, will decline 12.8% in 2022 to 305.3 million units, and tablet shipments will fall 6.8% to 156.8 million.

DENVER -- Over-the-top streaming is a rising concern for local governments, said National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisers General Counsel Nancy Werner in an interview at the association’s annual conference. Local governments could be losing cable franchise revenue as customers cut the cord for the OTT services that don’t pay local fees, said a panel Wednesday.

HP, like many tech companies, is managing through the “unexpected and very abrupt” downturn in market conditions “with a focus on what we can control,” said CEO Enrique Lores on an earnings call Tuesday for fiscal Q3 ended July 31. Net revenue for the quarter of $14.66 billion was down 11.1% sequentially from Q2 and 4.1% lower year over year.

The “big brands and big retail groups are back here in Berlin” for IFA 2022, Messe Berlin CEO Martin Ecknig said Wednesday during an opening IFA news conference. Top IFA executives said they were unfazed that the first full-size IFA in three years conspicuously will be missing stalwart exhibitors like Philips and Sony when it opens Friday to the trade and public for a five-day run.

Conn’s is cutting operating costs, reducing capital expenditures and maintaining “conservative credit underwriting” in response to “challenging macroeconomic pressures,” said CEO Chandra Holt on a Q2 earnings call Tuesday.

Samsung unveiled a new brand identity and partnerships for the Samsung TV Plus free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service that launched in 2015. Samsung TV Plus is integrated into all 2016-2022 Samsung smart TVs and Galaxy devices, plus select Family Hub refrigerators in the U.S. and Korea, the company said.

The FTC sued an Idaho data-marketing company Monday for allegedly buying and selling “geolocation data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices” that can be used to track individuals to and from “sensitive locations” like reproductive health clinics.

Referencing a more “challenged and uneven” macroeconomic environment than expected, Best Buy rescinded previous FY 2023 guidance, given in July, widening the expected comparable year-on-year Q3 sales decline to “slightly more than the 12.1% decline reported for Q2, ended July 30.