Paramount Global's board is recommending a "no" vote at the annual meeting June 8 on a shareholder proposal to reduce by half the threshold of stock ownership necessary to call a special shareholder meeting. It's the only shareholder proposal on the agenda for the former ViacomCBS, per the company's proxy statement. The board thinks the existing threshold should be retained to prevent the risk of misuse of the special meeting right for interests not supported by a majority of shareholders, said the proxy, while the proponent argues the current bar for calling a special shareholder meeting is too high. The annual meeting will be held virtually beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT, said the proxy.
Verizon is raising its minimum wage to $20 an hour -- "when base salary plus target commission are combined" -- for new employees in customer service, retail and inside sales positions, and is boosting pay to that level automatically for workers already in those jobs, it said Monday. Verizon also is adding “premium pay differentials” for assistant managers who work on holidays, Sundays and for those who are bilingual, and will offer a “sign-on bonus” for “retail specialist” and assistant manager positions in “many markets” around the U.S., it said. It announced earlier this month “additional enhancements in compensation and incentives for its retail team members.”
Twitter’s board unanimously adopted a year-long shareholder rights plan, the company announced Friday, a day after Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered to buy the platform for $43 billion and take it private. Commonly referred to as a “poison pill,” a shareholder rights plan is one board strategy for fending off a hostile takeover. The rights plan “will reduce the likelihood that any entity, person or group gains control of Twitter through open market accumulation without paying all shareholders an appropriate control premium or without providing the Board sufficient time to make informed judgments and take actions that are in the best interests of shareholders,” the company said. The plan expires April 2023, and doesn’t prevent the board from accepting a transaction. It’s “intended to enable all shareholders to realize the full value of their investment in Twitter,” the company said. The rights would activate if an entity or person “acquires beneficial ownership of 15% or more of Twitter's outstanding common stock in a transaction not approved by the Board.” Each shareholder, other than the purchaser, would have the right to buy additional shares of common stock at a discounted rate. Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted Friday that “as a public company, twitter has always been ‘for sale.’ that's the real issue.”
Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference will return online June 6-10, the company said Tuesday. The conference, free for all developers, will cover the latest innovations in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS, and developers will have access to Apple engineers and technologies, it said. The program includes a keynote and "state of the union" presentation June 6, plus information sessions, learning labs, digital lounges to engage with attendees, and localized content to make it "a truly global event.” Apple will also host a day for developers and students at Apple Park June 6 to watch the keynote and State of the Union videos together; space will be limited. The company is accepting submissions through April 25 for the Swift Student Challenge for students who code with the Swift Playgrounds app for iPad and Mac.
Vizio scheduled its first annual meeting as a public company for June 9, said an 8-K filing Friday. It didn’t say if the meeting will be virtual or in person. The board set a March 28 deadline for submitting shareholder proposals to be put on the agenda, saying it believes that “to be a reasonable time before it expects to begin to print and distribute its proxy materials.” Vizio went public a year ago this week (see 2103250029). Chairman-CEO William Wang controls a majority of the public company's shares and about 92% of its voting power.
Dolby expects a low single-digit decline in its Foundational Audio business due to supply chain constraints against last year’s “COVID-driven strength” in TVs and PCs, Colliers analyst Steven Frankel wrote investors Monday, after a series of virtual investor meetings with Dolby Chief Financial Officer Robert Park last week. The Foundational Audio business that’s part of “nearly all CE devices” -- including smartphones, PCs, TVs, set-top boxes, digital media players and AV receivers -- fluctuates annually between a low single-digit decline and low single-digit growth given the maturity of several categories, Frankel noted. The Vision/Atmos/Imaging patents portion of the business is in the “early stages of accelerated growth,” he said, citing “broad support” of Vision and Atmos on the streaming content side from Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney+, Comcast, Apple Music, Tencent and others, which drives device makers to add Vision and Atmos on top of core Foundational Audio, “growing the royalty per device.” Dolby has penetrated the 4K TV market, including in aggressively priced private-label brands at Best Buy and Walmart, while Samsung remains the “lone holdout” sticking with its HDR10+ high dynamic range technology vs. Dolby Vision. Colliers sees Dolby.IO as a “game-changer” that expands the company's addressable market and creates a recurring revenue stream, despite short-term headwinds. Frankel maintained a “buy” rating on the company, saying the open question is how long before the mix shifts toward Atmos and Vision, along with some assistance from Dolby.IO, “enable the company to achieve sustainable double-digit revenue growth.”
Snap One’s new consolidated Partner Rewards program gives integrators awards points for every purchase online and in Snap One Partner stores, the company emailed Monday. The program has five levels: expedited gear replacement, premium tech support, access to exclusive Partner events, progressively larger discounts on eligible products and free shipping except for integrators in Alaska and Hawaii; some products from stores may not include free shipping, it said. Integrators collect one point per dollar on third-party distributed products, two points for Snap One-manufactured products and three points per dollar for a second tier of Snap One-manufactured brands, including Araknis networking, Binary cables, Control4 control and lighting, Dragonfly film screens, Episode speakers, Luma Surveillance, Strong mounts and Visualint surveillance, it said. Ashley Swenson, senior vice president-marketing, called the progressive product discount program a benefit to integrators "because they directly increase profitability while encouraging deeper knowledge and mastery of the Snap One product catalog."
Russound partnered with D-Tools for its cloud and system integrator software, it emailed Friday. The software is designed to streamline dealers’ sales, system design, documentation, procurement, installation, back-office management and service through D-Tools’ product library, said Russound.
TCL’s 2021 revenue soared 46.9% year on year to 74.85 billion Hong Kong dollars ($9.6 billion), and its operating profit reached 12.53 billion Hong Kong dollars ($1.6 billion), up 29.7% from 2020, reported the company Friday. But TCL’s net profit declined year on year to 1.18 billion Hong Kong dollars ($150.7 million) due to the increased pricing of raw materials, it said. “With the gradual drop of the price of upstream panels since the second half of 2021,” TCL’s gross profit “has continued to rebound” since Q3, it said. “In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic persisted with severity worldwide, and the global political and economic landscape became even more complex,” said TCL. “In the meantime, violent fluctuations occurred in the prices of both upstream raw materials and international logistics, posing a huge challenge to the business environment.”
Apple will broadcast its virtual spring event Tuesday at 1 p.m. EST from Apple Park in Cupertino, California, says the company newsroom. The webcast will be available at apple.com. Consumer tech writers anticipate a 5G version of the entry-level iPhone SE, new iPads and Macs with Apple-designed processors. The company didn't provide details.