As e-commerce business continues to widen for Abt Electronics, company plans to shut down current Morton Grove, Ill., location and move into new, larger facility in nearby Glenview with 350,000 sq. ft. of showroom and warehouse space in “late January-early February,” Gen. Mgr. Phil Hannon told us. Company earlier this year had been hoping it would be able to open new location in Nov., in time for busy holiday selling season.

Zenith is weighing its options in wake of NEC’s decision to lower price of 61W plasma display panel (PDP) to $19,995 from $27,995, spokesman said. Zenith shipped LG Electronics-built 60W in Aug. at $24,999. On industrial side, Information Systems Products Mktg. Dir. Bennett Norell said company hadn’t made final decision on possible price move. “We're evaluating the price changes and seeing if there is room to move,” Norell said. “If the factory is willing to sell it to us at price where we can cover our margins, it’s possible for us. With these new larger screen sizes they [the factory] developed a new line to run them so they have to have some level of production. If the demand is not quite there yet, they may try to ramp up with lower pricing to get things running.” Meanwhile, LG will ship internal multiformat PC recording drive in Feb. at $799. Drive can write CD-R (12x), CD-RW (8x), DVD-RAM (2x), DVD-R (2x) and DVD-RW (2x). It can read CD-ROM (32x) and DVD-ROM (10x). Device has 4.8 Mbps data transfer rate and 95 milliseconds access time for CD, 13.8 Mbps and 100 milliseconds for DVD-ROM, 140 milliseconds for DVD- RAM. It also has 2 MB buffer. LG also is weighing adding DVD+RW recording capability to drive, format that has been championed by Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Philips and others. “If there’s a demand for it [DVD+RW], the factory can do it because they're looking to increase share,” Norell said.

Sony Computer Entertainment America began shipping 5” LCD screen for its PS One videogame console at $129. PS One combo featuring game console and screen will become available in early 2002 at $199 for limited time.

Kunio Sebata, pres.-CEO, Hitachi Consumer Products Group, appointed pres.-dir., new Hitachi Home & Life Solutions subsidiary, effective April 1… Keith Lehmann, ex-MB Quart, named vp-sales & mktg., Phoenix Gold; Stephen Bettini resigns as vp-operations, plans unknown… Appointed at 6th Ave. Electronics: David Birch-Jones, ex-Denon, as mgr. of home theater and custom installation; Bill Kearney, ex-West Maine and E&B Marine, as dist. mgr; Kenneth Grohbrugge, ex-Barnes & Noble, as mgr., human resources… Brian Hurst, ex-Transmeta, appointed gen. mgr. and vp-sales & mktg., National Semiconductor Americas… Amy Friedlander advanced to senior vp-business development, Intertainer.

Comcast announced start of new, original programming network called G4 that will launch in April. Company said TV network would be 24-hour, 7-day-a-week provider of entertainment, news and information for videogame enthusiasts. Comcast and Insight Communications committed 7 million subscribers to network, which Comcast said would capture “the excitement and worldwide popularity of video, computer, online and wireless games.” It said programming on network would include 13 weekly series and specials. Core demographic Comcast is looking to target is 18-34 year olds and teens through age 17.

SESAC performing rights organization will discontinue its promotion and distribution of Verance broadcast monitoring software under settlement announced Thurs. with Digimarc, which had charged SESAC with patent infringement.

Namco will boost its videogame development staff by 240-850 by end of March 2004 to meet increasing demand for online games and conventional game packages, Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. Report said half of new people hired will be game programmers, planners and designers who are expected to be nonregular employees working on contract basis. Game maker cut its staff 10% in April, mostly via voluntary retirement of administrative employees, after company posted disappointing earnings for year ended March 31.

Sigma Designs reported 3rd quarter loss widened to $1.6 million from $666,000 year ago as net revenue fell to $3.4 million from $5.4 million. Sigma has suffered from decline in demand for MPEG-based board products and chipsets in PC market, downturn it has tried to offset with commercial video streaming and set-top box products. Commercial video streaming represented 55% of revenue in quarter, followed by STBs (30%) and PCs (15%). Sigma also has started sample shipments of full-resolution MPEG-4 chipset that it expects to have in volume production by early 2003. MPEG-4 chipset is being integrated for streaming applications by Envivio and iVast. Chipset is expected to be priced in “high teens” in volume in 2003, company said. Sigma also has developed personal video recorder reference design with Stream Machine.

GameSpy Industries released Xbox version of its popular GameSpy Arcade PC game matchmaking service. Free software, which provides multiplayer Xbox gaming support, is available at GameSpy Web site.

SonicBlue plans to launch retail and e-tail sales of controversial ReplayTV personal video recorder (PVR) despite lawsuit filed by major TV networks alleging copyright infringement (CED Nov 28 p4).