Valley Media, reeling from financial difficulties, said Fri. it was temporarily cutting back operations at 330,000-sq.-ft. Louisville warehouse, resulting in layoff of 400 workers. Additional 25 employees in sales, marketing, purchasing and support positions at Woodland, Cal., hq. and in field offices in Fla., N.J. and N.Y. also were laid off. Valley, which sold video rental distribution business in April, has been losing major sellthrough accounts in recent weeks due to inability to fill preorders. Among those were Pathmark and Rite-Aid, both of which recently defected to Ingram Entertainment. Valley officials have confirmed difficulty filling preorders, but denied it had cancelled any purchase orders. Rather, they said, Valley is being more “selective” in titles it buys. Valley officials confirmed that banks had tightened credit terms recently, major reason it has struggled to fill preorders starting with Oct. 9 releases. Valley, whose e-commerce customers include Amazon.com and BestBuy.com and brick-and-mortar retailers Blockbuster and Toys “R” Us, declined comment on Video Business report that it was negotiating possible sale of company to Alliance Entertainment. In selling video rental business, Valley returned to audio distribution roots while retaining video as sellthrough business. It entered video rental market with acquisition of Star Video Entertainment in 1997.
As Samsung ships 15” ($749) and 17” ($1,299) LCDs with optional HDTV tuner ($99), it’s expected to unveil 40W at Comdex in Nov. and is adding 5th production line to build larger sizes, company said. SyncMaster 15” and 17” have 1,280x1,024 and 1,024x768 resolutions, respectively, and connector that allows optional tuner to slip into back of panel. While Samsung is debuting 40W in U.S., no delivery date or specs have been set. Display represents significant leap over Samsung’s 28” LCD, which has been shown several times but never delivered. Samsung also will add 19” LCD monitor at Comdex, filling gap that existed between its 17” and 21” models. New 19” has 1,280x,1024 resolution, 400:1 contrast ratio.
Cobra Electronics will enter high growth product category at CES in Jan. as it forms partnerships with “some significant” U.S. companies, CEO James Bazet told analysts in conference call, declining to disclose details. Cobra, which markets Family Radio Service (FRS) devices, radar detectors and CB radios, has sought to expand business through acquisitions in past, but agreements with Beltronics and Lowrance Electronics collapsed. Providing hint of new strategy, Cobra said 3rd quarter net income declined to $1.3 million from $1.9 million year ago and revenue to $36.2 million from $38.5 million. Downturn in revenue was related to “significant shortfall” in radar detectors, with some retailers “backing off” earlier orders, Bazet said. Drop in radar detectors was partly offset by gains in FRS category, which benefitted from introduction of models based on General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) standard. Latter extends transmission distance to 5 miles from 2 miles. GMRS devices typically are priced $30-$45 more than FRS models, which retail for $40-$60. Cobra also has signed distribution deal in Italy for Private Mobile Radio (PMR) service, version of FRS targeted at Europe. PMR business in Europe operated at “slightly above break-even” in 3rd quarter and would have had better results had sales not been halted in Belgium, where authorities are weighing licensing requirements for PMR, Bazet said. In long term, Europe could represent $30-$35 million in PMR sales, he said.
Consumers who purchase Shrek DVD or VHS will get prepackaged coupon redeemable at Burger King for 2 sausage, egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches for $2. Promotional tie-in is to support Shrek’s home video release Nov. 2.
Matthew Gill, ex-Viewsonic, joins Philips Consumer Electronics as vp and chmn. of Professional Products Div. in N. America, which includes PC monitors, drives, PC audio, projectors. He replaces Simon Barmbach, who will return to Netherlands at year-end… InterTrust Vice Chmn. David Lockwood named pres., replacing David Ludvigson, who resigns effective Nov. 1… Dwayne Vasquez advanced to Bel Fuse vp-sales.
Echoing most competing videogame makers who have reported results for their most recent quarters this month, Electronic Arts (EA) said it was “enthusiastic about the upcoming holiday season” thanks largely to PlayStation 2 (PS2) and didn’t see much impact on its sales in wake of Sept. 11 attacks.
Day after Sony reported $111 million loss on sluggish worldwide demand for core electronics, Toshiba and Sanyo were among Japanese majors echoing similar doom and gloom over prospects for 2nd-half results.
Wal-Mart, Sony Computer Entertainment America and Denver Broncos teamed up for PS2 Football Frenzy promotion. As part of promotion, customers visiting select Wal-Mart stores have opportunity to receive autographs from Broncos alumni players, meet team’s cheerleaders, compete in NFL GameDay tournaments for chance to win 2 tickets to sold-out home football game. Grand prize winner will receive PS2 console and other prizes.
Arizona Diamondbacks topped N.Y. Yankees 4 games to 2 in videogame maker 3DO’s annual High Heat Major League Baseball simulation of World Series. Company’s High Heat series features games for Game Boy Advance, PC, PlayStation, PS2 platforms.