GLG News in Technology, Media & Telecom

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announces intent to sue Arbitron over deployment of its PPM technology "to enjoin unlawful and deceptive practices in which Arbitron plans to engage, has engaged and/or continues to engage." 

1. Despite the economic downturn, the overall telecom services business in the US continues to remain rather good. 2. While residential building has taken a hard hit, the performance numbers at the three major service providers have stayed fairly strong – especially at AT&T and Verizon. 3. Future competitive pressures at the RBOCs will be a driving force to maintain CAPEX budgets from...

Incumbency will be critical in whether vendors win or lose during the downturn in the US telecom market. R&D and service programs will suffer the most. If layoffs occur at one of these suppliers, instead of getting rid of the most experienced employees, the company should try as much as possible to retain its in-house expertise. 

1. In the high power, emerging LED industry, for lighting, one of the ways the leading LED manufactuers can protect their business from becoming a commodity is to patent their technology and then vigorously protect it against copycats that infringe on their IP. 2. The leading supplier has been and will contnue to engage in the cross licensing of their IP when it makes sense.  Recently Osram...

1. LED's offer mover enrgy efficient solution than CFL for backlighting with energy savingss in the 35% to 50% area. 2. LED solutions do not have mercury in them as do the current CFL solutions, so this makes LED's a so called green technology. 3.Nichia will be main beneficiary of move to LED's for backlighting since they not only have an excellent "side looker" product" needed for backlighting,...

* Hoya is a major manufacturer of glass and supplies many of the glass substrates used in mobile hard disk drives.  * In addition to substrates Hoya manufactures some hard disk media as well.  * Showa Denko has been a customer of Hoya for media substrates and is the largest independent supplier of hard disk media  * Showa Denko has agreed to acquire 75% of a merged...

With weak consumer spending, Apple is trying to draw traffic to its own stores with iPhone offers such as registering online for store pickup and selling an unlocked version in Hong Kong.

No segment of the market is completely safe from economic woes, but key tech players are as well positioned as any to weather the storm.  This is the time to choose carefully among investments, but the tech arena today boasts solid investment choices among both large and small companies.  However, due diligence today needs to be “more diligent” than usual!

* Fujitsu is the sixth in unit shipping volume of HDD companies making 2.5-inch drives for notebook, consumer and enterprise applications.  * Fujitsu is one of the oldest companies in the HDD business and has been responsible for much technology innovation in the industry.  * Reports abound that Western Digital and perhaps Toshiba are interested in acquiring Fujitsu’s HDD business. ...

Despite the gloom and doom of the marketplace, there are bright moments.   If you notice, each one of the winners is practical and viable.