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Monday, September 23, 2002 |
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• Yahoo! looks to attract gamers • JDS warning drags down its stock • Qwest to restate $950 million in sales • AudioCodes taps Texas Instruments
Yahoo! looks to attract gamers Not that it is a new concept, but Yahoo! Inc. is looking to lure video game junkies to its broadband service via a new on-demand service that features content from some of the top game publishers. The gaming service, dubbed Yahoo! Games on Demand, is the first broadband-enabled application Yahoo! has introduced since rolling out its DSL service with SBC Communications earlier this month. The games are streamed to a gamer's computer via a broadband connection. The game runs off a user's hard drive, but the entire game never sits on a player's desk top, instead files are downloaded as needed. The feature is designed to prevent piracy. Today at launch, the Games on Demand library consists of more than 40 titles, including Civilization III, Star Trek Armada II, Grand Theft Auto 2 and Tomb Raider Chronicles. The gaming service has four price points. Gamers can access one game for three days for $4.95, three games for 30 days for $9.95, five games for 30 days for $12.95 and 10 games for 30 days for $14.95. "Games are an extraordinarily engaging form of entertainment, and online games are growing rapidly in popularity," said David Mandelbrot, vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Media, Entertainment, Information and Finance. Last month, Yahoo!'s free online games service hosted more than 4 billion minutes of online game play. "Games on Demand allows us to develop deeper relationships with casual and devoted game players alike," said Mandelbrot. A personalized "My Games" page tracks a user's rental activity and offers service updates. RealNetworks Inc. also has an online gaming service of its own, dubbed RealOne Arcade. Related stories:
Distributing video over home-based IP networks is the target for ViXS Systems Inc., a start-up technology company based in Toronto, Canada. The company emerged from stealth mode after 18 months to announce that its video networking processor, dubbed “Xcode,” is sampling to early, yet unnamed, customers. ViXS’ technology takes an agnostic approach to home networking platforms by working with any wireless or wireline networking topology, said ViXS Senior Vice President, Interactive Technologies and Business Development Roy Stewart. Additionally, the company takes a frames-per-second (FPS) approach, rather than a data rate line of attack, in how it handles quality-of-service issues. More specifically, the ViXS platform, based in software, guarantees 30 FPS at the highest resolution that the home network will handle and that the device on the network will allow. It does that by employing a “video QoS” system that adjusts bit rates and resolutions in real-time based on available bandwidth without changing the video’s screen size, Stewart said. “We can trans-rate the video, and adjust the bit rate and the resolution,” he said. That, Stewart added, will allow a video to degrade gracefully, like it does in an analog world, rather than to fall off the so-called “digital cliff.” “You sacrifice some resolution, but your user experience is the same,” Stewart said. “We guarantee the best quality picture that the network will support at the time.”
JDS warning drags down its stock JDS Uniphase stock price was teetering near its 52-week low during morning trading, following news that the fiber-optic gear maker cut its first-quarter forecast. Demand for optical networking gear continues to wane, forcing JDS to trim its first-quarter outlook. The company expects to record revenue in the range of $190 million to $200 million, down from an earlier forecast calling for sales between $200 million and $210 million. JDS expects to post a pro forma net loss of between 6 cents and 8 cents a share, which is in line with its earlier guidance. As previously stated, the company expects to record between $10 million and $20 million in canceled contracts in the first quarter. The revised outlook comes on the heels of last week's announcement that the company is reducing its staff by 900 employees. At the end of June, the company had 9,222 employees, down from a high point of more than 28,000 in March 2001. For the fourth quarter ended June 30, JDS posted revenue of $222 million, a 63 percent drop from the $601 million recorded in the same quarter a year ago. As of 11:44 a.m. EDT, JDS shares were off 5 percent at $2.03. During the same time period shares of Nortel Networks, a key JDS customer, were down nearly 7 percent to 71 cents. Related stories:
Interactive-television software company MetaTV has closed $21 million in financing. Cox Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. led the round. MetaTV plans to use the funds to further develop its on-demand software, which leverages existing digital, video-on-demand and Internet infrastructure. The software was built using a common operational model for deploying, validating, provisioning, reporting and managing services for content distribution in various markets and environments, according to MetaTV. Hearst Interactive Media, Atrium Venture Partners, Liberate Technologies, Redpoint Ventures and Rosewood Venture Group also participated in the round. Earlier this year, Cox announced MetaTV would design, develop, deploy and manage Cox-branded iTV services in a number of cities. At the time, Cox said MetaTV's services would complement its digital cable service. Comcast Corp. is a new MetaTV investor, while Cox and Comcast Interactive Capital participated in a funding round in April 2001 that brought in $28 million. In conjunction with the funding announcement, the company named Comcast's Mark Hess to its board of directors. Hess is vice president of digital television at Comcast Cable Communications Inc., Comcast's cable division. Related stories:
Qwest to restate $950 million in sales Move over WorldCom, Qwest Communications International Inc. is joining the revenue restatement club. The communications giant said it plans to restate $950 million in revenue related to network capacity swaps. The $950 million was booked after Qwest's merger with US West in June 2000. Revenue related to the swaps will be restated from mid-2000 to the end of 2001. The revenue was recognized under accounting policies approved by its former auditor Arthur Andersen, Qwest said in a statement. In May, Qwest replaced Andersen with KPMG. After consultation with KPMG, Qwest said it decided not to recognize the swaps as revenue. In April, the Securities and Exchange Commission bumped up its informal probe of how Qwest recognized revenue when it sold network capacity or equipment to companies from which it also bought capacity and services to a formal inquiry. The change in status enables the SEC to issue a subpoena to demand documents and testimony. Tomorrow, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee will kick off a series of hearings designed to examine agreements to swap network capacity. Last month the SEC ruled that the practice of booking swap revenue was improper. Under investigation is whether telecom companies effectively cooked the books by logging network capacity sales as one lump sum instead of as incremental sales collected over the life of the contract. Former Qwest executives, including Joe Nacchio, are scheduled to appear before the committee. Qwest said it is cooperating fully with the SEC's inquiry. The company is optimistic that its decision to restate the revenue "represents a first step toward a possible resolution." The company said it may also restate $531 million in sales of optical capacity on its networks for cash. Related stories:
AudioCodes taps Texas Instruments AudioCodes Ltd. has selected Texas Instruments Inc.'s digital signal processor silicon for its next-generation Voice over Packet products. The voice-over-packet technology provider has committed to basing its next-generation of VoP products on AC491, a digital signal processor consisting of Texas Instruments' TMS320C55x DSP cores. According to AudioCodes, the AC491 is the first multi-core devise designed on Texas Instruments' TMS320C55x architecture, which integrates six C55x cores, on-chip memory and optimized peripherals. In April, AudioCodes introduced its Mediant Cable Access Gateway family, a line of standards-based V5.2 and packet cable telephony media gateways. The products enable operators to deliver telephony services over either legacy circuit-switched or softswitch environments Related stories:
• ZyXel intros dual-link ADSL router ZyXel has unveiled its Prestige 623 dual-link ADSL router, which is designed for use in the home or office. The router integrates a high-speed 10/100 Mbps LAN interface, a USB port and a high-speed ADSL port. • Digeo, Magis team Magis Networks Inc. and Digeo Inc. are teaming to develop a prototype wireless media center solution that includes the integration of Magis' 802.11a-based products. The companies' goal is to deliver video, audio and data via a wireless broadband connection to the home. • Vivace expands operations Vivace Networks Inc. plans to open new offices in Europe and Asia in the fourth quarter of 2002. The company also plans to hire additional people to work in its sales, business development and customer support division in the United States. In June the company launched its Viva Multi-service IP switch product line, including the Viva5100 and Viva1050. Vivace is fully funded through 2003.
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