Law firm Finkelstein Thompson is asking for a $9.5 million settlement in its class action lawsuit against
UTStarcom. The suit, which was closed on May 14, alleges that the company disseminated “materially false and misleading statements and omissions with regards to the Company’s stock option grant practices.” The settlement has not yet been approved by the court, and a hearing on the matter has been scheduled for Sept. 18.
IBM’s second-quarter profit rose 12 percent as the company’s cost-cutting measures took hold, but sales fell 13 percent to $23.25 billion as technology spending continued to weaken. Currency fluctuations contributed to the decline in revenue because the strength of the dollar has created an unfavorable exchange rate for overseas sales. Despite the odds, IBM raised its full-year financial guidance. It now expects full-year 2009 earnings of at least $9.70 per share compared with its previous expectation of at least $9.20 per share. IBM also expects full-year pre-tax income for its software segment to grow at a double-digit rate, reaching approximately $8 billion. For its second quarter, IBM made $3.1 billion, or $2.32 a share, up from $2.77 billion, or $1.97 a share, during the same period last year.
Research firm
JSI Capital Advisors has released the results of its annual survey of incumbent local exchange carriers, this year including its first comprehensive projections of the voice industry through 2018. The firm reported that landline use fell 9.6 percent in 2008 to 128.4 Million, with those lines expected to fall to 60.6 million by 2018. The report was based on data compiled from several government agencies and industry associations, including the FCC, CTIA and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Market research firm
Arbitron has come out with estimates for cell-phone-only households. According to the company, the density of households who have “cut the cord” varies from as low as 5 percent in Hamptons-Riverhead, New York, to as high as 38 percent in Bryan-College Station, Texas. The survey also found that market characteristics such as the percentage of rural population, age and ethnicity affected the results. The cell-phone-only penetration estimates are based on more than 154,000 surveys that Arbitron received from households in 151 markets.
CommuniGate Systems, a carrier-class mobile unified communications provider, has appointed Scott Stonham as vice president of marketing. In his new post, Stonham will focus on developing CommuniGate Systems' offering for mobile markets, particularly carriers in the U.K., Europe, Middle-East and Africa regions. Prior to joining CommuniGate, Stonham served as vice president of product marketing at Miyowa, a provider of advertising-enabled mobile instant messaging and social networking solutions. He has also worked at Vodafone UK, Qualcomm and Openwave.
Virgin Mobile USA says 35,000 Virgin Mobile FreeFest tickets were scooped up by fans. Now Virgin America says it will donate use of a plane, dubbed the FreeFest Express, to bring more West Coasters from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., to attend the festival – for free. People are being given a chance to earn their way to FreeFest by donating time to homeless youth organizations. Virgin Mobile FreeFest will feature Weezer, Blink-182, Public Enemy, Franz Ferdinand and a dozen more acts on Aug. 30 at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md.