Sigma Designs shareholders of record through Aug. 3 will get a final payout of 28 cents a share under a board-approved plan to finish liquidating and dissolving the company. The former Z-Wave owner and once-formidable SoC supplier -- it was the first to announce Dolby Vision support in September 2014 (see 1409040067) -- “has been working to wind down all of its operations and resolve all outstanding creditor claims,” it said Friday. Shareholders approved the liquidation plan more than two years ago, but phasing out Sigma subsidiaries in Europe and Asia “has taken longer than originally anticipated,” it said. The final distribution of $11.4 million will bring to $252 million “the total amount of cash returned to shareholders,” it said.

About half of American youth don’t use Facebook, and user time there declined about 20% since 2015, NetChoice reported Thursday. Social media competitors include YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok and Parler, the report said. It listed digital ad competitors like Google, Amazon, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and the Rubicon Project. “There is no antitrust case against Facebook,” NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo said. “Instead, Facebook has benefited users, advertisers, and publishers.” Fears about internet dominance are misplaced, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation said. Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have less than 20% of S&P 500 value, ITIF said. In the early 1960s, the top five share was more than 30% among General Motors, Ford Motor, General Electric and two companies that are now ExxonMobil.

The $38 million in Trade Act Section 301 tariff costs iRobot incurred in 2019 inflicted a hit of 3 percentage points on its gross margin for the year, said CEO Colin Angle. IRobot assumes the List 3 tariff exclusion that landed last month on the robotic vacuum cleaners it sources from China will expire at the end of 2020, he said. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer “made it quite explicit” in congressional testimony last month that any granted List 3 exemptions “would expire at the end of the year,” said Angle Wednesday after quarterly results. The company’s “cash position” improved when it recently started receiving “cash payments associated with our tariff refunds” from the Trump administration, said Chief Financial Officer Julie Zeiler. “We anticipate receiving the $57 million in tariff-related refunds owed to us over the next 12 months.” IRobot is “continuing to push with all energy to drive the diversification of our manufacturing base,” said Angle. Delay in shifting production to Malaysia and bringing it to scale “has been one of the impacts of COVID-19,” he said. “There’s travel bans in place” that inhibit “sending people into Malaysia, which has created a delay,” he said. The company is trying to get that work “back on track,” he said. “We do believe that by the end of 2021, we’ll be in a situation where we are effectively geographically diversified and U.S.-China trade policy does not substantially affect our business anymore.” Europe is the region most reliant on brick-and-mortar, and stores were shuttered for much of the quarter, he said. Europe’s e-commerce infrastructure also is less “mature” and the system buckled under the weight of demand for essential products during the pandemic, he said. E-commerce revenue grew about 50% in Q2 from the year-ago quarter and was more than 70% of total quarterly revenue, said Angle. IRobot stock closed $79.35, down 7.49%.

Amazon’s Alexa Live 2020 voice developer event kicked off virtually Wednesday with announcements of new experiences involving conversational artificial intelligence, graphics and multimedia, on-the-go interaction and skills discovery. Alexa engagements have quadrupled over the past two years, said Aaron Rubenson, vice president-Alexa Voice Service and skills. He said customers interact with Alexa “billions of times each week.” Rubenson said 90% percent of Alexa-enabled devices last year were built outside of Amazon, in TVs, speakers, thermostats, lights, garage doors, locks, headphones and smartwatches and others. He imagined a future of gaming with Alexa, including visuals on a Fire TV: Developers would build experiences allowing customers to speak naturally and handle conversational design patterns. The event previewed Alexa for Apps, which lets developers take customers into iOS and Android mobile apps, said Nedim Fresko, vice president-devices and developers. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who has also been involved in cable programming, had a cameo in describing how he uses Alexa. Saying “Alexa, fire” triggers a script telling family what to do in case of a fire emergency, he said.

Federal authorities in San Francisco charged a Santa Clara man with securities and wire fraud for allegedly bilking venture capital investors out of $17 million in bogus artificial intelligence funding. Shaukat Shamim, 49, wooed investors to his AI startup, Youplus, by allegedly lying about the number of clients who bought the software, said DOJ Monday. Prosecutors alleged Shamim showed investors a fake bank statement last summer showing the company had more than $600,000 in revenue from 35 clients, including Netflix, when it really had $65,000 from one client. Shamim is due next week at a hearing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, said DOJ. Efforts to reach him or his attorneys Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Yahoo Mail users can fill Walmart grocery shopping carts directly from their inboxes, said Verizon Media Monday, calling it an industry first. They can track promotions and coupons from the mail app, it said. The shopping cart never expires. Groceries from Walmart are available on the Yahoo Mail iOS app and desktop, with Android coming later this year, it said.

It’s deeply worrisome that President Donald Trump’s social media executive order might enable the government to punish editorial choices like fact-checking speech (see 2007100052), Center for Democracy and Technology CEO Alexandra Givens told the Technology Policy Institute in a podcast released Thursday. She called the EO “a clear effort to deter social media companies from fighting misinformation and voter suppression on their services.” The White House didn't comment.

Antitrust authorities cleared the way for General Atlantic Partners to acquire Doctor on Demand. An FTC early termination notice dated Wednesday and released Thursday ended the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period.

The Commerce Department's new Bureau of Industry and Security agenda touches on several technology issues, our review shows. It mentions an NPRM in BIS’ effort to control emerging and foundational technologies that will request comment about how export controls might affect “legitimate commercial or scientific applications.” BIS said it aims to issue the proposed rule this month. The agenda newly mentions a final rule to adopt new emerging technology controls agreed to at the 2019 Wassenaar plenary. The new controls will cover dual-use goods and technologies. BIS said it aims to issue the rule this month. The agenda includes a new mention of a rule to control “software” for some genetics operations that need export controls.

Tests show Wi-Fi in part of 5.9 GHz would interfere with intelligent transportation systems, said a Ford Motor report filed at the FCC. “A single device running popular Wi-Fi applications can create interference conditions for the ITS safety applications even in low duty-cycle scenarios,” said the report, posted Tuesday in docket 19-138. “Wi-Fi usage at scale presents persistent levels of harmful interference.” The FCC is expected to reallocate the band in coming months, with 45 MHz set aside for unlicensed use (see 2004300032).