Broadcom withdrew 2020 financial guidance “until ... visibility returns to pre-COVID-19 levels,” said CEO Hock Tan on a fiscal Q1 call Thursday. Its Q4 release Dec. 12 predicted an 11% revenue increase for fiscal 2020 ending early November. Its Q1 ended Feb. 2. Tan said he hasn’t seen “a meaningful impact” on Broadcom semiconductor bookings from the coronavirus and thinks “the fundamentals of the business remain very much intact.” But there’s “no doubt COVID-19 has created a high level of uncertainty,” and that’s sure to hurt operations, especially in the year’s second half, he said. The stock closed up 7.1% Friday at $234.22. As consumer spending declines from the coronavirus, “the confidence level among businesses, enterprises might erode,” said Tan. That would “delay or push out spending by enterprises,” but that’s “all speculation,” he said. “We're trying to understand the impact of COVID-19 on our ecosystem,” but it’s at “a very early stage in the whole process,” he said. Broadcom, which put its wireless chip business up for sale last year, now has no interest in getting rid of it, said Tan. “Continuing to invest in and operate our wireless assets will create the most value.” Recent chip-supply agreements position Broadcom as “more closely and strategically aligned with our largest smartphone customer,” said Tan. The customer is known to be Apple. The agreements are for three-year terms, he said. They require Broadcom to “provide technology and road map alignment” in RF components for the “next three generations of 5G phones,” he said.

Silicon Labs agreed to buy Redpine Signals’ connectivity business, including its Wi-Fi and Bluetooth assets, development center and patent portfolio, for $308 million in cash, it said Thursday. Integration of Redpine technology will accelerate Silicon Labs’ work on Wi-Fi 6 silicon, software and solutions, said the company. The acquisition also includes Bluetooth Classic IP (including Extended Data Rate) for audio applications including wearables, hearables, voice assistants and smart speakers. The deal includes an at-scale design center with about 200 employees in Hyderabad, India. Silicon Labs expects the transaction to add about $20 million in incremental revenue on an annualized basis for fiscal 2020; the deal is expected to close in Q2.

Saint-Gobain is working with Ossia on a new category of smart products for industrial, building, automotive, and consumer applications, said the companies Wednesday. Ossia’s Cota Real Wireless Power technology is designed to deliver power over the air. The company bowed at CES a battery-free IoT system said to be continuously powered using wireless charging. Cota power receivers can be embedded into IoT devices, wearables and other electronics.

Best Buy put “strict” employee travel policies in place and “canceled meetings with large gatherings” to do what it can to help prevent coronavirus spread, said a customer notice Tuesday. It offered to reschedule in-home consultations, deliveries, installations or repairs. “For in-home consultations, we offer options for phone or video conversations with our experts if you so choose,” it said. Stores will have “ramped up cleaning services,” adding hand sanitizer dispensers at entrances and all cash registers, the company said. “Sanitizing wipes are near workstations and counters so that employees can keep them continuously cleaned.”

Samsung and Sony pulled their floor exhibits from the BrandSource and ProSource annual event that's ongoing in Las Vegas. They cited citing company travel restrictions, said Andy Orozco, ProSource vice president-business development. The group didn't have an estimated number of how many people canceled. Other events including in Washington are being postponed due to the coronavirus (see 2003090062). Stock market volatility from the virus “hasn’t up to this point” affected ProSource members’ businesses, CEO Dave Workman told a news conference Sunday. Purell hand-sanitizer dispensers were everywhere throughout the Venetian conference area. We saw Venetian workers wiping down surfaces and escalator handrails with anti-bacterial cloths. Preregistration was given as 2,900 for the summit.

A dozen models in four series spanning sizes 65-85 inches make up Samsung’s QLED 8K TV line for 2020, announced the vendor. All the 8K models will have ATSC 3.0 functionality "ready out of the box," emailed a spokesperson Friday. Samsung said at CES it will offer 3.0 across its 2020 8K QLED lineup but wasn't specific on the number of models or the screen sizes. Pricing wasn't available for most of the 2020 models, including for three sets in the flagship Q950T 8K series. Samsung is pricing one 65-inch 8K model at $3,499 for April 10 availability. It’s one of three models in the Q800T series at the bottom tier of the 2020 8K offerings.

Commissioner Rhonda Schmidtlein is recusing herself and her staff from participating in the International Trade Commission’s Tariff Act Section 337 investigation into Sonos allegations that Google smart speakers and other devices infringed Sonos multiroom audio patents, said her memorandum (login required) dated Wednesday and posted Thursday in docket 337-TA-1191. Schmidtlein, a Democrat, also recused herself from the ITC’s Feb. 5 vote to open the investigation (see 2002060070). The agency declined comment on her recusals.

Citing the coronavirus outbreak, TCL went online to launch its 2019 TV series Wednesday at its streamed spring product launch event in Hong Kong. The 13 TVs, divided into three categories, included a quantum dot QLED, P9 “Hollywood theater” TV and AI TV, said the company. TCL outlined a two-pronged strategy around technology and connectivity with other product categories, including appliances. During the Chinese Lunar New Year, when the coronavirus outbreak was at a peak in China, consumers spent 35% more time watching TCL TVs vs. the corresponding period last year, it said. The average daily click rate of the “Against the Epidemic" channel on TCL smart TVs registered over 50%, “indicating that an increasing number of users choose TV as the news source of the epidemic.”

ACT|The App Association said 5G means some “8.5 million jobs will be created over 2019-2025 compared to a counterfactual 4G-only world,” in a report released Tuesday: “These workers will earn more than $560 billion during that time, create $1.7 trillion in additional output, and add over $900 billion to U.S. GDP.”

The “growing concern over the coronavirus” forced Nvidia to cancel its March 22-26 GPU Technology Conference at the San Jose Convention Center and run an online event instead, blogged the company Monday. CEO Jensen Huang will still keynote, it said. “We will be working with our conference speakers to begin publishing their talks online beginning in the weeks ahead.” Registrants who paid for a conference pass will get a full refund, said Nvidia. It thanks conference participants for their “understanding during these unusual times,” it said.