Used equipment junkies take note: eBay will bring its popular roving university to New York City for the Home Entertainment 2002 Show (HES 2002), May 30–June 2, 2002. Since its inception, eBay University has instructed thousands of eBay users on the ins and outs of buying and selling on eBay. The special seminar from eBay at HE 2002 will provide specific tips for attendees on buying and selling consumer electronic products.

One of Silicon Valley's most aggressive semiconductor companies has surrendered to the siren song of merger and acquisition. On October 27, Milpitas, California-based <A HREF="http://www.c-cube.com/">C-Cube Microsystems</A> announced that it has entered into an agreement to combine its <A HREF="http://www.divi.com/">DiviCom</A> digital television subsidiary with <A HREF="http://www.harmonicinc.com/">Harmonic</A>, a Sunnyvale designer and maker of digital and fiber-optic systems that deliver video, voice, and data via cable, satellite, telephone lines, and wireless networks. DiviCom products enable digital video broadcasting over the same variety of networks. Blending the two companies may be a good fit for the coming age of digital TV and Internet-based "infotainment."

"Local into local" renewed: Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services can continue to beam local stations to their subscribers, thanks to a renewal of the Satellite Home Viewer Enhancement and Reauthorization Act (SHVERA) by the US House of Representatives Telecommunications Subcommittee on Wednesday, April 28.

More than two-thirds of American television viewers get their programming by cable. They may soon be able to receive digital television signals over their existing systems, if all goes according to an agreement signed February 23 by the <A HREF="http://www.ce.org">Consumer Electronics Association</A> and the <A HREF="http://ncta.org/">National Cable Television Association</A>.