Strategy in TECH...
We recently had the sad duty to report on the passing of our colleague and good friend Len Schneider, just last month. At the time of that report, we had no information on a service in his honor – although many of you contacted us to ask about one. Len’s family has now set the details for a service to be held in his memory in New Jersey on Saturday, October 3, 2015.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse for the aging Japanese industrial giant, Toshiba Corp. again stunned the financial community in Japan – forced to postpone their already delayed financial reports which were expected at the end of August. The company said it was forced to delay the report in the face of ten whistleblowers who have come forward alleging more company misdeeds. The company has launched ten new investigations, including one at a U.S. subsidiary.
If I were Jay Z’s publicist, I’d be nervous right now. The popular rapper’s reputation as a savvy businessman is in serious jeopardy. Billboard, one of the oldest and most prominent music industry publications, has recently launched a new annual survey of the top “A-list music business professionals.” In order to capture their honest opinions, the survey is conducted on an anonymous basis. While not exceptionally detailed or deep, the survey is meant to cover a “broad range of temperature-taking topics.”
The results of this inaugural effort offered some surprises – including the fact that more than 7 out of 10 of these top music industry executives predict that the Tidal music streaming service won’t survive its first year – a remarkable no-confidence vote in Jay Z, Tidal’s owner.
After the Wall Street Journal revealed late last month that United Technologies Corp. (UTC) was in talks to potentially acquire Nortek, Inc., we questioned why UTC would even want to acquire Nortek. Within days of our post, investment advisory firm The Motley Fool (TMF) also raised the issue in a post last week about this not-quite-so-obvious marriage. Well, maybe it’s more like a dalliance than a marriage…at least at this point.
We found the Motley Fool’s analysis interesting – both in their clear-eyed assessment of Nortek and why the acquisition may in fact make sense for United Technologies.
New studies show pay TV providers saw a large and significant decline in the number of subscribers in the second quarter of this year, losing more than 470,000 subscribers – almost a half million – during the quarter. It was their worst quarterly performance ever and indicates a growing, troubling trend.
Walled Lake, Michigan-based sales representative company QMI, Inc. (The QMI Group) held a Casino night on Sunday, August 23rd for the sales staff of ABC Warehouse, a large electronics and appliance retailer in the Midwest. Sponsored by Pioneer and Polk Audio, the Casino night capped a 90-day sales promotion that allowed floor salespeople the opportunity celebrate their success, blow off some steam, and earn valuable prizes.
This week in New York City, executives from Lenbrook America and Bluesound conducted a media presentation informing them of a major update to the Bluesound brand, which is distributed in the U.S. by Lenbrook America along with NAD and PSB. It is the first major line update since the brand was first launched in 2013. With this update, called “Generation 2,” the Bluesound brand appears to have gained solid momentum – or at least enough traction for the company to justify a significant investment in further product development.
The Wall Street Journal broke the news yesterday that United Technologies Corp. is in talks to possibly acquire Nortek, Inc. Nortek is best known in our industry as the parent company of Core Brands, a collection of several prominent lines – such as Niles, Elan, SpeakerCraft (and others) – that are focused largely on the custom integration business, but also produces commercial and residential HVAC and air handling equipment. United Technologies is a large conglomerate with diversified holdings such as Pratt & Whitney jet engines, Otis elevators, and Carrier air-conditioning equipment.
Watching movies is a serial, linear, common experience…period. No matter how great of a movie enthusiast you may be, the experience is the same for us all – you can only watch one movie at a time, and you watch it from the beginning to the end. And we all exit the theater having watched the exact same movie. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if our mind controlled the movie, changing the plot as it plays? Science fiction…or science fact?
Russound announced today that it is adding two new components to its popular XStream line that seamlessly integrates streaming music services to any system installation, residential or commercial. The new models are the XSource Streaming Audio Player and the XZone4 Four-Stream, Four-Zone Audio System.
