Strategy in TECH...
Just days after a similar announcement from South Korean rival Samsung Electronics, Sony Corp. has said it will put OLED technology on the back burner – scaling back development efforts for the forseeable future. Instead, the company says it sees a greater immediate opportunity with 4K Ultra HD LCD TVs and will work to expand its assortment in this product segment.
In a regulatory filing this month, JVC Kenwood Corp. said it will take dramatic and bold steps to literally change its very core – the operating structure of the company – such that it fundamentally changes the way the company is run. This changing-our-DNA move marks a deep expansion of its previously announced business-spectrum initiatives to move away from its weakening consumer electronics businesses into more commercial enterprises by ensuring that the way it manages itself is completely changed as well.
I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.
Lily Tomlin
In a move that is likely to signify a tipping point in the industry’s adoption of OLED technology, Samsung Electronics is dropping plans to build a new factory that was supposed to help it scale manufacturing of the nascent technology, driving production volumes and lowering cost. But as we’ve reported before, manufacturing OLED…well, it’s just not easy.
Nortek, Inc. released financial results for their fiscal first quarter this week. As a widely diversified provider of largely building-related products, the company noted marked improvement in several key areas over the same quarter last year. With an overall quarterly sales increase from $519.1 million last year to $550.1 million this year, sales increased 6%. But the company still lost money in the quarter – though the loss was less than last year.
Tokyo-based TDK Corp., a diversified tech manufacturing company, announced this week it would launch a high-tech “product development center” in California’s Silicon Valley to develop next generation electronic parts. TDK is mostly known in this country for its past dominance in the magnetic tape business, but is actually quite diversified and one of the leading electronic component manufacturers (i.e. capacitors, sensors) in the world with revenues in excess of ¥8.5 billion ($83.7 million).
Sapphire Marketing, a well-known manufacturer’s sales representative company focusing on the commercial and residential integration channels in the Northeast, held their sixth dealer “RoadShow” in mid-town Manhattan on Thursday and Friday of last week. We had the good fortune of being invited to attend the event courtesy of our friend Dawn Allcot of Crestron’s PR department…and we’re glad we went.
This past Saturday, CEPro published a strongly worded report based on anonymous email sources saying Automated Control Technology Partners, Inc., the parent company of Turn it On (TiO), has “fallen on some hard times” and its “office doors were locked” and “employees haven’t been paid for months.” The article also said that the company is “filing for Chapter 11” [bankruptcy] and “that a huge number of employees have been laid off.” CEO Mike Anderson was quoted as disputing many of the points in the article.
“Harley [Davidson] is maybe the best brand name in the U.S. Coca-Cola is a good brand name, but people don’t tattoo it on their bodies.”
Ralph Wanger, Chicago mutual fund manager
Yamaha Corporation announced their financial results for fiscal year 2014 (April 1, 2013 – March 31, 2014) and it is mostly good news for the company and its shareholders. However, like other Japanese companies, Yamaha benefited from an extremely favorable currency exchange rate that for some of their divisions was the only good news. Overall, however, Yamaha has much to crow about with sales up 11.8% to ¥410.3 billion ($4.0 billion) and net income up 455% to ¥22.9 billion ($223.8 million).
