Strategy in TECH...
Nice North America, part of the globally significant Nice S.p.A. of Italy, announced this week that it has implemented what it calls pivotal changes within its North American operations (U.S. and Canada) that it believes will “further boost growth and innovation.” It is the first major structural change here in the U.S. since Italy’s Nice acquired Nortek Security and Control from Melrose PLC back in October 2021.
This morning, AVPro Global Holdings, Inc., a maker of a wide variety of audio/video gear and services, announced it has acquired the residential division of AudioControl from AAMP Global. Like King Solomon, the move “splits the baby” in half along its logical business lines with AVPro Global taking over AudioControl’s residential division, while AAMP Global retains its mobile electronics business.
Nationwide Marketing Group (NMG) announced today that it has reestablished its home entertainment program with LG Electronics USA. As a result of this reconnection, NMG’s membership, including independent retailers and custom integrators, have access to a wide range of LG’s TV, audio and video products.
A key metric of the U.S. economy is consumer confidence – a reading of how confident consumers feel about the economy, both currently and in the near future. A confident consumer helps stimulate the economy by freely spending their money, as compared to an unconfident or insecure consumer who will instead pull back on spending to hold on to their money. Now, three major surveys that offer key readings on consumer sentiment in July show big gains in confidence – a bullish sign for the economy.
Ignoring the Masimo noise swirling around them, portfolio brand Denon launches two new audio video receivers (AVRs) with impressive technology targeted for small-to-midsize spaces, such as dens, family rooms, home offices, and the like. With support for 8K video and 3D audio, these new models offer an unusual blend of performance and features at a moderate price making them perfect for alternative smaller format spaces needing a more modest cinema implementation.
In a letter to employees earlier this month, VOXX International Corp. (Nasdaq: VOXX) CEO Pat Lavelle painted a dark picture of the economic environment the company finds itself mired in, noting its significant sales declines and mounting losses. If you were a VOXX employee reading the opening phrases of this letter, I’m pretty certain a feeling of dread would sweep over you – sensing where this communication is heading.
And you would be right, as later in the correspondence, Lavelle reveals a plan to cut “more than 150 employees” along with a series of other steps to cut costs and lower overhead. And these cuts are on top of the job cuts the company has already implemented in 2022, as it tries again to right the ship.
It was eight years ago – all the way back to January 2015 – when I first reported on what looked to be a pretty ugly legal action beginning between Monster, LLC and Beats Electronics, LLC. While the lawsuit filed by Monster took place in January 2015, the actions that led them to that point actually began much earlier than that, all the way back to 2011. And the relationship between the two significant CE brands actually began even further back to 2009, when the two came together to create Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, the wildly popular consumer headphone brand.
But when the relationship ended…it ended badly…
OK, let me say upfront, I’m pretty sure the good folks at Josh.ai would take exception to the headline of this post. They might even have some harsh words for me. Most likely, they would argue they’ve always been about control. But in my view, they’ve been all about a subset of control – voice control (as well as AI or artificial intelligence).
This week, however, that all changed.
After the close of markets on Monday, Masimo Corporation (Nasdaq: MASI) took the unusual step of issuing a press release announcing preliminary results for its fiscal 2023 second quarter, the quarter that ended July 1, 2023. The release warned investors that the company expected to report a revenue decline in the quarter…a pretty significant revenue decline. But perhaps even more impactful than that, the company went on to add that it is forced to revise downward its forward guidance for the full Fiscal 2023 annual results. The value of MASI stock crashed nearly 26% in an early evening reading of after-hours trading in the stock.
This evening I received a press release from Valerio Cora, the new owner and Chief Executive Officer of Audio Research that seeks to address some concerns the company is apparently hearing from customers of the high-end, high-performance electronics brand. Interestingly, Cora says that the company will use the dba (doing business as) designation of Audio Research Corporation, while its legal new corporate name registered in Delaware is AR Tube Audio Corporation.
