Strategy in TECH...
Just last week I was an invited guest to an event that I wasn’t entirely sure would be all that exciting – yet another Zoom meeting in a year full of Zoom meetings. Or so I thought. My invitation came from industry powerhouse Savant, who wanted to host me on a virtual tour of their new Experience Center in Manhattan. Boy!…am I glad I agreed to participate….
Earlier this month Bluebird Music, an upstate New York-based distributor of fine, high-end audio products, announced that it has been appointed as the distributor of Canton loudspeakers for the United States and Canada. Canton, a well-respected speaker brand by audiophiles around the world, is said to be Germany’s largest seller of loudspeakers and a perfect addition to Bluebird Music’s assortment of the fine audio brands.
On Tuesday, SnapAV announced that it has inked an agreement with Onkyo Corporation to become the exclusive distributor of the company’s Integra brand for the countries of Australia and New Zealand. SnapAV says this new appointment will take effect on February 1, 2021.
A hearing before a California federal judge brought an ugly exchange between attorneys for both Sonos and Google – with each side pointing their finger at the other and accusing them of bad faith. That attorneys got ugly against their counterparts is not in itself surprising. However, the speed with which this dispute devolved to that point was a surprise.
High end audio manufacturer Rega Research has appointed The Sound Organisation as its authorized distributor for Canada. Based in Arlington, Texas, The Sound Organisation is a well-known distributor of fine high-end, high-performance specialty audio brands and has been Rega’s U.S. distributor for two decades.
Sonos, Inc. [NASDAQ: SONO] released their fourth quarter and full year financial results for fiscal 2020. Their performance pleasantly surprised Wall Street and their stock value exploded well over 20% in Thursday trading as the company exceeded analysts’ estimates for both revenue growth and profits. But is everything as it appears here?
When we last visited with Velodyne, it was all the way back in 2014 when the company quietly laid off audio staff, and suddenly – without warning – fired all of their manufacturer sales representatives and their dealers. Shortly after this, the company hired a high-powered retail executive (who would go on to eventually go to prison) to launch a direct-to-consumer business. Our coverage drew the attention of then Velodyne President Marta Thoma Hall, who is wife of company founder and chief engineer David Hall, leading to an interview with her on the many dramatic changes taking place at the company. Whew! That was a lot of action in a very short period of time.
Ultimately, it appears that David Hall got bored with audio and moved on with his new prized invention – an improved Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) sensor technology that is important to the autonomous vehicle market. According to a report by Audioholics, Ford and China’s Baidu partnered to invest $150 million in Velodyne’s Lidar technology and Elvis…er…Hall…has definitely left the audio building. Velodyne split into two companies (Velodyne Lidar is now a $100 million public company [NASDAQ:VLDR]) and for a time last year, it looked like curtains for the audio division.
Kicking off their first ever virtual dealer event called Snap Pro Live, SnapAV unleashes a broad array of new products covering their wide gamut of product and service segments. Snap Pro Live runs for three days and kicked off today (Tuesday) afternoon with a keynote from CEO John Heyman – and this major product launch.
SnapAV kicked off their first major three-day virtual event called Snap Pro Live Tuesday afternoon. In a keynote presentation, SnapAV CEO John Heyman hailed the work of the integrator in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the dealer “took on the role of a courageous warrior.” And with that, Snap Pro Live was launched offering three full days packed with useful content. (See more details on Snap Pro Live here…)
Sound United announced today that it has closed on its acquisition of Bowers & Wilkins (B&W), as expected. With this deal, B&W is rejoined with Classé – a high-end electronics manufacturer that itself was once part of B&W but then was acquired by Sound United back in Jaunuary 2018.
