Financial

EVA Automation Escapes Forced Bankruptcy; But Shuts Down Anyway

November 25, 2020 by Ted Leave a Comment

eva automation executives — *EVA Automation in happier times*

EVA Admits ‘Financial Distress’ & A Business ‘Wind Down’

EVA Automation, the now former owner of Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) dodged a bullet when late last month U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, the Honorable Hannah L. Blumenstiel, entered an order dismissing the involuntary petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy brought against them by Top Victory Investments Limited (whose attorneys use the acronym TPV). With that decision, a forced bankruptcy was avoided. However, as court records clearly demonstrate, the company did feel some pain as a result of this filing, and according to their attorneys were in the process of conducting an orderly shut down of the business.

Not only that, but we learn much more about EVA Automation‘s relationship with Bowers & Wilkins – and their degraded circumstances based largely on the failure of their Formation wireless speaker line marketed under the B&W brand.

Learn more about EVA Automation’s situation…

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Guitar Center, Owner of AVDG, Files for Bankruptcy

November 23, 2020 by Ted Leave a Comment

*Guitar Center store [Click to enlarge]*

In an unusual Saturday night filing, Guitar Center, Inc., parent company to AV integration company Audio Visual Design Group (AVDG), filed for bankruptcy protection. The move was widely expected by many industry watchers for years, and caps a difficult business history for Guitar Center, starting back in 2007 when they were first acquired by Bain Capital.

See what we know so far about the Guitar Center and AVDG bankruptcy…

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Sonos is Getting Hooked on D2C Biz; Revenues & Profits Exceed Expectations

November 20, 2020 by Ted 2 Comments

But Is Everything Really as Good as It Looks?

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?

See more on Sonos financial results…

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Onkyo Corp. is Insolvent; Now It’s in a Struggle to Survive

November 18, 2020 by Ted 16 Comments

image from Onkyo report on Fiscal 2020 results — *Image from Onkyo report on fiscal 2020 results, heading section on new plans [Click to enlarge]*

Onkyo Corporation had a really tough fiscal 2020 – the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2020. How tough was it? So tough that the company was forced to announce that a massive drop in revenues and record losses had pushed the company into insolvency – calling into question its ability to continue as a going concern. It doesn’t get much tougher than that. And this announcement triggered a Tokyo Stock Exchange action – invoking a rule that starts a clock on a limited grace period for the company to cure the situation – their insolvency – before a forced delisting from the JASDAQ stock exchange is implemented.

So what happens now with Onkyo?

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Let’s Get Ready to Ruummbbblllleee…Subwoofer Powerhouse Velodyne is Back

November 12, 2020 by Ted 5 Comments

Velodyne Acoustics' insane 1812 subwoofer — *Velodyne Acoustics’ insane 1812 subwoofer with 18″ & 12″ drivers*

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.

But now Velodyne’s audio division is back…

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Despite 90 Virtual Events & $40M in Claims Income, Emerald Loses $22.3M

November 3, 2020 by Ted Leave a Comment

Emerald Holding, Inc. (NYSE:EEX), formerly Emerald Expositions, reported their fiscal 2020 third quarter results this week and despite their best efforts to shift their business to online virtual conferences, the company reported revenues of just $8.5 million and generated a net loss of $22.3 million. This loss was even deeper than their loss of $19.7 million in the same quarter in 2019 which was well before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S.

See more on the results for Emerald Holding this past fiscal quarter…

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Change of Strategy: Emerald Board Tells Company Managers to Buy Stock…Theirs

October 13, 2020 by Ted Leave a Comment

Emerald Holding, Inc. (Formerly Emerald Expositions Events, Inc.) [NYSE: EEX], the company that owns the CEDIA Expo show and CE Pro, announced last week that its Board of Directors has authorized company managers to purchase up to $20 Million of Emerald’s stock in a share buyback program. As Strata-gee noted back in May in a report on the company’s large fiscal first quarter loss, this program had previously been suspended when cash had tightened up after the cancellation of their events due to COVID-19.

Now the company has been recapitalized, thanks to help from sugar daddy Onex who now owns more than 80% of the company, and – gosh – the stock is so darn cheap. Maybe now is the time to buy…

See more on this stock purchase by Emerald

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Sound United Deal to Acquire Bowers & Wilkins Closes

October 9, 2020 by Ted 3 Comments

bowers & wilkins 702 signature speakers — 702 Signature Photography

The Band’s Back Together – B&W Reunited with Classé Under Sound United

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.

See more on Sound United acquiring Bowers & Wilkins

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Sonos Stock Slammed on News Apple Stores Drop the Line

October 7, 2020 by Ted 2 Comments

Lost 7% of Value in After-Hours Trading

Bloomberg News reported late on Monday that Apple is dropping Sonos [NASDAQ: SONO] and other non-Apple branded products from their stores. The news of Sonos losing such a major customer caused their stock to derail in after hours trading, down almost 7% in value at one point. On Tuesday, Sonos stock price closed down 3.2% as Wall Street digested the news.

See why Apple stores are dropping Sonos…

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Retail Sales Growth Slows in July, Up Just 1.2%

September 10, 2020 by Ted Leave a Comment

Only Electronics & Appliances Show Big Growth

In a new and troubling sign that the economy is not yet out of the woods, government data showed that for the month of July, retail sales barely crept up 1.2% overall. But there was one bright spot in the government’s report – retail sales of electronics and appliances jumped an impressive 23%.

See more on retail sales growth slowing…

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Financial

EVA Automation Escapes Forced Bankruptcy; But Shuts Down Anyway

EVA Admits ‘Financial Distress’ & A Business ‘Wind Down’

Learn more about EVA Automation’s situation…

Guitar Center, Owner of AVDG, Files for Bankruptcy

See what we know so far about the Guitar Center and AVDG bankruptcy…

Sonos is Getting Hooked on D2C Biz; Revenues & Profits Exceed Expectations