Strategy in TECH...
RoseWater Energy Group said today that it is participating in multiple Energy Day education seminars being held by local sales representatives around the country. These events are being held in February and March and provide dealers with an informative half-day education session on the importance of power as the foundation for any home automation or smart home solution.
Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) announced recently that it has once again downgraded the overall credit rating of Guitar Center Inc. – the owner of custom integrator Audio Visual Design Group (AVDG). The agency has dropped its creditworthiness from B2 to B3. Not only that, Moody’s notes that it has additionally downgraded the company’s rating on a specific item – its senior secured note – to Caa1 from B3. The outlook for the near term is said to be “stable.”
This is yet a new chapter in a long-troubled private equity-owned company swimming in debt and trying to grow itself out of trouble.
Russound released a statement today from CEO Charlie Porritt who summed up their experience at the recent ISE 2023 event in Barcelona. According to Porritt, the show was “one of the most productive, well-run, and enjoyable trade events to date.” It doesn’t get much better than that…
Parasound announced today that it has appointed Larry Bennett, a well-known audio industry veteran, as its Vice President of Sales and Marketing. The company says that this is the first step in new owner David Sheriff’s plan to revitalize the company.
CEDIA has launched a new workforce acquisition initiative called CEDIA NextGen: Smart Home Career Toolkit. Designed to provide integrators the tools they need to improve and expand their outreach to attract new candidates to the smart home industry, the association has created an impressive series of multimedia tools to grease the skids in getting new recruits through integrators’ doors.
Robert R. (Bob) Gullo, founder, President, and Chief Creative Officer of influential East Coast integrator Electronic Design Group, Inc. (EDG) died on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. According to several sources, the cause of death was cancer. A creative, energetic promoter of the then-nascent custom installation, now custom integration, industry, Gullo played an influential…even outsized…role in the development of the industry and was an oft-cited inspiration for many others to follow his path and embrace the industry.
Crestron Electronics, a leading provider of smart workplace collaboration technology, announced today that in May 2023, it will hold another Modern Work Summit 2023 in Madrid. A follow-up to the first such event held in Orlando, FL last year, Modern Work Summit 2023 is a two-day in-person event centered on the topic of the dynamic and evolving workplace of today (and tomorrow), and the technology that helps power the transition.
CEDIA held its annual member meeting just a couple of weeks ago in mid-December. The version offered this year was decidedly different than those in the past. This is likely due to the professional association management style of the organization’s new Global President and CEO Daryl Friedman.
CEDIA and staff offered members a slick marketing package of largely pre-recorded content and carefully controlled live content. But was it too slick? Did it really brief members with a balanced picture of both the successes and the challenges that CEDIA is facing? Or was it just a form of advertisement for the association?
Savant Systems, Inc. (Savant) announced on Monday it’s Savant Power division has partnered with heavyweight energy solutions and services provider Sunnova Energy International, Inc. (Sunnova) (NYSE: NOVA). This is the kind of deal that can turbocharge Savant’s growth in the energy monitoring and control segment – a segment in which they are already a leader in the custom integration space.
Snap One (NASDAQ: SNPO), a major player in the custom integration/smart home channel, recently reported its fiscal 2022, third-quarter results last month, showing both revenue gains and reduced losses. The company says sales are slowing and they revised their forward-looking guidance for yearly performance downward.
Since this earnings report was released, the value of Snap One stock has really struggled, dropping 19% and setting several new 52-week lows.
