Management

EXCLUSIVE: A Rare Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Sonance Rebranding Decision

September 5, 2019 by Ted Leave a Comment

Insiders & Participants Share Their Perspective

“You are WAY too excited about this news,” Jason Sloan, Sonance Chief Sales Officer joked when first telling me about their rebranding plans a few weeks ago. But I was excited – these plans put forth a major shift in the position of the Dana Innovations, Sonance, iPort, & Trufig brands. To Sloan and CEO Ari Supran, this was more of a refocus than a rebranding – a return to their largest and most beloved brand after a long and at times frustrating period of trying to establish another overarching entity.

But to me, it was much more than that.

The inside story on the Sonance rebranding…

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EXCLUSIVE: Dana Innovations Launches Major Rebranding Effort; Sonance Reasserted

September 3, 2019 by Ted 3 Comments

BREAKING NEWS

San Clemente, CA-based Dana Innovations announced today that it is launching a major rebranding effort, the results of which will better reflect their business initiatives, clarify the meaning and positioning of their various brands, and assert new brand “pillars” to better convey who they are and what they represent. It will also reassert the prominence of the Sonance brand.

The company will no longer be known as Dana Innovations thanks to a “back to the future” decision to elevate Sonance – the brand under which they were founded. Company management has granted Strata-gee exclusive access to this story, including to behind-the-scenes information revealing the depth and detail of the thinking, discussions, and even arguments of the last year and a half or so that were behind this major – and some would say somewhat risky – decision.

What the heck is Dana Innovations, er, Sonance doing?…

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New, Larger SnapAV: The One-Stop Shop of Smart Home

August 16, 2019 by Ted Leave a Comment

Strata-gee Interviews SnapAV’s John Heyman & Charlie Kindel

The industry is still adjusting to the new normal of SnapAV combining with Control4…even as it continues to gobble up more local distributors and talk about their e-commerce prowess. It can get a little confusing. Is SnapAV a manufacturer? An e-commerce play? A local distributor? Or are they attempting to be all of the above?

I spoke with SnapAV’s John Heyman and Charlie Kindel to try and help our readers sort this all out. It’s certainly a new world out there…but just what planet are we on?

See what I learned from these top SnapAV execs…

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Sex and the CES Attendee

July 29, 2019 by Ted Leave a Comment

Only six months to go and word has emerged that the Consumer Technology Association – the trade group behind the annual Consumer Electronics show – has proactively taken steps to avoid repeating the mistakes that caused them to endure a plethora of embarrassing headlines last year. The controversy, a self-inflicted wound, surrounded the Association’s awarding – then rescinding – of a CES 2019 Innovation Award…and retroactive cancellation of booth space for that company. The news dominated the early headlines during the January 2019 event…mostly because the matter involved sex.

See how CTA got in trouble & hopes to avoid it this year…

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Did Control4 Just Try to End-Run Multiple Shareholder Lawsuits?

July 22, 2019 by Ted Leave a Comment

As Strata-gee recently reported, there are currently seven active lawsuits that have been filed against Control4 and their Board of Directors in the wake of their acquisition by SnapAV. In a new DEFA14A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday, the company addresses the issue of these lawsuits – saying that they are going to fight them. But then they do something very curious – they file an amendment to their original Schedule 14A filing, their Proxy Statement, with added information that appears to add missing material in response to allegations in the lawsuits filed against them.

Is Control4 trying to end-run the litigation just days before shareholders vote? See more below…

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Lenbrook Responds to Sonos Lawsuit, It Will ‘Defend Vigorously the Claims’

June 26, 2019 by Ted 4 Comments

Strata-gee reported yesterday that late last week Sonos had filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Lenbrook Industries Limited and Lenbrook America. This suit, which is almost identical to the one Sonos had successfully pursued with D&M Holdings and Denon over its HEOS line, was resolved in Sonos’s favor a little over a year ago.

Now we have Lenbrook’s response to this development – the company says it will “defend vigorously the claims of patent infringement made by computer audio company Sonos…”

See what else Lenbrook had to say about the Sonos suit…

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Music System Sales Sagging, Sonos Un-Leashes Lawyers to Raise Revenues

June 26, 2019 by Ted Leave a Comment

BREAKING NEWS

Strata-gee reported just yesterday that Sonos, Inc. has sued Lenbrook Industries Ltd. & Lenbrook America – the maker & marketer of Bluesound – for patent infringement. Undoubtedly emboldened by their near-complete victory over Denon’s HEOS brand a little over a year ago, Sonos appears to have targeted Lenbrook to be next in line.

However, Strata-gee has learned that Lenbrook is not the only company targeted for such potential actions by Sonos. There are more – perhaps many more – in our industry lined up for this “hit” parade.

See what Strata-gee learned about Sono’s legal strategy…

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Angling at Auction for a Deal on Thiel? Heed This Warning

June 5, 2019 by Ted 5 Comments

Last week’s Strata-gee story on the final liquidation of what remains of Thiel not only drew a huge number of readers, it also sent a big chunk of them on to the auctioneer’s website (McLemore Auctions). Many of those readers who journeyed to the auction were in search of a great deal on a good line of Thiel speakers. But then, in an unexpected twist, a source reached out to Strata-gee to offer a warning to those in search of a great deal on Thiel.

Know this before bidding in the Thiel auction…

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Sound United to Acquire Onkyo’s Audio Division

May 15, 2019 by Ted Leave a Comment

We seem to be in a week of big deals. First, we learned that SnapAV had acquired Control4, then we learned that the original founder of Paradigm has acquired back the Paradigm, Anthem, and Martin Logan brands from the private equity company that had bought the company from him some time back. Now we learn that Sound United, owner of Denon, Marantz, Polk Audio, Definitive Technology, HEOS, Classé, and Boston Acoustics has entered into an agreement with Onkyo Corp. to purchase Onkyo’s premier lineup of brands, including: Onkyo, Integra, Pioneer and Pioneer Elite.

But does Sound United’s purchase of Onkyo make sense?…

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Emerald Expo Releases Q1 Results with Head-Scratching Statements

May 3, 2019 by Ted 1 Comment

Does Good Spin Offset Bad Numbers?

Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. (NYSE:EEX), a leading provider of trade shows and events and the current owner of CEDIA Expo, announced their financial results today for the first fiscal quarter of 2019. And while this tends to be a rather mundane or even robotic process, there were a few things unique about this report from Emerald – most notably their head-scratching comments that dramatically contrasted with the numbers.

See Emerald’s results & comments…

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Management

EXCLUSIVE: A Rare Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Sonance Rebranding Decision

Insiders & Participants Share Their Perspective

The inside story on the Sonance rebranding…

EXCLUSIVE: Dana Innovations Launches Major Rebranding Effort; Sonance Reasserted

BREAKING NEWS

What the heck is Dana Innovations, er, Sonance doing?…

New, Larger SnapAV: The One-Stop Shop of Smart Home

Strata-gee Interviews SnapAV’s John Heyman & Charlie Kindel

See what I learned from these top SnapAV execs…

Sex and the CES Attendee

See how CTA got in trouble & hopes to avoid it this year…

Did Control4 Just Try to End-Run Multiple Shareholder Lawsuits?

Is Control4 trying to end-run the litigation just days before shareholders vote? See more below…

Lenbrook Responds to Sonos Lawsuit, It Will ‘Defend Vigorously the Claims’

See what else Lenbrook had to say about the Sonos suit…