Management

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…

[Read more…]

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…

[Read more…]

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…

[Read more…]

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…

[Read more…]

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?…

[Read more…]

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…

[Read more…]

LG’s Fiscal 2019 Q1 Revenues & Income Decline

May 1, 2019 by Ted Leave a Comment

Overall Results Decline, But Company Hails Record Results in Home Appliances

LG Electronics Inc., a leading manufacturer in a diverse range of businesses, announced their fiscal 2019 first quarter results this week. With consolidated sales of KRW (Korean won) 14.92 trillion ($13.27 billion) and an operating profit of KRW 900.6 billion ($801.25 million), the company showed respectable numbers, but those results that represented a decline for the quarter.

LG’s Q1 declined, read on to see why…

[Read more…]

James Loudspeaker Launches New Mavericks Division

April 25, 2019 by Ted Leave a Comment

Innovative architectural loudspeaker designer/manufacturer James Loudspeaker announced this week that it will split off its Mavericks theater products into their own division, the Mavericks Architectural Cinema (MAC) division. This new division will offer the company’s dramatic Mavericks theater speakers for both the high-end residential and commercial cinema installation markets.

See more on James’ new Mavericks division…

[Read more…]

CEDIA Celebrates, Hoping You Don’t Notice That Little Spark Catching in the Corner

April 5, 2019 by Ted 5 Comments

Photo of CEDIA HQ — CEDIA’s new headquarters building in Fishers, Indiana

On March 28th CEDIA held a grand opening gala to celebrate their brand new $14 million glass and stone castle in Fishers, IN with about 250 of their closest friends. Depending on your viewpoint, this new facility is either a shining shrine to the strength of the custom integration tech association – or it is a monument to the monumental arrogance and ego of an association that is drifting further away from the very community it purports to serve.

But what many of these guests to the opening celebrations didn’t know was that, as they sipped champagne and oohed an ahhhd over the new gorgeous digs, there was yet another small member flare-up taking place in the background…with significant members expressing strong dissent on yet another Association initiative.

See more on this two worlds of CEDIA…

[Read more…]

Tech IPOs: Lyft, Uber, Pinterest… ComoAudio? Well, Sort Of…

March 29, 2019 by Ted Leave a Comment

Como Audio, Tom DeVesto’s latest innovative venture and maker of fine streaming smart speaker systems, has launched a funding campaign on Wefunder, seeking to raise between $100,000 to $1,000,000 in equity investment. Investors on the Wefunder site can buy preferred shares of Como Audio stock priced at $2.50/share and own a piece of the company.

You too can become a Como Audio owner…

[Read more…]

Management

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…