Strategy in TECH...
Starting first thing this morning, our office was inundated with multiple sources contacting us by phone and email to tell us that something big was happening over at Sunnyvale, CA-based, media-server company Kaleidescape. While there were minor variations on the stories we received, they all came down to the same thing – an exit of several employees, including some top executives, from the company.
Although not a surprise, Sony Electronics in San Diego began releasing details of a substantial cutback in U.S. facilities and personnel. The company says it will cut 33% of its U.S. staff – about 1,000 employees. Also, the company announced a major retreat from retail as it will close 20 of its 31 total Sony Store locations.
Today we learned that Core Brands has taken steps to reorganize their product marketing teams with moves both to bring in new executives – and to move two prominent executives out. Mitch Witten, former Core Brands Director of Audio, and Mark Weisenberg, Business Development, are both out of the company effective immediately.
The Nikkei reported this week that Sony Corp. has finally taken a bold step to reorganize its business by putting its VAIO computer division up for sale. According to the report, the company is in negotiation to offload the division to Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), a Japanese investment company.
JVC Kenwood Corporation released their year-to-date results for the first nine months (April 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013) of the current fiscal year at the end of last week. The results clearly portrayed a company in a struggle to turn their flagging business around. Although 9-month sales showed a 2.6% increase to ¥230.3 billion ($2.3 billion), up from ¥224.5 billion ($2.2 billion) last year…the company also booked a net loss that also increased more than four-fold – from ¥1.4 billion ($13.8 million) last year to ¥5.7 billion ($55.7 million) now.
Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwanese company with manufacturing plants in China, and the world’s largest manufacturer of electronics – is looking to build one or more factories here in the U.S. The company, mostly known as the primary manufacturer of Apple’s popular iPhone, is in negotiations with Arizona and Colorado, according to a report by Bloomberg. But four other states have thrown their hats into the ring as well.
Savant Systems, LLC announced on Tuesday that it has hired William J. Lynch as its new CEO. Who is Lynch, you ask? He is the ex-Barnes & Noble CEO who left there in the middle of last year. The Savant announcement surprised many as, on paper, Lynch looks like an unlikely candidate for the role.
We first reported on the formation of a new distributor group called Catalyst AV almost exactly one-year ago in December 2012, just prior to their formal launch at the International Consumer Electronics show this past January. While the concept of a national association of regional distributors was not a new phenomenon – various groups started forming back in the mid- to late-1990s – this particular announcement had some added drama with several of the initial members unilaterally defecting from competitor DDG.
Just days after the JVC Kenwood Corp. announced their dismal fiscal first-half results and revealed dramatic revisions to their full-year forecast – including the surprising news that they would lose money this year – the company released a statement saying they would attack their performance shortcomings aggressively. A series of actions were outlined designed to mitigate the company’s projected loss…but they couldn’t say for sure at this time if these actions will have a material effect on the remaining fiscal period’s performance.
On Thursday last week, Nortek, Inc. released the financial results for its third quarter (ending September 28, 2013) as well as their nine-month YTD results – and on the following Friday convened a conference call with analysts to discuss them. While management put a positive spin on these results, one didn’t have to look very hard to see some glaring bumps Nortek is experiencing on their challenging road to success through restructuring and reorganization.
You can almost hear it in Michael J. Clarke’s voice when he said: “Nortek’s net sales and underlying operating performance for the third quarter were consistent with our expectations.” Not exactly the rousing proclamation of success we typically hear on their conference call for industry analysts.
