Strategy in TECH...
The New York Times reported this morning that New York’s powerful attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, has entered the dispute between LG Electronics and various environmentalist groups seeking to force LG to modify construction plans for its new headquarters facility. Schneiderman, siding with the environmentalist groups, has filed an amicus brief with the appellate court asking it to reverse a lower court decision that allowed the construction to proceed.
We learned last week that D&M Holdings, also known as the D+M Group, sold off its Calrec Audio brand to Electra Partners, a London-based private equity company. D&M received £14 million ($23.1 million) for Calrec, a designer of premium audio products and live-to-air consoles for the broadcast market. The move is part of a plan to divest itself of all non-core businesses, CEO Jim Caudill has said in press reports.
Yamaha Corporation of America announced this week that it has updated its well-regarded RX-V line of A/V receivers adding several new and popular features such as new wireless capability, a new surround capability, and new streaming services. Included in this update are the 7.2-channel RX-V777BT, RX-V677, RX-V577…as well as the 5.1-channel RX-V477. The company notes that these models embody a rare combination of sound quality, convenience, and accessibility.
Savant Systems announced today that it has appointed Mike Kavanaugh as its Sales Director for the West Coast effective April 14, 2014. Kavanaugh, a well-known and prominent custom integration rep, is the principal of MK Marketing, a successful 20+ year sales representative company based in Southern California.
JVC Kenwood Corporation announced the final results of their voluntary early retirement solicitation first announced late last year. This solicitation was offered as part of a comprehensive effort to turn around the company’s flagging fortunes and included many steps to cut overhead and improve profitability – such as this effort to cut employment by incentivizing employees to leave the company.
Nortek, Inc., a Rhode Island-based diversified manufacturer of a variety of environmental and technology products for home and business, announced its financial performance for the fiscal fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2013 on Tuesday and conducted a conference call with analysts Wednesday morning. Nortek is the parent company of Core Brands, a group of eleven A/V brands that have a significant impact on the custom integration business – and, for this reason, we follow them closely.
The company saw sales increases for both the quarter and the year; however, it booked a net loss for both periods, suggesting that its previously announced restructuring plan is still a work-in-progress.
When we first reported on the appointment of Frank Sterns as Sony’s VP of A/V Specialty/Custom Integration on the eve of the September 2013 CEDIA Expo, like many of you…we were skeptical. After all, we’ve heard encouraging announcements from Sony before…only to watch those initiatives in limited distribution, high-end products fall into disrepair through over-distribution, under-resourcing, or both.
But this time is different, Sterns tells us. And as he runs around the country setting up a whole new sales operation…we’re beginning to believe him.
In a story we reported last week, there has been a shake-up in management at Kaleidescape, a popular media server manufacturer. In this shake-up, several employees left the company…including the CEO. The company would not comment on our story, but said a statement was forthcoming.
We reported last week that a shake-up was taking place at media-server maker Kaleidescape that included the exit of several key employees, including the CEO. We attempted several times to reach the company for a comment, but even when we finally spoke to Kaleidescape’s VP of Marketing, they refused to comment on our report. However, after our story ran, we received word that the company did intend to respond.
Our inquiry started innocently enough. Last week, we received an emailed press release that contained this headline: “VANA Ltd. Appoints Stephen DeFuria as Director of Sales, East.” Now we generally receive dozens of press releases every day – but this one caught our immediate attention…literally causing us to pick the phone to make a call for confirmation. Why? Because Stephen DeFuria was part of a team hired by Thiel Audio to help turn that business around – and now, only one year later, he is out…with no explanation. But that was just the beginning.
