Strategy in TECH...
A new high-end, high-performance, direct-to-consumer audio company called Austin AudioWorks is officially launching the brand during the upcoming AXPONA show at the Schaumberg Convention Center in Chicago, IL from April 12-14. The company says its products “are very different from the mainstream” and show attendees will want to stop by and audition the new line in person at the show.
In a release distributed late in the day on Friday after the close of financial markets, Masimo announced that the Board of Directors has “authorized” company management to prepare a spin-off of the company’s Consumer Business. Masimo Consumer is the business unit created when the company acquired Sound United in early 2022.
Recently, Parasound conducted another online Town Hall meeting for dealers interested in learning more about the brand’s progress under the leadership of new owner, CEO David Sheriff. Held via Microsoft Teams on a recent Saturday to facilitate participation, it lasted an impressive 1¾ hours long with the majority of all participant questions answered.
At the end of last week, Snap One Holdings Corporation [NASDAQ: SNPO] announced the results of its Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023. Much as we’ve seen quarter-by-quarter all year long, the company remained subsumed by a challenging “destocking” market, with Net Sales in Fiscal 2023 finishing down 5.6%, and its Net Loss last year increasing by another 146.3% this year. CEO John Heyman called it “another strong year.”
But was it truly “another strong year?”
It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for everyone at AudioControl over the last couple of years. The company, a leading specialty manufacturer of integrator-focused, high-quality audio electronics, has had three different owners in the last two years. Have they finally found their new home?
Masimo Corporation (Nasdaq: MASI) announced on Tuesday its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of fiscal 2023, the period that ended December 30, 2023. Results were mixed with revenues down double digits in the quarter but flat for the year. But a more sobering picture emerged for the “non-healthcare” division, also known as Masimo Consumer, which is the division that was formed when the company acquired Sound United almost exactly two years ago.
Walmart announced Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Vizio, the high-value TV maker, for $11.50/share in an all-cash deal worth a total of $2.3 billion. Walmart announced the acquisition as part of its highly positive and optimistic presentation of the retailer’s fourth-quarter earnings. Walmart stock popped on the earnings report, more encouraged by its forward optimism of more growth rather than on the acquisition itself.
But Walmart plans to have this acquisition drive profit growth going forward.
GE Appliances and Savant Systems announced today that they are partnering in the launching of an innovative new home energy solution they call the EcoBalance System. The goal of this system is to offer the residential market a “whole-home, connected solution” that delivers the ability for consumers to take full control of energy delivery and utilization in their homes for unparalleled energy efficiency and management.
Portal, one of the custom integration industry’s most popular AV proposal & design software solutions used by thousands of custom integrators every day, has announced that they have struck a deal with two industry powerhouse brands – Snap One and Sonos – who will make the software available to their respective integration dealer bases. Both brands will underwrite the full monthly subscription cost for their dealers in an effort to help those integrators raise their level of professionalism, improve the efficiency of their operations, and increase their deal closing rates.
Like many companies, Snap One brands are the subject of several discussion Groups on Facebook, some run by the company and others run by third parties. In the days following their recent announcement of existing program changes, new program mandates, and new optional programs, many dealers took to Control4-related groups on Facebook to protest the changes immediately, vociferously, and even (in a few cases) profanely. It was an outpouring of emotion that group admins and participating Snap One executives like G Paul Hess and others struggled to stay on top of.
Snap One executives told the dealers in the group of an upcoming webinar in which the company plans to explain everything regarding the program changes to their dealers.
