Strategy in TECH...
UPDATE – See correction below storyRosewater Energy Group announced this week that it completed the first installation of their residential energy hub in the showroom of South Florida integrator Boca Theater and Automation in Boca Raton, Florida. The installation was completed at the end of August and it features the latest version of Rosewater’s hub with nano-carbon battery technology.
Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) announced Wednesday that it has completely re-engineered their top-of-the-line 800 Series Diamond loudspeaker line, a favorite of many discerning audiophiles. Changing your flagship product is an incredibly daunting (and risky) task – how do you improve on perfection? – but it’s all in a day’s work for a company that, since 1966, has been in a “Quest for Perfection.”
On Monday, Toshiba released their twice-delayed final financial data for the last fiscal year (ended March 2015) in what it undoubtedly hoped would be the first step to turning the page from a scandal-racked year. But forces out of their control conspire to keep them in the hot seat – with a regulatory agency threatening large fines and a major shareholder demanding the company sue its former executives.
Apple, Inc. held their regularly scheduled September event today to announce new products – this time to introduce: a minor new Watch update, a more significant new bigger iPad they call the iPad Pro, a new Apple TV with a revamped user interface, and finally the new interim smartphone update – the iPhone 6s & 6s Plus. Using lots of exciting & cool music, dramatic video segments, and massive colorful images on a huge screen – presenters worked hard to milk applause from the Apple friendly crowd. But for us, most of these “innovations” were “meh” – more evolutionary than revolutionary.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse for the aging Japanese industrial giant, Toshiba Corp. again stunned the financial community in Japan – forced to postpone their already delayed financial reports which were expected at the end of August. The company said it was forced to delay the report in the face of ten whistleblowers who have come forward alleging more company misdeeds. The company has launched ten new investigations, including one at a U.S. subsidiary.
After the Wall Street Journal revealed late last month that United Technologies Corp. (UTC) was in talks to potentially acquire Nortek, Inc., we questioned why UTC would even want to acquire Nortek. Within days of our post, investment advisory firm The Motley Fool (TMF) also raised the issue in a post last week about this not-quite-so-obvious marriage. Well, maybe it’s more like a dalliance than a marriage…at least at this point.
We found the Motley Fool’s analysis interesting – both in their clear-eyed assessment of Nortek and why the acquisition may in fact make sense for United Technologies.
This week in New York City, executives from Lenbrook America and Bluesound conducted a media presentation informing them of a major update to the Bluesound brand, which is distributed in the U.S. by Lenbrook America along with NAD and PSB. It is the first major line update since the brand was first launched in 2013. With this update, called “Generation 2,” the Bluesound brand appears to have gained solid momentum – or at least enough traction for the company to justify a significant investment in further product development.
Toshiba Corp. has been subjected to almost daily press stories and analyses in the Japanese media on their continued struggles in the wake of a huge accounting scandal at the formerly blue-chip powerhouse company. The scandal was likely large in terms of financial losses, but even larger in terms of decimating the reputation of the company and its management. To turn the situation around, the company must start to build a new reputation for reliability. It isn’t going to be easy…
Planar Systems, Inc. announced today that it has agreed to be acquired by Leyard Optoelectronic Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese provider of fine pitch LED video wall systems. Leyard will purchase all outstanding shares of Planar stock paying $6.58 per share, valuing the deal at $156.8 million. This represents a 42% premium over the value of the stock at closing before the deal was announced.
Turn It On (TiO), the affordable wired and wireless multiroom home automation solution from Anuva Automation, announced on Wednesday that the next level in their comprehensive training program – known as the yellow belt level – is now live. TiO training, called “Ninja” training follows the conventions typical of martial arts programs, where each program level connotes to a different colored “belt” and dealers earn multiple colors of belts as they progress through the program. The first level of training, called the white belt, debuted in March and now the company has released the yellow belt level.
