Strategy in TECH...
On Wednesday, Victrola & KLH announced it has appointed Heather Squire as its new Chief Commercial Officer. While many in our industry come from a tech enthusiast background, Squire appears to come from an unusually diverse and somewhat more heavyweight background, including executive roles at major players like GoPro and Logitech.
The University of Michigan (U of M) has posted its final May report on consumer sentiment, known as the Index of Consumer Sentiment, which follows an earlier preliminary May assessment and finalizes the results. And as I noted in the April report last month, the results remain noteworthy, with a new low reading that exceeds the historically low consumer sentiment reading recorded in June 2022.
The cause of these historically significant readings on declining consumer sentiment, or should I say, increasing consumer pessimism, is the usual suspects – increasing inflation…and the continuing war with Iran.
This week, the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) unexpectedly announced that CEO Daryl Friedman would retire from the organization in 2027. No reason was offered for this unexpected retirement…and no specific date in 2027 when Friedman’s retirement was to be final was provided.
The popular Northern California CI Expo & Technology Conference is preparing to run on May 28, 2026, in the same facility where the event was hosted last year – the DoubleTree Hotel at the Club, in Pleasanton, California. Organizers tell me that this year’s CI Expo will be even bigger and better than last year, with expanded exhibition space housing a greater assortment of booths presenting all of the latest technology innovations in the custom integration (CI) industry.
Emerald Holding, Inc. (NYSE: EEX), a major consolidator of trade shows and business conferences in multiple industries, including owner of the CEDIA Expo and CEPro/Commercial Integrator/Security Sales & Integration, has agreed to be acquired by Apollo Global Management, one of the largest private equity companies in the world that specializes in “alternative assets.” In the same announcement, we learned that Apollo is also acquiring another event consolidation company known as Questex, as part of the same transaction, and which Apollo intends to merge with Emerald.
The deal, in which Apollo will pay $5.03 per share, is said to be valued at approximately $1.5 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the back half of 2026 and will create one of the largest trade show and conference event consolidators in the U.S.
JL Audio, part of Garmin, Ltd, has announced the launch of an interesting new audio system known as Primacy. With Primacy, JL Audio says it has redefined and expanded the high-performance audio market to a wider potential base of customers. What did they change to address this wider market?
Savant Systems, Inc. announced on Thursday that it has developed an integration for the popular Schlage Encode™ Family of Smart WiFi Deadbolts. Thanks to this tie-up between two great brands, end-users can enjoy easy but full control of their Schlage smart lock and home security.
On Monday this week, Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) confirmed what had been widely rumored: CEO Tim Cook would retire from the company. Cook, who is 65 years old, will leave his role as CEO in September and move into a new position as Executive Chairman of the Apple Board of Directors.
The impact of this development is significant and is likely to echo throughout the entire technology industry. Let’s contemplate that a little…shall we?
Bowers & Wilkins (B&W), part of the Sound United group, which was recently acquired by Harman (which itself is part of Samsung), announced today the expansion of its popular Px8 S2 over-ear headphone model by launching two new premium finishes. The Px8 S2 features a luxurious Nappa leather trim along with complementary aluminum detailing that all looks great in the new Midnight Blue and Pearl Blue finishes.
Last week, we got the latest read on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan’s (U of M) Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS), and it was not a pretty picture. According to the preliminary report for April, consumer sentiment dropped another 11% this month, extending a decline, U of M says, that began with the onset of the Iran war. This places the current reading about 9% below the reading for April 2025.
This is the lowest reading ever recorded in the history of this survey since 1946…
