Strategy in TECH...
Gibson Brands CEO Henry Juszkiewicz has been very busy lately as he scrambles to arrange a $550 million bailout package in a desperate attempt to avoid bankruptcy for the storied brand. But he’s about to get a little busier as one of Gibson Guitar’s vendors, Tronical of Hamburg, Germany, sues the company for $50 million it says it is owed.
In an announcement out of Hong Kong and reported on by Bloomberg News and others, TCL Multimedia, the large Chinese manufacturer of mostly inexpensive televisions, has announced it has obtained the rights to the Onkyo brand name which it intends to use to create Smart AV products. The company says it has the rights to the Onkyo brand globally, in all markets except Japan.
When it comes to politics in today’s world, it is an understatement to suggest that we live in divided times. Although our founding fathers imagined passionate (but healthy) debate leading to the best possible compromise solutions – today, it seems as though our representatives are more likely to throw a hand-grenade than an idea to the other side of the aisle. But recently, a new study has come out to suggest that an issue has arisen that has brought Americans together – and it spells trouble for the tech industry.
It was only a matter of months ago that Strata-gee broke the news that EVA Automation founder Gideon Yu, the new owner of Bowers and Wilkins (B&W), had dismissed Doug Henderson, President of the B&W Group North America. It was a move that was to send shock waves around the industry and presaged a round of additional staff departures (and additions) as Yu worked to restructure the company.
Now we can report that Henderson is the new Senior Vice President of Home Audio at JL Audio, the scrappy upstart that launched first in the 12-volt business, but has since expanded into the marine, powersports, and home audio segments as well.
C&E Marketing, a manufacturer sales representative firm based in Sunrise, FL announced last week that it has acquired the home AV division of Audio Video Representatives (AVR) based in Marietta, GA. C&E specializes in a wide range of custom integration lines, while AVR represents and distributes both mobile electronics and home AV lines.
We learned last week that talks between Gibson Brands and deal making king KKR Credit Advisors fell apart in a dispute over “the appropriate consideration for the various parties involved,” according to a statement from Gibson Brands. As yet another bail-out opportunity slips by them, Gibson Brands sees their options narrowing, with an August deadline on a required financial restructuring of more than $500 million of debt rapidly approaching.
SnapAV announced today that it has partnered with lighting kingpin Lutron to offer a special version of their RA2 Select repeater, part of an entire RA2 Select system, that has been natively integrated into SnapAV’s OvrC remote management system. The agreement between the two of them is said to have been taken with the goal of “expanding the market for smart lighting control.”
Facebook finds themselves square in the middle of a political and public relations fire storm, as news of the firms connection to Cambridge Analytica and the harvesting of the personal data on at least 50 million Facebook users, including perhaps you and I, have recently received a lot of news coverage. Now word comes via two new polls that the company’s brand has taken a serious hit in the eyes of their users and former fans.
Big Raises and Record Bonuses for Sony Employees in 2018Sony Corp. is said to be planning to raise their employees pay rates by a very substantial 5 percent – and to pay record bonuses, according to a report by the Japan Times. This move is seen as a smart strategy by the company, newly flush with record profits after their successful turnaround by outgoing CEO Kaz Hirai, as it battles to secure top talent in a highly competitive hiring environment.
Tributaries announced today that it offers a historical first – a passive 10-meter HDMI cable that has been certified by DPL Labs and ISF as offering a true 18Gbps data speed for genuine 4K/60 HDR performance. According to the company, this cable, known as the UHDT Titan Passive, is the longest passive HDMI cable certified by independent testing labs as reliably offering a true 18Gbps level of performance.
