Strategy in TECH...
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that wireless music system maker Sonos is getting ready for the big time by planning an initial public offering. According to the report, the IPO could happen as soon as this July…or even June.
Amazon has a super secret project that just might change the world…again. I have long said that the brilliance of Amazon’s Alexa-based Echo and Dot devices comes from their realization that voice control belonged in the home. While Apple (Siri) and Google (OK Google) digital voice assistants in the past were viewed predominantly as a hands-free voice assist for when you’re driving – Amazon took a different route…right into the American living room. Brilliant, and now Google and Apple are playing “catch up.”
Now we learn that there’s a new project in Amazon’s secretive Lab126 that could once again change our world.
For the first time, because of a change in Google’s accounting, we get a look at the real financial numbers of Nest and analysts are truly surprised. It turns out, according to a report by Recode, that Nest is both smaller than many thought, and is losing a lot of money on an operating basis – so much so that it appears that any hope of profitability is far off in the future…if at all.
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.”
