Strategy in TECH...
Procella Audio BV, a manufacturer of high-performance speakers for residential and commercial cinemas, announced on Tuesday that it has appointed well-known industry executive Tom Gandulla as its U.S. Director of Sales. Gandulla’s appointment was announced by Procella’s USA Managing Director Chuck Back.
In a new report last week, we learned that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched an investigation into RTW Investments over its role in an “empty voting” scheme related to the Masimo Corp. proxy battle which concluded in September at the Masimo Annual Stockholders Meeting. Masimo, now under new board management, has accused former CEO Joe Kiani and RTW of colluding in an empty voting scheme to try and manipulate a board election in their favor and deprive shareholders of their voting rights.
Late Tuesday, Masimo’s communications team reached out to Strata-gee to provide a statement designed to counter or otherwise address unspecified “speculative articles” on the recent pronouncement from Masimo CFO Micah Young that the Sound United division may end up being treated as a “discontinued operation” if the Board decides not to spin it off as a publicly-traded company.
Why are people speculating about that? Read on…
Sales of newly constructed single-family homes dropped to a two-year low in October as rising mortgage rates and persistent high prices impacted the affordability of available homes and served to keep buyers on the sidelines. Some experts also noted that elevated hurricane activity also kept buyers away, especially in the South region.
Last week, a jury was convened for a special trial to determine reasonable damages in the matter of GeigTech East Bay LLC v. Lutron Electronics Co., Inc. GeigTech, the plaintiff in this case is the manufacturer of motorized shade products marketed under the J Geiger brand, an independent company owned by Savant (and which is not a party to this litigation). Lutron has already been found to have infringed on certain patents held by Geigtech and the original jury’s large damages award was set aside by the judge who found it to be excessive. This new trial was held to determine a more reasonable damages amount.
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the CEDIA Tech & Business Summit at the Hilton Hotel in Hasbrouck Heights in Northern New Jersey. To my eyes, this was a well-attended event and I was impressed with how the Association has put together a well-oiled machine that shows some real progress in elevating the value of attending a regional industry event like this.
On Tuesday, Bose Corporation – a privately held manufacturer and marketer of a variety of predominantly audio products like headphones, speakers, soundbars and car audio – announced it has acquired McIntosh Group, a high-end manufacturer of electronics under the McIntosh brand and speakers/phono cartridges under the Sonus faber brand. Terms of the deal were not revealed and a buzz has descended around the industry as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.
Samsung Electronics and the largest union at the company have finally reached a preliminary agreement on a new contract that provides for a wage increase as well as other benefit enhancements, the company announced today in Korea. The deal should put an end to any further labor actions. However, it still needs to be ratified by the union membership.
Sonance, a leading manufacturer of fine custom integration audio gear, announced last week that it has appointed Glenn Kalinowski as Director of Sales and Strategic Partnerships. Kalinowski, the company says, is a “trusted industry expert” who will oversee key territories in North America, including Canada.
Data from the 2024 CEDIA Expo in Denver, CO this past September shows a troubling trend – attendance actually declined…and declined appreciably – from the 2023 version of the event. And this decline took place even though the promoter has combined CEDIA Expo with a new event (new last year), the Commercial Integrator Expo (CIX), which was probably an effort to boost attendance numbers.
