Strategy in TECH...
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the largest Apple, Inc. supplier that is better known as Foxconn, has upped the ante according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, doubling their initial offer to a big $5.3 billion. Yet many in Japan are predicting that the Taiwanese company will lose to another bid rumored to be only half as much. How is that possible?
In an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review, author Walter Frick cites several studies whose results suggest that where companies treat workers better, there is more innovation. Sound crazy? Not a connection you’d usually make? Actually, the article notes a few studies where researchers directly correlated a company’s score of worker treatment against their patent filings. The results appear to hold up, across different studies in different industries in different countries.
High-end manufacturer Bryston announced the launch of a major new line of amplifiers – they call it their “Cubed” Series – at CES in Las Vegas this week. This new line replaces their respected “Squared” Series launched back in 2009 and embodies the latest technological breakthroughs from the company’s continuing research.
AudioControl, a specialty designer and manufacturer of mobile and home electronic products, launched several new models in its mobile A/V line at CES 2016 – including innovative DSP matrix-processors and full-range amplifiers. Not only that, but the company is participating with Mobile Solutions to create a very cool Show Car that highlights AudioControl technologies and products.
GoldenEar Technology has launched newly updated versions of their popular Triton Two and Triton Three floor-standing speaker systems…now called the Triton Two+ and – you guessed it – the Triton Three+. The company has also introduced a new subwoofer called the SuperSub X.
We recently raved about the company’s first sub, the SuperSub XXL – and can’t wait to get an opportunity to hear this new little brother.
It was a huge year for Strata-gee.com in 2015 – thanks to all of our readers like you! Not only did we sign up a slew of new subscribers to our SYNCH e-newsletter – a big THANK YOU if you were one of them – but our average weekly page views continued to grow as well. Our “heat map” that graphically displays when readers are on our website shows that there are readers on our website every hour of every day – and every day of every week. But we get a blazing “hot” heat signature on Thursdays, when the SYNCH is blasted out to you, with the hotness continuing on into Fridays.
Allnet Distributing, the large Chicago-based custom integration-focused distribution company founded by former AVAD principal Wally Whinna, announced that it has opened an outlet in Carmel, IN, an area just outside of Indianapolis. The new location will take over responsibility for servicing the Indiana market which was previously handled out of the firm’s Chicago-area headquarters facility in Elk Grove Village, IL.
Last week, Moody’s Investors Service announced that it was cutting Toshiba Corp.’s long-term senior bond rating to Ba2, or “junk” status. Considering recent reports from Toshiba, a major industry player that is stumbling in the wake of a scandalous accounting misstep reported earlier this year, the move from the rating service makes sense. But the headline about a brand that was once one of the most admired companies in Japan, and a worldwide industrial and electronics powerhouse for many years, is stunning nonetheless.
The media in Japan is reporting that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., a Taiwanese manufacturer mostly known for its Foxconn OEM division that is Apple Inc.’s largest supplier, has made a $2.5 billion offer acquire Sharp Corp., Japan’s troubled LCD display manufacturer. But Hon Hai’s offer has one very special condition of sale that won’t be popular in Sharp’s Osaka headquarters…
Toshiba, who is on the verge of announcing a record loss and plans another round of layoffs, is far from the only Japanese giant who is stumbling. A new analysis by the Nikkei suggests it’s possible that Sharp Corp. may not have enough cash to survive the winter – despite the fact that multiple potential suitors are swirling around them in a head-spinning series of negotiations that, so far, are unproductive. And the news of these new troubles have surfaced after they successfully concluded negotiations for a ¥200 billion bank bailout in April.
