Strategy in TECH...
The investment community remains unconvinced that new Sony Corp. CEO Kaz Harai is making meaningful headway in turning around the financial performance at the struggling tech manufacturer. And now Reuters is reporting out of Tokyo that credit rating agency Moody’s Investor Services has piled on with another downgrade of the company’s credit, placing it perilously close to “junk” status.
Much has been written about the impact of Hurricane Sandy on the entire East Coast of the United States – particularly in the coastal areas of the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut metropolitan areas. Homes were damaged and destroyed with press reports indicating that thousands of families were displaced. FEMA is sending in temporary homes to house these displaced families.
But other than gas stations dealing with fuel and power shortages, much less has been written on the impact on businesses throughout the area. Certainly, the Jersey Shore had a huge impact – especially on businesses centered on or near the boardwalk at the shore. But as we recently wrote about, other businesses throughout the area – including some CE-related businesses – were also impacted.
Savant Systems, LLC has selected Southeastern Sales Associates, Inc. (SESales) as their sales representatives for the southeastern region. Focusing on the custom integration business, SESales will represent the home automation brand to those installers and dealers in the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
Thunderball Marketing, Inc., an Avenel, NJ-based distributor of consumer electronics and pro-DJ equipment was hit hard by hurricane Sandy last week, with facilities losing power and two co-located warehouses subjected to a shocking level of water damage. Thunderball’s Alan Henslovitz told strata-GEE.com that his rough estimate is that the company has been hit with somewhere between $10-$15 million in losses based on destroyed & damaged inventory and lost business.
Consumer Reports, that venerable organization known for torture testing products, ranking their results, and offering advice to consumers on how to pick the right product for them, announced on Thursday their picks for the Top Ten Electronics products for 2012. The list of their picks will appear in the December issue which is its Annual Electronics Issue.
The company said it tested over 600 products for their December issue, but “only ten standout products made the short list for performance and innovation.”
Looking for more “green shoots” of economic recovery? The Conference Board released the latest data from their Consumer Confidence Index showing another monthly increase (it increased in September as well) in the overall level of confidence that consumers have in the economy. The Index’s reading for October was 72.2, a significant uptick from September’s level of 68.4, which was up over August.
Last week, we reported on a rumor out of Japan that Sharp Corp. was about to report a dismal interim net loss that was much worse than anticipated. This Wednesday, Sharp confirmed those rumors announcing an interim (Apr-Sept) operating loss of ¥168.9 billion ($2.1 billion). This result was after a ¥84.4 billion ($1.1 billion) charge for costs associated with restructuring their struggling business.
But what really has the industry and investors talking is that the company affirmed that it is likely to show a “huge” net loss for the entire fiscal year of ¥450 billion ($5.6 billion), almost double a previous estimate of ¥250 billion. It is also well above analysts’ estimate of a ¥296 billion loss according to a survey of 17 analysts by Bloomberg. [Read more…] about Can Sharp Survive? Company’s Performance ‘Raises Serious Doubts About [Our Ability] to Continue’
The appearance of Hurricane Sandy was no surprise – her arrival had been predicted for days. And most area residents took the weather service’s warnings about the storm seriously, as witnessed by the empty grocery store shelves and long gas station lines the weekend before she hit the nation’s largest tri-state metropolitan area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
But she hit hard, harder than any storm before and the death toll, which increases daily, is a testament to the intensity and destructiveness of Mother Nature. Most of the damage took place after dark with the greatest intensity of wind gusts and driving rain hitting strata-GEE.com’s central New Jersey locale between 8:00PM-Midnight.
After the close of the market today, Best Buy warned Wall Street that its third quarter earnings and same-store sales will be significantly below the same quarter last year. The company also announced that head of U.S. business Mike Vitelli, and other executives, will leave the company at the end of this fiscal year in early February.
The Nikkei reported today that it has learned from unnamed sources that Sharp Corp. is about to report a surprising interim net loss of ¥400 billion (just over $5 billion). Covering the period of their April-through-September fiscal (interim) semester, this loss is 90% worse – almost double – their most recent estimate of a ¥210 billion loss…and an full ten times worse than last years interim loss of ¥39.8 billion.
