Strategy in TECH...
The annual Masimo (Nasdaq: MASI) shareholder meeting is now just four weeks away, and on Wednesday we saw a blizzard of proxy filings by both Masimo management and activist investor Politan Capital Management. The gloves are off and the pugilists are swinging. But how is this fight shaping up? Who has the upper hand?
Jeff Murray, CEO of AVPro Global Holdings (parent of AudioControl), was named “Person of the Year” at InfoComm 2024 by Commercial Integrator (CI) magazine. Part of its CI Best awards program, Murray was selected as its first-ever Person of the Year, a new category for the award program.
Tributes on social media began flowing over the weekend as news emerged late last week that Rondi D’Agostino, co-founder of premium audio brand Krell, had died. While details on the passing remain sparse, the high-end community is mourning the loss of the leader of an iconic audio brand.
Azione Unlimited, part of the Nationwide Marketing Group family of dealer buying groups, announced this week that Brad Camp has been elected to the organization’s Board of Advisors. Unique to the world of buying groups, Azione not only places executives from the dealers who are members of the organization on their Board, but also seats executives from vendors and supporting service organizations.
Tidal Music AS (Tidal) has announced that users “will no longer be able to access music in the MQA or 360 Reality Audio formats via any TIDAL application or integration.” So that’s that…MQA is done and gone…as of July 24, 2024. The company says it will replace all MQA tracks with “the highest quality FLAC version” available.
Resideo Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: REZI), a manufacturer and distributor of security and related products for business and home – and soon to be the new owner of Snap One and Control4 – announced its fiscal 2024, first quarter financial results. Considering the looming event that will make Resideo an important partner to many in the custom integration business – the closing of its acquisition of Snap One/Control4 on Friday, June 14, 2024 – I am launching a more detailed coverage of the company.
So…given that Resideo is about to spend $1.4 billion, or 20% of their gross revenues – to acquire Snap One, you’d think that things must be going really, really well for Resideo. But are they???
High-performance, affordable speaker manufacturer ELAC announced this week that it is launching its Debut 3.0 line of loudspeakers. The Debut 3.0, the company says, is the perfect blend of legendary ELAC sound performance in a style that is upgraded over some of its previous designs.
SEE STORY UPDATE NEAR END – It is total pandemonium in Masimo land as the company and Politan are engaged in a massive and really, really ugly proxy war ahead of the company’s annual meeting scheduled for July 25, 2024, at the Masimo headquarters in Irvine, CA. Details in dueling proxy filings so far have revealed many things we didn’t know up to now. And almost none of what has been revealed…is good.
Company CEO Kiani is in a fight for his professional life…Sound United is dangling in the wind of an uncertain future – and, frankly, even the entire company’s path forward is a question mark.
Atlantic Home Entertainment and Stereo, a Southern California-based integrator, will be demonstrating some of its top-performing audio/visual brands in installations appearing in multiple lounges at the upcoming T.H.E. Show SoCal taking place this year from June 7-9 at the Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa. Now in its 28th year, T.H.E. Show draws some of the top brands in high-end specialty electronics, speakers, and headphones. Last year the event drew around 6,600 attendees.
For many generations, Panasonic Holdings has been a leading global technology innovator and while its business model has shifted in the last few years, it still holds much respect around the world. Now we’ve learned that the company has decided to sell off its high-end projector unit in order to refocus its resources on digital supply chain systems.
