Strategy in TECH...
Azione Unlimited announced that it has elected Savant Senior Vice President of Services & Customer Operations Angela Larson to its advisory board. Unique to the buying group scene, Azione’s advisory board consists of five dealer members and five vendor members who all work together with the goal of “creating, expanding, and implementing the organization’s mission.”
Firenze, Italy-based high-end audio manufacturer Gold Note announced this week that it has selected Fidelity Imports as its exclusive U.S. importer and distributor. According to Gold Note’s announcement, the appointment will take effect starting April 1, 2023.
On Tuesday, less than two weeks after the conclusion of a trial in the case of ClearPlay, Inc. vs. Dish Network where a jury found in favor of ClearPlay and ordered Dish Network to pay $470 million for patent infringement – Judge David Nuffer announced a new ruling that throws out the jury verdict and award. This dramatic turnabout was announced during a court status hearing on Tuesday in which the parties participated via Zoom.
Dish Network, LLC must pay nearly $470 million for patent infringement related to its Autohop Hopper technology that a Salt Lake City District Court jury says infringes on patents held by ClearPlay Inc. The case, originally filed as ClearPlay, Inc. vs. Dish Network LLC, Dish Network Corp., EchoStar Corp., and EchoStar Technologies L.L.C. has been a long-running battle as it was originally filed in March 2014.
Snap One Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SNPO) released their fiscal 2022 fourth quarter and full-year results after the close of the market on Tuesday and held a conference call for investment analysts shortly afterward with more details. The company produced a prodigious amount of data that they suggest shows success in the face of adversity, and forecast a decline in their performance in fiscal 2023.
They also said the industry slowed down in 2022 and will continue to be slow for the first three quarters of 2023.
Emerald Holding, Inc. (NYSE: EEX) (Emerald), also known as Emerald Expositions (Emerald Expo), reported their fiscal 2022 fourth quarter and full-year results on Tuesday. Their results, with strong revenue and income growth, clearly establish that the organization is rebounding from the years of COVID with exhibitors and attendees coming back to their events in force.
According to the latest data from national realtor Redfin, sales of luxury homes in the U.S. have declined a record -44.6% for the three-month period ending January 3, 2023, on a year-over-year (YoY) basis. That result outpaced the decline in sales of non-luxury homes of -37.5%.
On Thursday, Azione Unlimited wrapped up its spring conference, this year known as the Didactic Dovecote in the Desert, which took place in Scottsdale, AZ from March 7th to March 9th. Although this is the first Azione event I have personally attended, it was an impressive display of solidarity, sharing, learning, and planning with a lot of enthusiastic participation by the organization’s members and vendors.
Perhaps most importantly, as part of the Nationwide Marketing Group’s family of companies, the association announced two major new initiatives: the Azione Academy, an online self-paced education program; and the Drive to 1,000 collective membership drive. This initiative by Nationwide is their plan to drive collective group membership to 1,000 members overall.
Sonos (NASDAQ: SONO) announced on Tuesday that it has launched two new smart speakers that implement spatial audio for a more immersive listening experience. The company says these new models are the next-generation of smart speakers, utilizing Dolby Atmos technology to launch “…a whole new chapter in sound and design innovation.” They also call them “revolutionary” and “bold” and the “best experience for out loud spatial listening.”
Sony is looking to make a major investment to fuel even greater growth in its semiconductor business – a hot category right now around the globe. This means they need to hire engineers, dozens of engineers. But one of the consequences of so many companies chasing the semiconductor category is that competition has really been turbocharged for everything…especially engineers.
Now the company thinks it has found the perfect incentive to lock up the best engineers – something that is not nearly as prevalent in Japan as in the U.S.
