Strategy in TECH...
Luxman America took advantage of the recent high-end AXPONA 2019 show to announce awards to two top manufacturer sales representatives for outstanding sales achievements. Luxman Corp. president Terry Kawakami, presented both John Pravel and Rick Tydings with special gifts from Japan to honor their over-and-above efforts.
Innovative architectural loudspeaker designer/manufacturer James Loudspeaker announced this week that it will split off its Mavericks theater products into their own division, the Mavericks Architectural Cinema (MAC) division. This new division will offer the company’s dramatic Mavericks theater speakers for both the high-end residential and commercial cinema installation markets.
Ever since EVA Automation acquired Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) back in 2016, I have nervously watched to see the impact of this clash of cultures – new wave with old school. Strata-gee had already exhaustively reported on the painful slow-motion train wreck of Thiel Audio – another high-end audio brand purchased by private equity. In that case, its ultimate demise was in part due to the launch of affordably-priced, but common Bluetooth technology speakers relying on the power of the Thiel brand to justify the non-common selling price.
Would audiophile darling B&W suffer the same fate?
The day has finally arrived. A day long rumored…but never announced. A project shrouded in mystery…willfully maintained, with leaks locked as tight as a special counsel investigation. But now, at long last, all is revealed…for on this day Bowers and Wilkins (B&W) launches their all-new concept – the Formation line of products. And the mystery is finally unveiled. Best of all…Strata-gee recently got a sneak peek that we can reveal now.
Are you a one percenter who loves movies, but doesn’t love sharing a theater experience of dirty seats and sticky floors with the unwashed masses? Then Red Carpet Home Cinema is for you! You can see first-run, genuine (non-bootleg) blockbuster Hollywood movies in the comfort of your very own plush home theater for the positively pedestrian sum of a mere $3,000! And you can absolutely see them on the same date & time they are in commercial theaters! Hurrah!
There’s been a lot of action this week on the OLED beat – in this case, news that holds promise for a new robust competitor in the OLED market. The company, known as JOLED (for Japan OLED), is a joint venture between two TV powerhouse brands and a major display manufacturer that has successfully raised money to complete a new OLED factory.
Last week Sonos (Nasdaq: SONO) announced a new CFO to replace current CFO Mike Giannetto, whose retirement was unexpectedly announced almost as an afterthought in a February report of Q1 fiscal results. Late in the text associated with those results, CEO Patrick Spence, in an almost casual fashion, thanked Ginnetto for his service and told investors the CFO was retiring…a total surprise to the market. Sonos stock dropped double digits…and dropped even though the company had reported a record first quarter. (Read my report to see troubling signs within the ‘record’ Sonos quarterly report…)
On March 28th CEDIA held a grand opening gala to celebrate their brand new $14 million glass and stone castle in Fishers, IN with about 250 of their closest friends. Depending on your viewpoint, this new facility is either a shining shrine to the strength of the custom integration tech association – or it is a monument to the monumental arrogance and ego of an association that is drifting further away from the very community it purports to serve.
But what many of these guests to the opening celebrations didn’t know was that, as they sipped champagne and oohed an ahhhd over the new gorgeous digs, there was yet another small member flare-up taking place in the background…with significant members expressing strong dissent on yet another Association initiative.
In a new survey by Reputation Institute on corporate reputation, known as the 2019 RepTrak 100, we see wild swings in tech brands’ reputation with consumer privacy concerns finally appearing to take a major toll. With an overall all-category average reputation rating increase of +0.8 points, technology as a segment saw its collective reputation drop by 1 full point on the scale.
But the news wasn’t all bad – movie king Netflix, Inc. jumped 23 spots to come in at #1 for the first time in their history.
Como Audio, Tom DeVesto’s latest innovative venture and maker of fine streaming smart speaker systems, has launched a funding campaign on Wefunder, seeking to raise between $100,000 to $1,000,000 in equity investment. Investors on the Wefunder site can buy preferred shares of Como Audio stock priced at $2.50/share and own a piece of the company.
