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?
In yet another sign of mega changes in the electronics industry, news comes to us out of Japan via the Nikkei that Sharp Corp. – a division of Apple supplier Foxconn – is in negotiation to sell off a majority of the property and factory associated with its largest LCD panel manufacturing facility in Japan. That news alone surprised many in Japan, as Sharp has been a world leader in developing LCD TVs, but also surprising is that it would choose to sell this facility, a flagship for them in Sakai, a coastal city in Osaka.
Also surprising, a bidding war has broken out as multiple big players seek to turn the factory into a data center for use in generative AI, a technology in which Japan feels it lags.
Savant Systems, Inc. announced today that it has expanded its popular line of Inception motorized shades designed by J. Geiger, and in so doing says it created more opportunities for custom integration specialists everywhere – including for integrators using other brands of system control solutions. Inception features a unique, elegant, minimalist roller shade design that was very much popularized by J. Geiger – which is now owned by, and exclusively available from, Savant.
At the recent 2024 Oasys Summit, I had the opportunity to meet with top Nationwide Marketing Group executives who were all directly involved in the birth of the Oasys Residential Technology Group, as well as the greater strategy of the Nationwide Drive to 1,000 initiative. I spoke with Dean Sottile, Andy Orozco, and Hank Alexander, each of whom offered interesting insights and perspectives on the progress of this grand adventure they have collectively embarked upon.
Masimo Corporation (Nasdaq: MASI), yet another company in Tech that reported their financial results for the first quarter of Fiscal 2024 after the close of business on Tuesday, revealed that both revenues and profits had declined double-digit percentages in the quarter. What was remarkable about this result is that Masimo CEO Joe Kiani said in a statement in the release about the Q1 results that the company is “reaching a steady state.”
Investors apparently didn’t see it that way, as shares in MASI stock dropped almost 12% on Wednesday, the next trading day after the announcement.
On Tuesday this week, a previously announced program being offered by Snap One – now Resideo – has begun. This program, called Control4 Connect, is a mandatory program that requires all integrators to connect all new client installations of Control4 products directly to Snap One’s central station for future software updates and data collection.
It is a new kind of transactional connection that establishes a direct relationship with the client for direct-to-user system updates and base-level client support supplied – not by the local integrator – but by Control4 support.
This morning we learned that Snap One Holdings, Corp. (Nasdaq: SNPO) has been acquired by large security provider Resideo Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: REZI) and private equity company Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) in a $1.4 billion deal. If you aren’t familiar with the Resideo name, you may know them by ADI, their distribution wing.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2024.
Masimo Corporation (Nasdaq: MASI) announced on Monday that it could confirm that activist investment group Politan Capital Management – whose founder and Chief Investment Officer is Quentin Koffey – has provided it with notice of its intent to nominate two candidates to stand for election to the company’s Board of Directors at its upcoming 2024 Annual Meeting. This action by Politan, management says, “run[s] counter to the stockholders’ best interests…”
Oh-oh…the knives are coming out…
One business day after Masimo Corp. [Nasdaq: MASI] announced plans for a spin-off of its Consumer division, the business unit formed by the acquisition of Sound United, activist investor Politan Capital Management and its CIO Quentin Koffey – a current Masimo Director – announced the nomination of two more independent director candidates for the Board of Directors. In a statement accompanying the announcement, Koffey takes the gloves off alleging Board dysfunction, uncooperative management, and says Kiani’s desire for control “is troubling.”
Pop a fresh bowl of popcorn and settle into a comfortable chair…things are getting pretty interesting in this story of escalating boardroom and management drama.
In a release distributed late in the day on Friday after the close of financial markets, Masimo announced that the Board of Directors has “authorized” company management to prepare a spin-off of the company’s Consumer Business. Masimo Consumer is the business unit created when the company acquired Sound United in early 2022.
