Strategy in TECH...
After two years of tussling in courts, with both sides registering a mix of wins and losses on various matters, you’d think some kind of settlement would be in order. But last week, Google intensified its patent war with Sonos by opening up yet another front with two new lawsuits on voice control and other technologies, leading me to believe that any type of settlement is yet down the road.
Masimo Corporation (NASDAQ: MASI), a global designer and producer of medical products and associated services that recently acquired Sound United, reported its second quarter fiscal 2022 results this week. With this filing, we get to see real data on the size and performance of Sound United, which the company acquired in April.
On April 11, 2022, Masimo Corp. appointed Kevin Duffy – then CEO of Sound United – President of the Consumer Division of Masimo Corp. as part of its $1 billion acquisition of Viper Holdings Corp., Sound United’s parent company. Duffy was offered a fairly rich package, with salary and certain other benefits and perks that could be worth millions of dollars, in some cases after a vesting period.
Then, just ninety days later, the company filed paperwork with the SEC saying that it had terminated Duffy “without cause.”
Late last week, Sony Group announced that they were cutting their net profit forecast for the current fiscal year, fiscal 2022 which ends March 2023. Why are they trimming their profit expectations? It appears that Sony is experiencing its version of a post-COVID Peloton/Netflix sales decline as video game sales are weakening and its costs related to a recent acquisition are rising.
Several Krell-related sources, such as dealers and others, reached out to me on Monday to share the surprising news they had just received in that morning’s email – top Krell executive Walter Schofield has left the company. Other than that basic fact, dealers didn’t know much more as the terse communication from Krell contained very little information. Speculation is running rampant…
Emerald Exposition, one of the largest exposition companies in the U.S. and the owner of the CEDIA Expo (and CE Pro), announced this week that they will be offering “reinvigorated educational programming” at this year’s CEDIA Expo 2022. This initiative will include a range of more than 150 sessions, including seminars, panels, workshops, and manufacturer product training.
More than a year after its initial introduction, and in the wake of chip manufacturers threatening to scale back their U.S. projects, the United States Senate finally took action on Tuesday to move forward on the bill known as the CHIPS Act. After months of at times heavy discussion/arguing, the stage is set for both the House of Representatives and the Senate to vote on its passage, perhaps as early as next week.
Snap One, the entity originally founded as SnapAV, and a company whose motto is “Founded by integrators for integrators,” recently demonstrated how they strive to be a better partner by providing their dealers with some really solid and helpful advice. One of their appreciative dealers forwarded me an email he had received from the company containing useful information on how to protect his business from fraud.
You may have seen the recent announcement from Savant that they have broadened the distribution of their new energy management solutions to a pair of new, strategically significant distribution partners. You may have ignored this news, perhaps not recognizing the distributors who are both better known in the electrical/renewable contracting communities.
But if you are an integrator who specifies Savant products in your proposals, you should be really paying attention to what this company is doing with its powerful (pun intended) energy management strategy. It’s big!
Samsung Electronics is taking action to hold back on procurement orders and asking suppliers for concessions, such as delayed deliveries, order reductions, and more in the wake of a concerning buildup of inventory. While the action is said to be temporary, concerns over a slowing global economy make it difficult to determine how long the company will deem these actions are necessary.
