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Change of Strategy: Emerald Board Tells Company Managers to Buy Stock…Theirs

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Emerald Holding logo

Emerald Holding, Inc. (Formerly Emerald Expositions Events, Inc.) [NYSE: EEX], the company that owns the CEDIA Expo show and CE Pro, announced last week that its Board of Directors has authorized company managers to purchase up to $20 Million of Emerald’s stock in a share buyback program. As Strata-gee noted back in May in a report on the company’s large fiscal first quarter loss, this program had previously been suspended when cash had tightened up after the cancellation of their events due to COVID-19.

Now the company has been recapitalized, thanks to help from sugar daddy Onex who now owns more than 80% of the company, and – gosh – the stock is so darn cheap. Maybe now is the time to buy…

See more on this stock purchase by Emerald

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SnapAV Unleashes a Broad Array of New Products at Snap Pro Live

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New Control4 Touchscreen T4 launched at Snap Pro Live
New Control4 T4 Touchscreens [Click to enlarge]

Kicking off their first ever virtual dealer event called Snap Pro Live, SnapAV unleashes a broad array of new products covering their wide gamut of product and service segments. Snap Pro Live runs for three days and kicked off today (Tuesday) afternoon with a keynote from CEO John Heyman – and this major product launch.

See what new products SnapAV launched at Snap Pro Live…

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SnapAV Kicks Off Snap Pro Live; CEO Says They are ‘Stronger Than Ever’

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John Hayman, SnapAV CEO

New Product Platforms & Business Platforms to Drive Future Growth

SnapAV kicked off their first major three-day virtual event called Snap Pro Live Tuesday afternoon. In a keynote presentation, SnapAV CEO John Heyman hailed the work of the integrator in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the dealer “took on the role of a courageous warrior.” And with that, Snap Pro Live was launched offering three full days packed with useful content. (See more details on Snap Pro Live here…)

Learn more about Snap Pro Live…

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Sound United Deal to Acquire Bowers & Wilkins Closes

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bowers & wilkins 702 signature speakers
702 Signature Photography

The Band’s Back Together – B&W Reunited with Classé Under Sound United

Sound United announced today that it has closed on its acquisition of Bowers & Wilkins (B&W), as expected. With this deal, B&W is rejoined with Classé – a high-end electronics manufacturer that itself was once part of B&W but then was acquired by Sound United back in Jaunuary 2018.

See more on Sound United acquiring Bowers & Wilkins

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Considering Bringing Remote Workers Back to the Office? Consider This First…

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Upset person needing help with mental wellbeing issues

Mental Wellbeing Issues Emerge as a Major Side-Effect of COVID-19

One of the questions I’m frequently asked is, “When will the economy bounce back to pre-COVID levels so we can all get back to normal?” The answer: We won’t “bounce back” to a pre-pandemic economy, and “normal” won’t be the same. The details on this answer is a topic for another post, but suffice it to say that one of the reasons is due to emerging, unforeseen variables, such as deteriorating employee mental wellbeing issues.

And THAT IS the topic of this post. Two new surveys provide troubling but important data that will impact how – or if – you re-centralize your team…if that’s your plan.

See new data on your team’s mental wellness…

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Sonos Stock Slammed on News Apple Stores Drop the Line

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Photo of Apple store in Chicago

Lost 7% of Value in After-Hours Trading

Bloomberg News reported late on Monday that Apple is dropping Sonos [NASDAQ: SONO] and other non-Apple branded products from their stores. The news of Sonos losing such a major customer caused their stock to derail in after hours trading, down almost 7% in value at one point. On Tuesday, Sonos stock price closed down 3.2% as Wall Street digested the news.

See why Apple stores are dropping Sonos…

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Emerald Expo Says CEDIA Expo Virtual Registers 7,600; Claims Virtual Success

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CEDIA Expo Virtual logo

Emerald Expositions announced today that CEDIA Expo Virtual drew 7,600 trade professional registrations for their three day run from September 15-17, 2020. Although this figure is less than half the attendance at the live, in-person version, Emerald considers it a great success as an all-virtual event.

See more on the results for CEDIA Expo Virtual

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Sonos & Google Patent War Intensifies as Each Fires New Salvos This Week

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tanks are aligned for battle between these two giants

It must be really interesting in those Sonos and Google joint product development meetings, where the parties meet to discuss their partnership on the Google assistant technology built into Sonos products. You see, in addition to this product partnership, both companies are ensnarled in a nasty round of lawsuits accusing each other of various patent violations – with tactics and rhetoric heating up as each fired new salvos at the other just this week. On Monday, Google sued Sonos. On Tuesday, Sonos sued Google. This is getting serious…

See what’s happening now between Sonos and Google

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At Crestron NEXT, the Company Reveals Trends Driving the Future

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Photo of Ranjan Singh of Crestron at Crestron NEXT

As previously reported by Strata-gee, the Crestron NEXT event of two weeks ago was a remarkable accomplishment for one company to pull off. With a full two-day agenda – Crestron NEXT offered lots of great content, such as its perspective on the tech business today, seminars on their key current tech products, and more importantly, advice on where things are going tomorrow.

Probably one of my favorite presentations was actually the closing presentation – where Ranjan Singh, Crestron’s Executive VP of Product and Technology summed up the key points of the last two days…and more importantly…offered some details on trends to watch today that will drive the future in a presentation titled “Future Innovations, Next & Beyond.” This is the kind of smart insight that most integrators never get to hear.

See Crestron’s trends driving the future…

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Savant Expands Integrator Opportunities via Alliances

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Savant has partnered with Devialet speakers, shown here in white

Cuts Tech & Distribution Deals with Robern and Devialet

No question about it, Savant is on a roll. Just four months ago in May, the company surprised the industry by announcing their acquisition of GE Lighting, instantly transforming the company into one of the top lighting providers in the US. But, clearly, they weren’t done yet, as the company announced two new partnerships at CEDIA Expo Virtual – one with Robern, a luxury bathroom furnishings manufacturer…and the second with Devialet, a unique design-centric powered speaker maker out of Europe.

See more on Savant’s expanding partnerships

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