Strategy in TECH...
At times during CE Week 2014 we felt as though we were caught in some kind of a clash of the unknown Greek gods – Atmos vs. Heos. In one corner – Pioneer and Onkyo announced, displayed, and demonstrated the all-new 7+ channel Dolby Atmos surround sound systems…with a fair amount of fanfare. In the other corner, calmly confident Denon executives showed HEOS, the company’s new wireless multi-room Sonos-killing (they hope) system. Who would win the day???
Regular readers of Strata-gee know that we have recently covered news of layoffs and distribution changes by Velodyne – a long-time specialty industry player. Although we had made many attempts to get the company to comment prior to our posting of these stories, we were told that no company executives were available at that time.
However, the day after our second story appeared, we heard from Velodyne’s press representative who said the company’s President was now available to speak with us about what is going on at Velodyne.
We first told you about Pioneer’s plans to sell off their struggling AV division just last month in a SYNCH Breaking News exclusive. Now word comes out of Japan as to the identity of the buyer for this business – a group that includes a private equity company and Onkyo.
Harman International Industries, Inc. announced today that is has acquired St. Louis-based Yurbuds, LLC., a manufacturer of headphones. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition seems surprising, given the fact that Harman already owns brands such as JBL and AKG that already offer headphones.
Just one day after we reported on layoffs at Velodyne’s audio division, we received word from the company that it is authorizing the Powerhouse Alliance, a national group of distributors, for its line of subwoofers. The agreement will make Velodyne subwoofers available to Powerhouse Alliances’ nationwide network of retailers and installers.
Multiple sources are reporting that Velodyne Acoustics, Inc. – a once high-flying specialty subwoofer manufacturer – has had a significant layoff in its audio division last week as the company seeks to redeploy its resources full-scale behind its LIDAR business. The company, which is driven by its enigmatic founder, David Hall, is betting its future (betting the farm, some would say) on its LIDAR technology which is used in self-driving vehicles (such as Google’s).
On Wednesday, Lenbrook America, the exclusive distributor of NAD in the U.S., held a press presentation in a suite at the upscale Andaz 5th Avenue Hotel in Manhattan. It was a cool but gray and curiously humid day…still able to create enhanced perspiration for those rushing to the event from assorted train/subway/bus stops. But those members of the press who chose to attend were well rewarded for their efforts, as NAD launched a significant update to their Masters Series line – an update designed to further target a new customer that the company calls “Audiophile 2.0.”
In our travels around the TECH industry, we’ve had the good fortune to speak with literally thousands of business owners and managers,,,maybe tens of thousands – we’ve lost count! We’ve watched start-ups launch, sputter, founder, and then catch and take-off. And we’ve watched well-established former high-flyers begin to lose altitude, sputter, and crash and burn.
Yogi Berra once said, “It’s like Deja-Vu, all over again!” A report out of Japan tells of a hot new trend in Europe. Apparently, the latest trend in mobile phones…is consumers going retro. Seem counter-intuitive? It’s even a bit of a fashion statement…the story originates out of Paris, France!
For the last couple of years, there has been a running court battle between two of the titans of the remote control category: Universal Electronics, Inc. (UEI) and Universal Remote Control, Inc. (URC). Today, one of them, URC, announced victory in the first of two pending patent infringement lawsuits that was originally filed in 2012.
URC claimed a complete victory – but Strata-gee.com has received a statement from UEI who says, in effect, not so fast – this dispute is far from over.
