Strategy in TECH...
After the close of the market today, Best Buy warned Wall Street that its third quarter earnings and same-store sales will be significantly below the same quarter last year. The company also announced that head of U.S. business Mike Vitelli, and other executives, will leave the company at the end of this fiscal year in early February.
The Nikkei reported today that it has learned from unnamed sources that Sharp Corp. is about to report a surprising interim net loss of ¥400 billion (just over $5 billion). Covering the period of their April-through-September fiscal (interim) semester, this loss is 90% worse – almost double – their most recent estimate of a ¥210 billion loss…and an full ten times worse than last years interim loss of ¥39.8 billion.
Our good friends over at JD Systems – a New York-based integrator that does both commercial and residential installations – put up an excellent post on their blog on a very sensitive topic. No, not sex…not drugs…it was on PRICE! The blog discussed the results of the J.D. Power and Associates survey we reported on earlier that sought to determine the factors that motivated consumers to purchase an HDTV. [BTW, many thanks for the mention J.D.!]
[Read more…] about How One New York Integrator Moves Customers from Low Price to High Value
The best briefcase I have ever owned – it has literally been around the world with me – is my Tumi leather soft-side, expandable briefcase. I still own it and whenever I go anywhere for a business meeting…it goes with me. So it caught my attention today scanning the news wire services when I saw a press release that Monster (formerly Monster Cable) was partnering with Tumi to launch a new headphone – called the Tumi x Monster – based on their existing Inspirations model.
Panasonic Corp. has announced it will cut production of LCD panels targeted for TV manufacture in the next fiscal year in order to increase production of small and midsize LCD panels for tablets and other mobile devices. The move is seen as a response to the company’s declining TV business.
[Read more…] about Panasonic to Cut Production of LCD TV Panels
As long time readers of strata-GEE.com (and the previous stratecongroup.com) know, for the last three years, we have conducted a survey of our readers on their attitudes of both the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the CEDIA EXPO. Last month, our CEDIA EXPO survey saw a dramatic increase in participation – up over 90%.
Over 80% of the participants completed the entire survey and a review of the survey results showed that we got a lot of great comments on our open-ended questions. Whether positive or negative, it was clear that strata-GEE.com readers were serious, thoughtful, engaged, and concerned about this event.
Nortek, Inc. announced today the appointment of Scott Campbell to Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer. A newly created position, the company says that the executive will be responsible for “creating, driving and implementing” an enterprise-grade, global supply chain strategy. [Read more…] about Nortek Names New Chief Supply Chain Officer
The Nikkei reported today that Pioneer Corporation is planning to use contract manufacturers in Indonesia for the production of its automotive sound systems starting next spring. According to the report, the company is “facing a shrinking market for its mainline car navigation equipment.”
News emerged today that Italian holding company Fine Sounds SpA has acquired 100% of McIntosh Laboratory, the Binghamton, NY-based high-end brand most recently owned by D&M Holdings. The announcement – which came from Fine Sounds, contained only a short statement from Charles Randall, President of McIntosh, with no other comments attributed to D&M Holdings or its parent Bain Capital.
Fine Sounds, backed by private equity company Quadrivio – also based in Milan, Italy – is the owner and distributor of other high-end brands such as Sonus Faber, Audio Research Corporation, Wadia Digital, and Sumiko. According to the company, their strategy is to “offer products that are the best in the world in their category.
[Read more…] about D&M Sells McIntosh Labs to Italian High-End Marketer Backed by Private Equity
Launched earlier this week at DEMO, the high-tech conference in Silicon Valley that just wrapped up, start-up company ube won the People’s Choice Award and $1 million worth of media from IDG properties. We profiled ube in our post here…saying that they just may be on to something and the DEMO judges apparently agree.
