Strategy in TECH...
Eyebrows raised everywhere when privacy-concerned industry watchers discovered that Google had put a microphone in their Nest Secure home alarm system, but failed to disclose that fact. Google says is was simply an “error.” But was it?
The latest data from market research firm Strategy Analytics shows that Amazon is still the king of the smart speaker market – selling more smart speakers than anyone else. But the data also showed something else rather surprising – Google has substantially closed the gap between it and Amazon, coming within about 5.5% of Amazon’s market share numbers in the all-important fourth quarter selling season.
Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. (NYSE: EEX), owner of the CEDIA Expo and many other shows, reported their fiscal 2018 fourth quarter and full year results on Thursday and it was a dramatically mixed picture that suggests the company is still working through problems on many of its largest shows. Revenues in both periods increased nicely, largely thanks to acquisitions – but the company reported a large net loss as it was forced to take an impairment charge against earnings to write down the value of some of their shows as carried on their books.
Josh.ai announced this morning that it has partnered with Savant to bring their more intuitive voice command system to one of the leading control systems in custom integration. While there are many advantages to this partnership, a big one is bringing the seamless integration of voice commands to Savant’s renowned user-centric ‘scene’ feature.
ResiWeek, the podcast from AVNation.tv that is focused on the residential integration industry segment, has once again invited Strata-gee editor Ted Green to participate as a guest panelist on its weekly podcast. This episode #158 featured several top stories pulled from the industry news of the day.
James Loudspeaker announced this week that it has selected Parker Custom Solutions as its independent sales rep of the year for 2018. Based in Arizona, Parker has dramatically increased the sales of James’ products throughout the territory the company said.
This week we learned that Amazon has acquired Eero, a start-up company that offers a mesh WiFi system. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the company does reveal what drew them to the still small, but rapidly growing Eero.
I recently visited Russound up in Newmarket, New Hampshire, a bucolic community of less than 9,000 residents that is rich in history – it was established in 1727 – and situated near the University of New Hampshire in Durham. The town’s rich history is an allegory for Russound itself, a company that is also rich in history – established in 1967 – but finds itself streaming into the future.
As part of my visit, the company gave me a sneak peek at what it is showing at ISE in Amsterdam this week.
In what is becoming a bit of a familiar refrain in tech these days, including our report just yesterday on Control4’s results, Sonos reported record results for their fiscal first quarter on Wednesday. The company beat analysts’ expectations for revenues ($496 million vs. $491M expected) and for earnings ($0.55/share versus $0.41 expected). And yet, their stock tanked fully 17% after the announcement. Not only that, but as of 11:00AM today, Sonos stock is down another more than 13%.
By most measures, Control4 had an excellent quarter and a record year in Fiscal 2018. Revenues and income were up for the quarter and the company noted that 2018 was another record year in financial performance with both revenues and profits increasing nicely.
But during an investor call, CEO Martin Plaehn warned that they are experiencing new headwinds that are slowing growth. And on the day after the fiscal results were announced, Control4’s stock got hit hard, dropping at one point more than 18% and closing down about 17%.
