Toshiba, who is on the verge of announcing a record loss and plans another round of layoffs, is far from the only Japanese giant who is stumbling. A new analysis by the Nikkei suggests it’s possible that Sharp Corp. may not have enough cash to survive the winter – despite the fact that multiple potential suitors are swirling around them in a head-spinning series of negotiations that, so far, are unproductive. And the news of these new troubles have surfaced after they successfully concluded negotiations for a ¥200 billion bank bailout in April.
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Silent Thiel Suddenly Trumpets a New App-Controlled Subwoofer
STORY UPDATED 12/23/2015 – SEE BELOW
Thiel Audio unexpectedly announced late today that it would show and demonstrate a new product – a powered subwoofer – at next month’s CES show in Las Vegas, Nevada. This new subwoofer, called the SmartSub™ 1.12, is the first new product introduced by Thiel in a year and appears to contain several new technologies for the company including Wi-Fi integration, app control, advanced signal processing and more.
See what we know so far about this new subwoofer from Thiel… [Read more…] about Silent Thiel Suddenly Trumpets a New App-Controlled Subwoofer
New HTSA Board of Directors Selected
A new board of directors has been selected by the Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA), one of the leading retail buying groups in the U.S. This new board, along with the recently announced new managing director (Jon Robbins), represents an all-new and fresh approach to group management and oversight – albeit from a selection of executives with tremendous history within the organization.
See who’s on the HTSA board and why they were selected… [Read more…] about New HTSA Board of Directors Selected
Good Economic Sign: November Housing Starts Shoot Up
In a result that exceeded economists’ estimates, November overall housing starts jumped an impressive 10.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.173 million units. Well over the revised October rate of 1.062 million units, it also exceeded the 1.007 million units in November last year by 16.5%.
More importantly for our industry, single-family home construction rates jumped as well.
See more on this encouraging economic data… [Read more…] about Good Economic Sign: November Housing Starts Shoot Up
Our Editor Makes Guest Appearance on AVWeek’s New Residential Webcast
Strata-gee.com editor Ted Green made a guest appearance on AVWeek’s new webcast called AVWeek Special: Residential. Just the second episode of this all-new, residential industry-centric webcast, host Tim Albright led an industry panel that, in addition to Green, included Heather Sidorowicz, Steven Brawner, and Todd Anthony Puma commenting on several hot stories of the day.
More on this new webcast, including a link so you can see it for yourself… [Read more…] about Our Editor Makes Guest Appearance on AVWeek’s New Residential Webcast
Fed Hikes Rates for First Time in Decade; Is This Good or Bad?
Probably the biggest news in business today is that the Federal Reserve Board hiked interest rates for the first time in almost a decade. Wall Street celebrated by driving up stock values in the wake of the news. Yet consumer specialists and others are sounding the alarm. So is the Fed’s rate increase good news or bad news?
See our take on the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates… [Read more…] about Fed Hikes Rates for First Time in Decade; Is This Good or Bad?
Emotiva in Major Launch of New Models
Emotiva Audio Corporation is one of those ideas whose core elements initially seemed incongruous – high-end products…sold on the Internet? When we learned of their launch 12-years ago, we predicted doom and damnation. After all, high-end audio, we posited, was as much about the experience -the audition – as it is about the product. Founder Dan Laufman proved us wrong. This week, Laufman caught our attention again when we recently received information about an impressive roster of new models to be launched at CES.
See what we learned from our interview with Dan Laufman… [Read more…] about Emotiva in Major Launch of New Models
Dysfunctional CEDIA Board Cited in Resignation Letter
We reported to you last month that, in an unexpected development best described as surprising, two members of CEDIA’s Board of Directors – Bob Brown and Richard Millson – abruptly resigned their positions within 24-hours of each other. We learned of this through our industry sources, not from CEDIA – which has yet to make any official statement about this unusual event. While we were able to confirm the incident had happened, since none of the parties would speak to us about it, we were unable to report on the reasons behind why this double resignation occurred in the first place. Now…we have more information.
See the surprising news we have learned over the last few weeks… [Read more…] about Dysfunctional CEDIA Board Cited in Resignation Letter
Toshiba Hit with Record Fine; Shareholders Sue
Despite its best efforts to turn the corner after its forced disclosure earlier this year of one of the largest accounting scandals ever to jolt the Japanese financial community, Toshiba Corp. just keeps getting hit with more and more bad news. This bad news includes Japan’s financial regulators assessing the largest fine ever in the history of the country for financial mismanagement – ¥7.37 billion or about $60 million.
And now, the very first wave of shareholder lawsuits against former Toshiba executives are filed…and they are big.
See more on Toshiba’s continuing waves of woes… [Read more…] about Toshiba Hit with Record Fine; Shareholders Sue
Jon Robbins Returns to Run HTSA
BREAKING NEWS
Hana to Stay On in Supportive Role
Jon Robbins, former President & CEO of now defunct Hi Fi House (Broomall, PA) and one of the first members of the Home Technology Specialists of America (HTSA), will become Managing Director of the organization later this month, taking control of an organization he helped build, Strata-gee.com has learned. Current HTSA managing director Bob Hana will stay on with the organization, with his activities focused more on marketing and operations, Robbins told us.
