Strategy in TECH...
For reasons I’ll explain in some detail below, I recently posted a story that was not entirely as it seems. Since I deeply value my relationship with Strata-gee readers and always strive to bring you the absolute truth, I have decided for the sake of transparency to explain to you what I did and why I made the choices I made. You can decide for yourself if you feel that I did the right thing.
Savant Systems, Inc. announced today that it has expanded its popular line of Inception motorized shades designed by J. Geiger, and in so doing says it created more opportunities for custom integration specialists everywhere – including for integrators using other brands of system control solutions. Inception features a unique, elegant, minimalist roller shade design that was very much popularized by J. Geiger – which is now owned by, and exclusively available from, Savant.
Cambridge Audio announced today that it is adding the ability to bring VU meters and a clock display to another company model, the CXN100 Network Player, via an over-the-air (OTA) software update. And why are they doing this? The company says that the decision to expand the number of models to gain this feature was made “due to popular demand.”
Parasound has appointed Final Link Audio of Melbourne, Australia as its distributor for all of Australia and New Zealand. Final Link will offer all Parasound models, including their famous John Curl-engineered models.
At the recent 2024 Oasys Summit, I had the opportunity to meet with top Nationwide Marketing Group executives who were all directly involved in the birth of the Oasys Residential Technology Group, as well as the greater strategy of the Nationwide Drive to 1,000 initiative. I spoke with Dean Sottile, Andy Orozco, and Hank Alexander, each of whom offered interesting insights and perspectives on the progress of this grand adventure they have collectively embarked upon.
Sonos, Inc. (Nasdaq: SONO) announced today the long-awaited launch of its secretive new product targeted for a “multi-billion dollar category,” as Sonos CEO Patrick Spence is wont to remind us of frequently. One of the worst-kept, leakiest of launch secrets (probably intentionally so) in the industry, the company announced a new over-the-ear wireless headphone model featuring Dolby Atmos immersive sound and active noise cancellation called Sonos Ace.
But did the company Ace the test for turning around its deteriorating financial performance?
When most of us think about the Fed (the Federal Reserve Board), we think about Chairman Jerome Powell setting bank rates that can have a major impact on the U.S. economy. But what you may not know is that the Fed is a prodigious monitor and relayer of economic data. New data points have come to my attention that show increasing pressure as consumer debt levels and delinquency rates continue to rise – a condition impacting the everyday average American consumer. I felt compelled to share this data with you so you can begin tracking it on your radar screens as well.
Sonos, Inc. (Nasdaq: SONO) announced its financial performance for the second quarter of Fiscal 2024, the period that ended on March 30, 2024. The numbers, as we’re seeing more consistently across a wide variety of consumer brands, were rough…really rough. Revenues in the quarter declined a nasty 16.9% and the company’s Net Loss more than doubled, increasing by a scary 127%.
Yet CEO Patrick Spence claimed in a statement that “…we delivered results that slightly exceeded our expectations…” Either they were expecting a really devastating result, or I’ll have whatever he’s having!
After markets closed on Tuesday, VOXX International Corporation (NASDAQ: VOXX) released its Fiscal 2024 fourth quarter and full-year financial results for the period ending February 29, 2024…and it wasn’t a pretty picture. Net sales in Fiscal 2024 were down a double-digit percentage at 12.2% and the company’s Net Loss ballooned to an eye-popping $45.6 million.
What can investors expect in Fiscal 2025 from Voxx? At best, flat sales but the company is hoping to engage in a protracted restructuring process to try and reattain profitability.
Earlier this month, folks from all over the country made a trek to Austin, Texas to participate in the Oasys Summit 2024. I was one of them. Only the second such gathering for the newly launched group, it was with great anticipation I joined them in Austin for great music, great food, and really fun and quirky pubs (do they call them pubs in Texas?)
But mostly, I joined them for an incredible industry conference that seemed particularly poignant as the young group feels very much like a true start-up, whose participants really bonded over great conversation, best practice sharing, savvy education from top industry experts, smart impactful keynote speakers, and the forging of iron-clad new friendships.
