Strategy in TECH...
COVID-19, the massive pandemic that changed everything this year, probably infected your business and perhaps made it ill in a way that will take time to recover. But for Emerald Expositions, the national expositions company that owns the CEDIA Expo show and CE Pro – COVID-19 almost killed them.
Now Emerald’s sugar daddy, Onex Corporation, is ready to throw them a lifeline…a $400 million lifeline to be exact.
Emerald Holding Inc., formerly Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. (NYSE:EEX), has released their fiscal 2020 first quarter results and the organization makes no bones about it – it has been hit, and hit hard, by the COVID-19 pandemic. The company announced that in the first quarter of fiscal 2020 – the period ending March 31, 2020 – sales declined 27.4% to $99.7 million and the company had the biggest net loss in its history, losing $570.1 million.
Crestron Electronics announced today that it is returning to the CEDIA Expo show for the first time since Strata-gee broke the news of their surprising exit from the event four years ago in 2016. This announcement marks a triumphant return for a company that has seen its residential business soar over the last few years, particularly with the launch of their Crestron Home software solution.
Emerald Expositions announced this week that Sally Shankland, it most recent CEO who had been hired in June 2019 to replace resigning CEO David Loechner, has died following her month’s long battle with cancer. The company says Shankland passed away at home peacefully.
Emerald Holding Inc. (NYSE: EEX), formerly known as Emerald Expositions Events Inc. – a national exposition company that is home to both the CEDIA Expo and CE Pro magazine – has announced that they are postponing all events for the first two quarters of 2020 due to the rapid spread of the global pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19). Given their position as one of the largest producers of B-to-B trade shows in the U.S., this is a major development with huge impact on the various industries their shows serve.
*By now you’ve likely heard about the massive sell-off on Wall Street over the last week or two that is largely a reaction to the spreading coronavirus pandemic and its potential impact on markets. Although not a new situation, coronavirus (now known as COVID-19) has spread around the world and is now making its way into the United States – potentially putting U.S. markets and companies like Emerald Expositions in jeopardy.
But while most public companies have seen their stock values drop during this market decline, Emerald Expositions has seen the market value of their stock decline at a much greater clip… What’s going on?
I hardly know where to begin, there’s so much to unpack here from a 20-page quarterly report and a 210-page annual report. Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. [NYSE: EEX] has released their fiscal 2019 fourth quarter and full year results…and it’s hard to overstate the level of turmoil exhibited there. What kind of turmoil, you ask? Read on…
If you saw my recent article on the Emerald Expositions’ leadership turmoil (See: More Leadership Turmoil Hits Emerald Expositions), in addition to covering the fact that their new CEO (just started in June) was leaving the company at the end of the year, I also provided some sobering key figures from their recent fiscal third quarter results report. I have done a deeper dive into their report, only to uncover even more troubling information.
Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. (Emerald) (NYSE:EEX), parent company to the CEDIA Expo show and industry trade magazines CE Pro & Commercial Integrator, announced this week that CEO Sally Shankland will be leaving the company by the end of this year. Shankland was appointed CEO just this past June 2019, and has said she will step down “for personal health reasons.” Once again, the organization is plunged into a leadership vacuum which began just one year ago with the sudden resignation of then-CEO David Loechner.
Emerald Expositions Events, Inc. (NYSE:EEX), a leading provider of trade shows and events and the current owner of CEDIA Expo, announced their financial results today for the first fiscal quarter of 2019. And while this tends to be a rather mundane or even robotic process, there were a few things unique about this report from Emerald – most notably their head-scratching comments that dramatically contrasted with the numbers.
