Strategy in TECH...
On Tuesday, Sonos, Inc. [Nasdaq: SONO] reported its first quarter, fiscal 2024 results for the period that ended December 30, 2023. While the actual numbers were a bit of a mixed bag with revenues down – even though the company embarked on a strong holiday promotional push – the company booked strong gross profit improvements and generated more cash beating Wall Street estimates. This resulted in a big jump in its share price on the next trading day.
Sonos [NASDAQ: SONO] announced this week that it will launch an all-new 8-inch in-ceiling speaker that it designed in conjunction with Sonance. Part of the company’s Architectural lineup of speakers, this new model extends both the size and the range of performance of the line.
After the close of markets on Wednesday, Sonos released its Fiscal 2023 fourth quarter (Q4) and full-year results. As one of the industry’s top consumer brands, Sonos’ latest quarterly and full-year earnings put the post-COVID strain in full display as the company was hit with both sales and profit declines even though it took aggressive steps to adjust to an adverse consumer market.
The company says loyal customers are its greatest buffer against macroeconomic headwinds, but those headwinds were particularly daunting in 2023.
In a shocking twist to a long-running patent battle, U.S. District Court Judge William H Alsup declared Sonos’ ‘966 and ‘885 patents at trial are unenforceable and invalid effectively countermanding a jury decision on behalf of Sonos and a royalty award of $32.5 million. Furthermore, the judge’s order suggests that Sonos abused the patent system by attempting to use it to “punish an innovator” and to “enrich a[n] [innovation] pretender.”
Last week, Sonos quietly let the Securities and Exchange Commission know that Panos Panay resigned from the Sonos board of directors, effective September 27, 2023. They made no public announcement that I am aware of, even though this news could have a major impact on the company’s direction. Why? Simply because Panos Panay is one of the most respected technology product gurus in the industry – so much so that Sonos trumpeted his arrival loudly when they convinced him to join their board in 2020.
Separately, and within just days of the exit of Panay, the company announced three “new” (I’ll explain the quotes around the word new below) additions to its executive team, including a new, promoted from within, Chief Product Officer…
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, Sonos, Inc. [NASDAQ: SONO] said it will institute a “reduction in force” or headcount reduction of approximately 7% of their employees. While the decision to cut jobs is designed to reduce labor expenses, the execution of the plan is estimated to cost the company somewhere between $11 million to $14 million.
A jury has come to a unanimous verdict in the matter of Sonos, Inc. vs. Google, LLC, a patent infringement lawsuit initially filed on September 22, 2020, in the U.S. District Court for California Northern District in San Francisco. In the case of one of the two patents under consideration – the ‘885 patent – the jury sided with Sonos, finding that Google products did infringe upon the Sonos patent and awarded them a judgment of $32.5 million.
After the close of the stock market Wednesday, Sonos, Inc. released its fiscal 2023 second quarter (Q2) financial results. The numbers were pretty rough, but the company had previously adjusted its forward forecast downward. Yet even though the company’s latest Q2 numbers beat analysts’ revenue forecast and were in line with their guidance, the market reacted negatively. How negatively? Sonos’ stock lost more than 25% of its value on the day after the Q2 earnings were announced.
Why such a strong reaction? Read on…
On the eve of the upcoming patent trial in the matter of Sonos, Inc. [Nasdaq: SONO], vs. Google, LLC [Nasdaq: GOOG], both parties had submitted motions for summary judgment trying to win as many points as possible while also clearing away as many outstanding issues as possible to limit the number of factual matters to be determined at trial by a jury. It has been a long and winding road to get to this point, but one thing seems clear to me, Sonos may have gotten more than they bargained for, as this action with Google, their largest adversary by far, appears to have taken a bit of a toll.
Sonos (NASDAQ: SONO) announced on Tuesday that it has launched two new smart speakers that implement spatial audio for a more immersive listening experience. The company says these new models are the next-generation of smart speakers, utilizing Dolby Atmos technology to launch “…a whole new chapter in sound and design innovation.” They also call them “revolutionary” and “bold” and the “best experience for out loud spatial listening.”
