Strategy in TECH...
Multiple reports are pouring in that Snap One, a leading custom integration supplier, has just completed a restructuring that resulted in layoffs. It is not clear at this point just how many employees were cut, but it was significant enough to motivate several sources around the country to reach out to Strata-gee.
The trials and travails of WiSA Technologies (NASDAQ: WISA) appear to be continuing, if not accelerating, as the company said it has received a new notification from the Nasdaq stock exchange informing the company that its stock has violated yet another rule of the exchange, triggering a new instant delisting process. And this all took place in the wake of it just having won an additional 180-day extension period to try and cure a previous violation of a different rule from 2022. So what happens now?
Just one day after I posted the story Tech Takes a Turn…Downwards, we learned of more layoffs hitting tech, including Google parent Alphabet, Spotify, Vox Media, and more. These additional reports of even more tech layoffs only help to affirm the reality of a slowdown hitting big tech and other areas that are adjacent to tech, such as media focused on tech.
Trinnov Audio announced on Tuesday that it has created a new position at the company of Customer Support Manager and appointed Chrisanne Rhodes to the role. For a company offering highly sophisticated technologies and products, this new role is likely to be an extremely important addition to the company’s support of all levels of the market from dealers to end-users.
Citing the “current state of the global economies” and “ongoing supply chain issues” Voxx International (NASDAQ: VOXX) reported the results of their fiscal 2023, third quarter this week and it was a story of more of the same, perhaps intensifying, business challenges that they identified when the company announced its second-quarter results. All of its major business segments reported sales declines – dropping double-digit percentages – with overall sales dropping 25.4% year-over-year. But the company said profits increased on aggressive cost cutting.
WiSA Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: WISA), a developer of spatial, wireless sound technology for smart devices and home entertainment systems, announced recently that it has received an additional 180-day extension of the compliance period by the NASDAQ stock market. The purpose of the extension is to give the company additional time, until June 20, 2023, to regain compliance with NASDAQ’s minimum bid rule.
On Monday, a federal holiday, VOXX International’s Premium Audio Company (PAC) announced that Oscar Bernardo, its Chief Operating Officer, left the company on December 31, 2022. The company says – in this kind of strange, after-the-fact announcement – that Bernardo left to relaunch the Mirage speaker brand. Mirage is owned by VOXX International, which acquired it in 2006.
In a decision announced last week, U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna has granted a motion for reconsideration by Outlaw Audio that included a restraining order preventing OSD Audio “from falsely representing” a certain feature of one of its products. This decision is a result of legal action taking place between direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands Santos Elecs. Inc. dba OSD Audio and Outlaw Audio LLC.
Parasound is a unique company. A long-time specialty segment stalwart, the company has been delighting audio enthusiasts for more than forty years! That is no small achievement when you consider the twists and turns of the specialty segment over that time frame.
And the credit for that success is largely due to the commitment to quality – and, frankly, just the bulldog temerity – of founder and CEO Richard Schram. So it is a development worthy of note that, yesterday, Schram announced his retirement from the company and its sale to a new owner.
In what may turn out to be the best test yet of Masimo’s long-term plans for Sound United, the company announced today that it is launching an expansion of HEOS, the wireless home system initially developed by the company’s Denon division as part of a whole-home wireless music system. When Masimo acquired Sound United back in February of this year, Denon’s “cloud-connected home ecosystem” was one of the items it specifically mentioned as what attracted them to make the acquisition.
With today’s announcement, the company says that the launch of this “…expansion of the HEOS platform [will] provide a robust and always-on connection to the Masimo Health secure cloud.”
