Strategy in TECH...
Recently, Parasound conducted another online Town Hall meeting for dealers interested in learning more about the brand’s progress under the leadership of new owner, CEO David Sheriff. Held via Microsoft Teams on a recent Saturday to facilitate participation, it lasted an impressive 1¾ hours long with the majority of all participant questions answered.
At the end of last week, Snap One Holdings Corporation [NASDAQ: SNPO] announced the results of its Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023. Much as we’ve seen quarter-by-quarter all year long, the company remained subsumed by a challenging “destocking” market, with Net Sales in Fiscal 2023 finishing down 5.6%, and its Net Loss last year increasing by another 146.3% this year. CEO John Heyman called it “another strong year.”
But was it truly “another strong year?”
It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for everyone at AudioControl over the last couple of years. The company, a leading specialty manufacturer of integrator-focused, high-quality audio electronics, has had three different owners in the last two years. Have they finally found their new home?
Emerald Holding, Inc. (NYSE: EEX), the parent company of Emerald Expositions, one of the country’s largest B2B tradeshow exposition companies, reported its Fiscal 2023 fourth quarter and full-year results. The results were mixed with full-year revenues growing by 17.5% compared to Fiscal 2022, but profits collapsing by 102% to a Net Loss.
Company management expressed extreme optimism on a call with financial analysts, but its stock value dropped dramatically the day it released these numbers.
Masimo Corporation (Nasdaq: MASI) announced on Tuesday its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of fiscal 2023, the period that ended December 30, 2023. Results were mixed with revenues down double digits in the quarter but flat for the year. But a more sobering picture emerged for the “non-healthcare” division, also known as Masimo Consumer, which is the division that was formed when the company acquired Sound United almost exactly two years ago.
Portal, one of the custom integration industry’s most popular AV proposal & design software solutions used by thousands of custom integrators every day, has announced that they have struck a deal with two industry powerhouse brands – Snap One and Sonos – who will make the software available to their respective integration dealer bases. Both brands will underwrite the full monthly subscription cost for their dealers in an effort to help those integrators raise their level of professionalism, improve the efficiency of their operations, and increase their deal closing rates.
Respected digital imaging powerhouse Digital Projection International (DP) announced that it has expanded its sales team with two new regional sales managers. Both are experienced professionals who will offer sales and support to Digital Projection customers throughout their respective regions.
Like many companies, Snap One brands are the subject of several discussion Groups on Facebook, some run by the company and others run by third parties. In the days following their recent announcement of existing program changes, new program mandates, and new optional programs, many dealers took to Control4-related groups on Facebook to protest the changes immediately, vociferously, and even (in a few cases) profanely. It was an outpouring of emotion that group admins and participating Snap One executives like G Paul Hess and others struggled to stay on top of.
Snap One executives told the dealers in the group of an upcoming webinar in which the company plans to explain everything regarding the program changes to their dealers.
Days after Snap One announced a major program initiative in an effort to change the integration industry business model, the company held a media presentation in which 5 members of the 23-member Control4 dealer advisory panel that helped the company design the program were made available to select members of the media for a short question and answer session. This was organized by Snap One specifically because I had asked to speak with the panel. How do I know that was the reason for this media opportunity? Because company executives told the media that I was the reason they chose to hold this event. This may, or may not, have endeared me to the other media.
In the matter of Masimo Corp. v. Apple, Inc….AND…Apple, Inc. v. Masimo Corp. we have a full-blown, overt litigation war raging between two determined combatants. It is a complex battle that has opened multiple fronts with multiple separate actions initiated by each of the parties in District Courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal District. Almost every one of the myriad decisions by all of these entities is appealed to final disposition.
However, Friday, January 12, 2024, turns out to be an especially important day.
