Strategy in TECH...
MQA Limited has notified Companies House, the U.K. government agency that is roughly equivalent to our Securities and Exchange Commission, that it has changed its name. After nine years as MQA Limited, the company will now be known as Wave Realisations Limited.
After receiving an extension from the court giving them more time to respond, AVA, Inc. and Josh.ai, Inc. formally filed their responses to the Snap One, LLC lawsuit filed against them this past summer. With these filings, we have completed the end of the beginning of what will undoubtedly be a long dance marathon of patent and trade secret litigation.
VOXX International Corporation (Voxx) (NASDAQ: VOXX), a manufacturer and distributor of a wide range of automotive and consumer electronics products, late on Tuesday released its second quarter of fiscal 2024 financial results for the period ending August 31, 2023. These results mostly echoed those of its first quarter and the company says it is still dealing with multiple negative macroeconomic factors such as a durable drop in consumer spending, inflated retail inventories, a UAW strike, and remaining supply chain challenges. However, the results in the second quarter were slightly more moderate than in the first quarter and there was a modest improvement on a sequential basis.
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…
Audio America, Inc., the surviving entity that merged with Next Level Distribution and Next Level Fulfillment has filed formal paperwork for an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC), a form of receivership, with the Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit in Broward County, Florida. The move was widely rumored but only confirmed Tuesday. Also joining in this ABC is another entity known as Ecomhalo, LLC, a related company.
The news confirms much of what we heard last month regarding the impending liquidation of a major U.S. distribution company.
VOXX International Corporation [NASDAQ: VOXX] (VOXX Int’l) announced this morning before the stock market opened several executive changes, including the extension of the employment agreement of VOXX Chief Executive Officer Pat Lavelle. How did Wall Street react to this news? The value of VOXX stock showed a significant decline on a day when the NASDAQ exchange, where VOXX is traded, saw an overall increase of nearly +2/3rds of a percent.
Earlier this week, I had a consequential visit with Crestron Electronics Corp. in which company executives talked about the overall business environment, supply chain issues, several new products, and their strategy going forward. It was quite revealing not only in content…but in tone.
It quickly became clear to me that after a period of playing defense, Crestron is going on offense…
Last week, Snap One Holdings Corp. (Nasdaq: SNPO) released its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2023, the 13-week period ending June 30, 2023. The company reported mixed results with a continuing sales decline but with a reduced net loss in the quarter.
Emerald Holding, Inc. (NYSE: EEX) (Emerald) owner of Emerald Expositions, a leading B2B exposition company, as well as the CEDIA Expo, CEPro, and Commercial Integrator media properties, announced its financial performance in the second quarter of fiscal 2023. While results were mixed with both increased revenues and increased losses, the company struck an optimistic tone, saying it is on track to generate $400 million in revenues and $100 million in “Adjusted” EBITDA (a measure of profits) in the current fiscal year.
There has been a flurry of activity in the Savant ecosphere lately, much of it causing a buzz in the industry. Over the last few weeks, I’ve had several integrators reaching out to let me know about some of these changes. Not all felt they were positive and many questioned the motivations behind the moves. Accordingly, I reached out to Savant to see if I could get some insight into just what is going on. The company responded by making President JC Murphy available to update me on a few of their recent moves.
