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More Leadership Turmoil Hits Emerald Expositions

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CEO to Exit by Year End; COO Steps into Interim Role While Search Begins

Emerald Expositions CEO Sally Shankland

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.

More on the new Emerald CEO transition…

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‘The Smart Home is Dead,’ Says a Key Industry Expert

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Lennar home interior

As many integrators seek to pitch their clients on the many wonders of converting their dumb homes into “smart” homes, there are growing indicators that the promise of the smart home is not being reliably delivered up to this point…and may never be, according to one respected industry expert. And there is a growing chorus of others who appear to agree – possibly including Google, who is trying to manage expectations by relabelling the smart home as the “helpful home.”

See the case for the fall of the smart home…

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Audio Design Associates Warns of Imminent Company Shutdown

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Audio Design Associates logo

In a letter to the media early Tuesday evening, Richard Stoerger announced the likely impending closure of Audio Design Associates (ADA), a company that was a founding member of CEDIA and a significant driving force in the early days of the “CEDIA channel.” The letter itself never explicitly explains the reasons for the possible closure, only offering vague allusions to: difficulty to “defeat the noise generated on a public level”… and … that they “just ran out of time and money”… and … a failure to “reckon with” how “difficult and expensive” it is to tell one’s story.

This news tolls the end of an era…

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James Loudspeaker Terminates Reps as Integration into Sonance Progresses

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James Loudspeaker logo

Early last week, a holiday week, sources reached out to relay the news that multiple manufacturer sales representatives were being terminated by James Loudspeaker. Happy Thanksgiving…you’re fired. In chats, I heard of the pain that some those reps felt – for while getting terminated is never a happy circumstance, getting terminated during holidays seems particularly poignant.

James Loudspeaker’s CEO & Sonance’s CSO speak to what is going on…

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Consumer Confidence Drops for the 4th Straight Month in-a-Row

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Photo of a shopper in a grocery store

The Conference Board, in conjunction with Nielsen, announced on Tuesday that consumer confidence, a widely watched economic indicator, fell in November for the fourth straight month in-a-row. Consumers, it seems, are concerned about the current business climate and employment outlook. Even so, the level remains historically high and should not provide too much of a damper on current holiday spending by consumers.

Read more on consumer confidence…

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Oct. Housing Data is Split: Home Construction UP, Home Sales DOWN

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Photo of a new home for sale

In new data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the readings appear split with housing starts showing increases while new home sales declined. Housing, a prime component of the overall U.S. GDP has been in a bit of a swell over the last couple of months, driven largely by low interest rates stimulating demand for homes.

See more on the latest housing data…

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Sonos Announces Record Fiscal 2019 Results; Acquires Snips

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Sonos announced this week that it has acquired French AI voice control software maker Snips in a deal valued at $37.5 million. The company also released their Fiscal 2019 results in a letter to investors denoting a record year for the company – its first as a publicly traded one.

See more on Sonos’ new announcements…

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Last Week Onkyo, Now Sound United Reorganizes in Wake of Failed Acquisition Deal

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Sound United logo

For a few weeks now, I’ve been chasing a rumor that both sides of the failed Sound United acquisition of Onkyo’s branded A/V business were in the throes of a major reorganization. The rumors, it seems, were true – starting with Onkyo’s announced reorganization last week…and now word that Sound United is also implementing changes to its management structure.

See what changes Sound United is making…

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No Josh-ing, AudioControl & Josh.ai Partner for a Better User and Integrator Experience

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AudioControl and Josh.ai partner with an integration

AudioControl and Josh.ai announced last week that they were partnering with an integration that will allow integrators to offer their clients a better voice-enabled home entertainment control experience. A perfect blend of the high-quality electronics from AudioControl, coupled with the natural language and privacy protecting voice automation technology of Josh.ai, means clients can simply say their commands to their system and have their system respond in new powerful ways.

See more on this new AudioControl and Josh.ai integration…

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Onkyo to Slash Overall Company Headcount by 30%, Cutting Management by 50%

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Also: Consolidating Facilities & Moving Headquarters

Onkyo logo

It appears that the other shoe is dropping in the wake of the failed acquisition of Onkyo Corporation’s branded A/V division by Sound United last month, as the company now says it will reduce its overhead by cutting jobs. This appears to be the first step in a major reorganization of the company, as it seeks to right-size the organization for the industry’s new, smaller, and more competitive environment in which electronics manufacturers find themselves.

See more on Onkyo’s restructuring…

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