Masimo Sound United Update
Kex
Posts: 5,196
Well,
Masimo held their annual investors’ meeting on September 19.
It did not go well for CEO and Iranian-born founder Joe Kiani.
Activist investors Politan gained two more seats on the board of directors. This means that it is most likely that founder Joe Kiani will be ousted as CEO.
Kiani was behind the purchase of Sound United. He hoped to lead the new unit under a divested structure, most likely as a joint venture. The whole point of this divested structure was to avoid the financial results of Masimo from being torpedoed by the increasing costs and subsequent losses of the Sound United and consumer division.
Since the announcement of Politan’s boardroom victory, shares of Masimo have recovered significantly, currently gaining 9% YTD (September 23, 2024 at close of normal trading hours), although that still compares unfavorably to the S&P 500, which has gained 21% YTD.
Kiani leading Sound United now seems very unlikely. The outright sale of Sound United is the most probable outcome, but who will buy it? If the purchase of Sound United was something of a head scratcher for Masimo, Kiani certainly seemed to believe in it as a long term strategy. It could even be argued that it has cost him his job and his life’s work.
Who else will be prepared to take up the torch?
Masimo held their annual investors’ meeting on September 19.
It did not go well for CEO and Iranian-born founder Joe Kiani.
Activist investors Politan gained two more seats on the board of directors. This means that it is most likely that founder Joe Kiani will be ousted as CEO.
Kiani was behind the purchase of Sound United. He hoped to lead the new unit under a divested structure, most likely as a joint venture. The whole point of this divested structure was to avoid the financial results of Masimo from being torpedoed by the increasing costs and subsequent losses of the Sound United and consumer division.
Since the announcement of Politan’s boardroom victory, shares of Masimo have recovered significantly, currently gaining 9% YTD (September 23, 2024 at close of normal trading hours), although that still compares unfavorably to the S&P 500, which has gained 21% YTD.
Kiani leading Sound United now seems very unlikely. The outright sale of Sound United is the most probable outcome, but who will buy it? If the purchase of Sound United was something of a head scratcher for Masimo, Kiani certainly seemed to believe in it as a long term strategy. It could even be argued that it has cost him his job and his life’s work.
Who else will be prepared to take up the torch?
Alea jacta est!
Comments
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You seem to have plenty of capital, go for it!
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You know how the saying goes: if you have to ask…
FY 2024 non-healthcare guidance ranges from $700-730 million. That’s down from full year 2023 non-healthcare revenue of $773 million, and 2022 non-healthcare revenue of $953 million.Alea jacta est! -
Hopefully he'll get a sound bar as a parting gift. And on that note...I'm out.Don't take experimental gene therapies from known eugenicists.
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We can start a gofundme -- or whatever "app" thingy the hep new cats are usin' to give away their money for sketchy causes.
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It's a down economy, first thing to flounder is frivolous items, especially around hobbies like
hi-fi's".
Still, 700+ million in revenue is pretty good. Means stuff is selling.
It would be interesting to see the break down of the 700+ million in revenue across the non-healthcare brands they have in their portfolio.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you! -
I don't think it was ever a good fit for Sound United and Masimo. Yes, I know they wanted to acquire the HEOS patent portfolio, but still, not a good fit. Personally, I'd be fine to see Masimo go down in flames. Not a good experience dealing with the companies products, at least their consumer (non audio) products. I wouldn't go near their wearable line. Its all garbage. They sued Apple over some patent garbage and they thought they could enter the space, but its a failure, big time. I have an abandoned product from them that is virtually unsupported by their joke of a smart phone app.
Hopefully Sound United gets picked up by someone who wants to see the Brands flourish and not just seek to milk it to death. If it gets picked up by some Hedge Fund/Private Equity, we can kiss the whole thing goodbye.
For rig details, see my profile. Nothing here anymore... -
TRUTH !!!Hopefully Sound United gets picked up by someone who wants to see the Brands flourish and not just seek to milk it to death. If it gets picked up by some Hedge Fund/Private Equity, we can kiss the whole thing goodbye. -
Maybe VOXX will pick up Sound United and stick it next to Klipsch in their stable.
Actually, as tempted as I (always) am to bash Klipsch, they are doing something halfway interesting at the moment.
https://www.klipsch.com/products/ojas-ko-r1
"It's a Klipsch Heresy!"
"It's an Altec Voice of the Theatre!"
"It's BOTH!!"
Perhaps Devon Turnbull could tackle a latter-day SDA. Imagine an OJAS SDA -- the mind boggles.
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The current data don’t support the idea of a “down economy”, even if the perception is sometimes negative. We are not in a recession. However, as stated previously, HiFi for many now means connected surround speakers, like Sonos, combined with Apple Music or Spotify playlists. Dedicated systems with AVR’s, amplifiers, large speakers, and more specialized streaming services such as Qobuz or Tidal are increasingly niche products.
Although the consumer division sales figures are not horrible, the trajectory is very negative, especially when compared to healthcare sales. Margins are also approximately half of what they are for Masimo healthcare.
Judging from company presentations, Kiani’s vision was that wearables and “hearables” would be key players in a new vision that would transition patients from hospital care, where Masimo is already very strong, to convalescence and home monitoring, where Masimo is currently absent. Not unlike the health monitoring that Apple seems to envision for Apple Watch.Alea jacta est! -
You seem to be very intelligent and well-informed.
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The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
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You seem to be very intelligent and well-informed.
He can read an article like the rest of us...or some of us anyway...For rig details, see my profile. Nothing here anymore... -
Peter Sellers always did have the best most interesting impersonation of an englishman pretending to be a frenchman pretending to be a german. -
Joe Kiani’s departure has just been confirmed following his resignation, with immediate effect.
A new interim CEO has been appointed: board member Michelle M. Brennan. Ms. Brennan was installed by the activist investor Politan last year. She was formerly an executive at Johnson & Johnson.
A talent search is under way for a permanent CEO.
Centerview Partners and Morgan Stanley have been hired to move forward with the separation of the consumer businesses (audio and healthcare).
Masimo Investors Update
Alea jacta est! -
I don't know what we should define as a "down economy" but as far as luxury consumer discretionary purchases go, I think the 2 following charts are pretty self explanatory:
We'll throw this one in there too:
George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Onkyo A-8017 integrated
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
Ummm....I guess we're mocking me now, so, that's cool.
But, I'm REALLY trying hard to figure out what the point of the graphs are.
All they seem to show is that debt levels have increased more than significantly and so have interest rates.
Pay scale hasn't, though, and many folks who were doing ok are now well in the red right now because of what those graphs are showing. Add to that the cost of every day essentials like food, clothes and utilities has doubled (but everyone is happy that gas is under $3 a gallon!) and all of a sudden, your dollar buys half of what it did a year ago and your 2% CoL increase doesn't cover the other 48%. That means there's no more "expendable income" and when there's no more expendable income, unnecessaries like stereo equipment goes out the window in favor of eating and keeping the heat and lights on.
But, y'know, that's just "price gouging" and not the fault of inflation at all! We just need to fix prices so those fat cats on Wall St can't get fatter off our backs!
And inflation hasn't dropped at all. The only thing that dropped is the rate at which inflation is going up. It is still going up, just not at the double digit percentages we saw in the past 3 years. But it is still going up, though and it's worse in other countries. Just take a look at the exchange rates. The Yen and Yuan are both taking heavy hits and the Euro isn't gaining anything either. It's hitting everyone too, even huge corporations. Just look at the reduced levels of operating profit being reported and the lower levels of EBITA which makes investors sketched out because it hurts the growth rate. That's the reason why there's been over 100K layoffs in the tech industry since June. Q2 hurt and Q3 is hurting too and there's going to be more contraction before the end of the year as companies keep having to raise prices and cut costs to satisfy the expected growth rates from investors.
Add to that the fact that the estimated jobs growth level was almost 20% UNDER what was predicted and unemployment levels have jumped 3 percentage points since August.
Just because the banks are making money on the debt bubble doesn't mean everyone else is.
In fact, the Fed even said last week that their rate hikes haven't stopped anything and they don't know what to do next. Borrowing on secured debt (i.e.: houses, cars, small business loans) has flat-lined and dropped in some sectors and borrowing on unsecured debt (i.e.: credit cards, personal loans, etc) has skyrocketed. So pretty much any growth in things like the housing market or car manufacturing since 2020 is currently not just stagnating, it's contracting. Many things that would be financed on secured loans are winding up on unsecured debt too. Things like home improvements where you need a new roof or something and can't get a home equity loan but you can swing it on a credit card or personal loan from the likes of a SoFi or Marcus or something (Marcus is a Goldman Sachs predatory lending vehicle created to compete with SoFi, BTW).
But they printed and released sooooo much cash that it's going to take a decade for things to normalize again and it's likely to get worse before it starts getting better. We'll know for sure after this Christmas and how retail overall fares. It's probably going to be a bloodbath.
So, yeah, things are down and we don't need a recession or depression for it to be a real thing.
The fact that the Masimo idea of blending healthcare with wearables is failing is evidence of that.
But, if Morgan Stanley is involved and brokering a divestiture of the retail arm of Masino (i.e.: Sound United) then that hammering you hear is the nails being put in Polk Audio's coffin. It's done and going bye bye.
Had a good run, though.Expert Moron Extraordinaire
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you! -
BOOM DROP THE MIC !! ^^^^
As usual @Jstas is ON POINT !! -
My point was simply that people have to be hurting (in certain income levels) if they are running up all time high credit card debt with interest rates as high as they are. Combine that with cumulative affordability crisis of rising prices and real weekly wages that have declined, and it seems likely that many are borrowing from the credit card at high interest rates to pay for daily needs like food and fuel and utilities etc.. May not leave as much left over for audio equipment purchases, for some.
Another one which further makes the point. Personal savings are down to 2.9% from 7.7% pre pandemic:
George / NJ
Polk 7B main speakers, std. mods+ (1979, orig owner)
Martin Logan Dynamo sub w/6ft 14awg Power Cord
Onkyo A-8017 integrated
Logitech Squeezebox Touch Streamer w/EDO applet
iFi nano iDSD DAC
iPurifier3
iDefender w/ iPower PS
Custom Steve Wilson 1m UPOCC Interconnect
iFi Mercury 0.5m OFHC continuous cast copper USB cable
Custom Ribbon Speaker Cables, 5ft long, 4N Copper, 14awg, ultra low inductance
Custom Vibration Isolation Speaker Stands and Sub Platform -
On topic (ahem)... I suspect that there's enough perceived value in the "Sound United" suite of brands that someone will buy the asset (perhaps at a fire sale price) and take it private. The brands with the most perceived value will persist in some form; the rest'll just kind of get digested away.
So many great (American) electronics brand names still exist, but bear no connection to their histories in terms of business, products, or technological heritage: examples include but aren't limited to RCA, Emerson, Fisher, Altec Lansing...
On the bright side, Polk branded soundbars and (or) smart speakers may end up being much better products!
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BOOM DROP THE MIC !! ^^^^
As usual @Jstas is ON POINT !!
If only he could learn not to put so much space in between paragraphs!
Seriously though, yes, we all know the economy is not great for most of us, and Sound United will probably have a tough time staying afloat. Hopefully, we get some notice before they pull the plug on this forum... or maybe it will just be when they stop paying for AWS or however this is hosted.
For rig details, see my profile. Nothing here anymore... -
There is an emergency backup forum option of sorts out there in the backwaters of teh interwebz...
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The Hedge Fund managers whom I associate with (and frequently ask for my advice and guidance) are all doing just fine !
🤗💲💰 Me too ! 🤗
Sure, some of you little peoples might not be doing so well, but sorry, too bad, so sad. 😢
You might consider that you've possibly pi$$ed off God 🤔
Sal Palooza -
mhardy6647 wrote: »There is an emergency backup forum option of sorts out there in the backwaters of teh interwebz...
I’m surprised, Dr. Hardy.
Have you seriously looked at that “emergency backup forum” recently?
Those aren’t “backwaters”, those are a cesspit of putrid political hate speech with almost zero users last time I checked, not an audio forum. It will never be a replacement for the Polk Forum. It will be something else entirely. Any normal posts will be buried in sewage.Alea jacta est! -
But back on topic…
If Sound United is purchased, then everything may continue as normal. The buyer will see the balance sheet and sales figures for themselves. They won’t necessarily be expecting the same margins as the healthcare division of Masimo.Alea jacta est! -
….The Gear... Carver "Statement" Mono-blocks, Mcintosh C2300 Arcam AVR20, Oppo UDP-203 4K Blu-ray player, Sony XBR70x850B 4k, Polk Audio Legend L800 with height modules, L400 Center Channel Polk audio AB800 "in-wall" surrounds. Marantz MM7025 stereo amp. Simaudio Moon 680d DSD
“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”— Thomas Jefferson -
Bill that is a vanilla thing.BOOM DROP THE MIC !! ^^^^
As usual @Jstas is ON POINT !!
If only he could learn not to put so much space in between paragraphs!
Seriously though, yes, we all know the economy is not great for most of us, and Sound United will probably have a tough time staying afloat. Hopefully, we get some notice before they pull the plug on this forum... or maybe it will just be when they stop paying for AWS or however this is hosted.
Look at your quote, all I did was hit quote and it removed your space.
I've sometimes just started a new paragraph and when I hit post it looks like I skipped down 3-4 lines.
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My point exactly, I put all that above together. Vanilla broke it apart.
https://youtu.be/lb_cXSKHfsQ
