Marketing Briefs
“BIG GAME” SWEEPS—from Fluke, the end result will be two tickets in
the hands of some lucky professional to go to Miami for the Super Bowl. The
winner gets airfare, three nights in a hotel for two persons, and a rental car.
COPPERLOGIC—that’s the name under which Moeller industrial control products
will be represented in the United States and Canada. The company had been sold
five years ago and continued to do business as Moeller Electric “until the sale
of Moeller GmbH last year,” according to Benn Orr, director of marketing communications.
“This name change has been planned for a while.”
DISTRIBUTOR PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM—from Fire-Lite Alarms by Honeywell,
it’s offered to “a select grouping of electrical distributors”—who will “carry
a defined mix of popular fire alarms equipment and low-voltage power supplies.”
HOT IN HOME AUTOMATION—a blog
on the HousingZone.com site included a brief Q&A with Dave Hanchette of
On-Q/Legrand. What’s the hottest trend in home automation? Hanchette: “Electronics
in the kitchen are the hottest trend. Over 125 million existing homes in America
and people are spending more time at home, investing in cool technologies for
all areas of the home. Kitchen electronics are hot—flat screen, Internet access,
and touch screens. The kitchen is America’s most remodeled room.”
JOHNSON & INTELLIGENT BUILDINGS—Johnson Controls perhaps has “been
practicing more than 125 years for this”—the green economy. Or so says a GreenerBuildings.com
blog
on “the company’s first executive summit about intelligent buildings.”
MARKETING PARTNERSHIP—established between Channel Marketing Group and
East West Associates.
MOLEX OFFERS SAFETY EDUCATION—to “electrical and safety engineers, electricians,
maintenance personnel, and electrical contractors” on common electrical safety
hazards—in a training series, “Working Together for a Safer Workplace.’
RUSSOUND TO TARGET ECs—an article
in This Week In Consumer Electronics (Sept. 22) talked about how Russound
will cope with the sick housing market. It included this paragraph:
“Russound plans to market its Collage powerline-based multiroom audio system
to low-voltage and electrical contractors, not just to residential A/V installers,
via custom distributors that are targeting low-voltage and electrical contractors
to help offset the eroding base of residential installers. Collage is designed
for easy installation into existing homes to make up for the dramatic decline
in new-home construction.
[CEO Charles] Porritt emphasized the company isn't looking to add ‘a ton of
new distribution’ and it approves all of the installers who buy through its
distributors.”
SERVICES FROM FERRAZ SHAWMUT—the company has launched an Electrical
Services unit, which will provide “consulting and training services designed
to help customers protect against arc-flash and other electrical hazards.”
“THE HUNT” PROMOTION—it’s from WAC Lighting, and it features “a unique
scavenger hunt and final program” to celebrate the company’s 25th
anniversary.
TRAINING SESSION ON LEDs—from WAC Lighting, held Nov. 17 in Edmonton,
Alberta (Canada). The company said the event was held before “a packed house”
of ECs, designers, specifiers, and others.
TRAPEZE MEDICAL—that’s the name of a new program from Trapeze Networks,
a unit of Belden. The goal: “Extending the company’s leadership in the international
wireless LAN healthcare market.”
Legal Stuff
GENERATION BRANDS OPTS FOR PREPACK—Generation Brands, which manufactures
lighting fixtures and ceiling fans, has opted to go through a “prepackaged Chapter
11 plan of reorganization.” In other words, it’s going bankrupt with a plan
to emerge almost instantaneously (i.e., by the end of January).
From a release: “Under the terms of the restructuring plan [GB] will eliminate
more than $150 million in debt, resulting in greater free cash flow due to
lowered interest payments…when [GB] emerges…it expects to have more than $30
million in liquidity and no debt maturities until 2014.”
Brands under the GB umbrella include Sea Gull Lighting, Murray Feiss, Tech
Lighting, and Monte Carlo Fan. See company website and the prepack
release.
OSRAM SUES ON INDUCTION PATENT—OSRAM SYLVANIA has sued (in federal court)
American Induction Technologies (Anaheim, Calif.) for—according to a release—“selling
and offering to sell electrodeless induction lamps that are alleged to infringe
on U.S. Patent No. 5,834,905.” It’s the second time in 2009 that OSRAM has filed
a suit to “enforce our intellectual property rights to the ICETRON induction
lighting system,” a company exec said.
PLUG POWER GETS NOTICE—on Dec. 8, Plug Power received notice from NASDAQ
saying that the company no longer meets listing rules, which have certain requirements
(chiefly, that the price of a listed stock remains above $1/share for 30 consecutive
business days). According to a release, Plug Power is “evaluating its alternatives
to resolve the listing deficiency.” One obvious option: A “reverse split,” which
would decrease the number of shares outstanding (and—maybe—increase the price
at which they are bought and sold).
ManuFacts
ACUITY BRANDS—the company conducted two financial maneuvers, selling
$350 million senior unsecured notes (due 2019) in a private offering by the
Lighting unit. Then, two days later, the company said it had bought back more
than $175.7 million of the $200 million outstanding of 8.375% notes due Aug.
1, 2010 (in a tender offer). Acuity obtained $346.3 million net in the note
sale; some of the proceeds (an unspecified amount) went “to repay an unsecured
promissory note issued to the former sole stockholder of Sensor Switch.” Whatever
is left after that is earmarked for “general corporate purposes.”
GE LIGHTING GETS FUNDING—a Rapid Outreach Grant—“for costs associated
with the acquisition of machinery and equipment”—went from the state of Ohio
to GE Lighting. According to the Bucyrus Telegraph Forum, the project’s
total investment is $64 million.
KODAK SELLS TO LG—Eastman Kodak said on Dec. 8 that it would sell “substantially
all the assets associated with its OLED business to a group of LG companies,”
according to LEDs Magazine. Price: Face down.
MMM: “UNSETTLING?”—“3M issues unsettling 2010 outlook”
reads the headline on a Dec.
8 Associated Press item. Unsettling to whom? The company’s stock closed
Dec. 11 at $81.75; it ended the previous week at $78.24.
ROCKWELL—
- Automation Fair wrap-up—from
Automation.com, includes this data-packed sentence: “over 8,000 attendees, 82
Encompass partners, six machine builders, three alliance partners, seven solution
partners, and seven universities.”
- Automation Fair posts on Twitter—OK, they aren’t posts—they’re
tweets.
- Automation Fair show dailies—for three days—see links on the
far-right-hand side of this
page.
- FY2010 outlook—the company updated/reaffirmed its outlook
for fiscal year 2010, according to Reuters,
saying it expected sales of $4.1 billion to $4.4 billion, and that it is “looking
to expand in the so-called process industries, such as oil and gas, chemicals,
and the production of consumer goods like toothpaste.” Toothpaste?
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