Rebecca Day

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced Wednesday the state's Division of Human Rights filed a complaint against Amazon, alleging the company discriminates against pregnant workers and employees with disabilities by denying them reasonable accommodations. Amazon has policies that force pregnant workers and those with disabilities to take an unpaid leave of absence rather than allowing them to work with a reasonable accommodation, the complaint said.

Voxx beefed up consumer tech inventory “to allow for additional lead times in procurement and shipment,” and better serve customers amid continued supply chain disruptions, said CEO Pat Lavelle Tuesday on the company’s Q4 fiscal ’22 earnings call. Securing chips in FY ’23 “will continue to be challenging,” he said.

Walmart shares hit a 52-week low Tuesday after it reported a 24.8% net-profit decline to $2.1 billion in fiscal Q1 ended April 30. Revenue grew 2.4% to $141.6 billion, below analysts' expectations. The stock closed 11.4% lower at $131.35.

Onkyo Home Entertainment’s bankruptcy filing Friday with the Osaka District Court in Japan didn't include assets bought by Premium Audio Co. and Sharp in September (see 2109090028), said Voxx International subsidiary PAC Monday, responding to what it called misleading media reports. The PAC-Sharp joint venture acquired the Onkyo and Integra brands, including all intellectual property, and took responsibility for product development, engineering, sales, marketing and distribution of Onkyo's home entertainment business, PAC said. The joint venture also assumed all manufacturing of those products, including stereo receivers, amplifiers and hi-fi components under the Onkyo and Integra brands. PAC, through its 11 Trading Co. (11TC) subsidiary, began as a distributor of the Onkyo, Integra, Pioneer and Pioneer Elite brands in July 2020. In April 2021, 11TC became the exclusive U.S. distributor of the Teac and Esoteric audio brands, and in September, PAC, through its joint venture with Sharp, acquired the Onkyo and Integra brands, and established a licensing and distribution agreement with Pioneer, it said. Sales of the branded products are all through 11TC, which grew from $13.7 million in revenue in fiscal 2021 to $59.4 million in fiscal 2022, said PAC CEO Paul Jacobs. He said demand for Onkyo and Integra products has been “very high” and expected to “intensify in the coming years.” PAC has been working with Sharp to ramp up production and has grown the business since the acquisition, he said. “We have big plans for Onkyo and the other brands sold through 11TC and as we build production and expand distribution, believe sales will more than double in the near-term,” Jacobs said: "Rumors or any statements to the contrary about the Onkyo brand are simply unfounded and misleading." During the COVID-19 supply chain shortage, Integra receivers were particularly hard hit by supply shortages, dealers told us in April (see 2204060057).

Staggered releases of popular TV series could prop up the subscriber count at Netflix, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Monday, upgrading the stock to "outperform." The analyst believes Netflix will exceed guidance for Q2 due to the staggered release date for Ozark, and it believes the same approach for Stranger Things in Q3 could also reduce churn. “Netflix is positioned to grow,” as the subscription VOD service “gradually” raises prices and rolls out an ad-supported option, Pachter said; he doesn’t believe Netflix’s share price will approach 2021 levels “for many years.” Wedbush sees recent Netflix losses as the result of “deep saturation” in the U.S. and Canada. The company’s plans to crack down on password sharing -- which Netflix estimates at 30 million households in those two markets and 100 million globally -- will bring it a “few million new customers.” But its plan to offer an advertising-supported tier “has great potential to drive significant revenue,” he said. Raising prices in mature markets would allow Netflix to drive up its average revenue per user, and its level of profitability, allowing it to reinvest profits to continue growing in Latin America and Asia-Pacific, he said.

Vizio’s “dual-revenue business model” and an “aggressive pricing strategy” implemented in Q1 on select TV models “paid off,” said CEO William Wang on an earnings call Thursday. Hardware revenue in the quarter fell 16% year on year to $382.9 million on an 11% decline in TV shipments, the company reported Thursday. Vizio was the second-leading TV brand in March in the U.S., he said.

As predicted, Snap One will institute another price hike (see 2203230053) June 6 in an “evolving pricing strategy” to address rising supply chain costs, “competitive forces” and “affordability of solutions,” said CEO John Heyman on an earnings call Thursday for Q1 ended April 1.

Product backlogs persist at Sonos “and will cost us a little more than we had previously expected,” said CEO Patrick Spence on the company’s Wednesday Q2 FY 2022 earnings call, citing increased component and logistics costs.

Nearly three years after it bought Paris-based voice technology company Snips for $37.5 million (see 1911210045), Sonos announced a proprietary voice experience for all mic-equipped Sonos speakers. CEO Patrick Spence underscored privacy in announcing the Sonos-dedicated voice feature on a Wednesday earnings call, saying voice commands are done entirely on the Sonos speaker or sound bar, with no audio or conversation transcript “sent to the cloud, stored, listened to or read by anyone.”

Supply chain disruption slammed Q1 revenue at WiSA Technologies, but the company held to full-year revenue guidance of 30%-50% growth to $8.5 million-$10 million on a Wednesday earnings call. WiSA expects sequential growth in Q2 but not year-on-year growth, said Chief Financial Officer George Oliva.