Sidney Harman, 92, audio industry pioneer, Harman Kardon founder and former CEO of the Harman International empire, died Tuesday in Washington of complications from acute myeloid leukemia, according to a statement issued by his family. Harman, who was active in Newsweek operations until his death and was founder and chairman of the Academy for Polymathic Study at the University of Southern California, learned of his illness a month ago, the family said.

CEA and several leading CE makers on Wednesday announced the launch of an industry-led electronics recycling initiative that has a goal of recycling one billion pounds of e-waste annually by 2016. The target includes the devices that will be recycled in the 25 states that have collection mandates, Walter Alcorn, CEA vice president of environmental affairs, told us.

Bang and Olufsen (B&O) is doing a “strategic review” and trying to instill a “stronger sense of urgency and alertness” in the company, CEO Tue Mantoni said Wednesday on a conference call. The review, which follows the company’s finding “performance in key growth markets to be unsatisfactory,” will be finished by midyear, he said. Sales and profit of B&O stores also were “under our desired level,” Mantoni said. He was named CEO six weeks ago, replacing Kalle Hvidt Nielsen.

LAS VEGAS - Broadcasters had mixed responses to a speech in which FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski stressed what he called the importance of freeing up spectrum for mobile broadband through voluntary incentive auctions, they said in interviews Tuesday at the NAB Show. “We respect the position that there is a need for spectrum, but there is a lot of information that is not fully developed,” said Paul Karpowicz, president of Meredith’s Local Media Group and a member of the NAB executive committee. Genachowski emphasized a need for cooperation and attacked some arguments against the commission’s auction plans.

Legislation to authorize voluntary incentive auctions could include provisions to spur investment by broadcasters, Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Tuesday at a House Communications Subcommittee spectrum hearing. Most members appeared to support incentive auctions. But Walden and others said they are still considering how best to use the 700 MHz D-block to build a national public safety network.

Wal-Mart is cutting floor space for CE products to make room for categories being expanded or returned to the merchandise mix as it reverses course on a product streamlining strategy launched two years ago, Rosalind Brewer, the company’s eastern division president, said Tuesday at the ISI Retail Summit in Atlanta, which was webcast.

Consumer confusion over differentiating the label of a new top-tier, “most efficient” Energy Star brand is of “particular concern and interest,” CEA said in comments. “There remain mixed feelings among Energy Star program partners about the potential benefits or drawbacks of a most efficient program."

D&M Holdings has begun an initiative to design and develop products “from the outside in,” Bob Weissburg, president of sales and marketing, told Consumer Electronics Daily at a news conference in Weehawken, N.J., Tuesday to introduce 2011 Denon and Boston Acoustics products. “Listening to the customer” will be a key driver of the initiative, which includes dealers and end users, as the company moves away from a Japan-based engineering-driven strategy to a more localized approach based on individual markets, he said.

Cisco is dropping Flip camcorders, partially dismantling a consumer business built over the past three years, the company said. The decision to shut down Flip, cut 550 jobs and put the company’s Umi videoconferencing set-top box into the TelePresence corporate division came amid challenges to Cisco’s core business and criticism from investors that the company was spreading itself thin.

Sharp’s move to cut production at its 8th- and 10th-generation LCD panel plants stems from a tight supply of raw materials and a slowdown in Japanese market, analysts said. Sharp is believed to have reduced utilization at the 8G facility to 65 to 70 percent of capacity from around 80 percent, Avian Securities analyst Andrew Abrams said. The plants are expected to resume full production by early May and the short-term manufacturing reduction isn’t affecting product availability in the U.S., a Sharp spokesman said.