Toshiba is relaunching branded TVs in Europe, five years after stopping production in Japan, via the licensing deal it announced with Turkish CE and appliance giant Vestel at last year’s IFA show in Berlin (see 1609020024). “It’s a fresh brand approach,” Matthew Lang, managing director of Vestel U.K., told a London media briefing Thursday. “With the relaunch of Toshiba TVs in Europe, we are combining Toshiba’s engineering and design prowess with Vestel’s manufacturing capacity.” The new Toshiba-branded TVs will play “in the market space between the high-end and low-cost sectors,” where “the customer does not have much choice or many options,” said Lang. “The market is crying out for more choice in the middle ground. Vestel has been working with Toshiba for 10 years and we now have a new licensing deal and have built a strong, small tightly effective team that will attack the mid-section with great technology at affordable prices.” Lang sees the arrangement as “a win-win,” he said. The company isn't now disclosing prices. The relaunch covers all markets in Europe, with no plans yet for elsewhere, Marketing Manager Dave Flintoft told us at the briefing. “This relaunch is across Europe. The USA would be a great opportunity and we are not saying no. That may be the next step.” Toshiba representatives didn’t comment Thursday. When Toshiba pulled the plug on its North American TV business two years ago, it said it would cease TV development and sales operations and license the North American TV business to Taiwan’s Compal Electronics, the original design manufacturer with which Toshiba has had a longstanding supply relationship (see 1501290047).

Samsung introduced the Notebook 9 Pro PC with a built-in S pen in 13- and 15-inch sizes. Features include a 360-degree touch-screen display, digital canvas for writing and drawing, Windows 10 Home and fast charging capability, said the company. The notebooks have an Intel i7 processor and the 13-inch model comes with 8 GB RAM; the 15-incher with 16 GB, Samsung said. Both pack a 256 GB solid-state drive.

Dolby Cinema has expanded locations in Europe, it announced Friday, with 10 new Les Cinémas Gaumont Pathé locations in France, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The cinemas are expected to open this fall. Dolby Cinema theaters combine use of Dolby Vision high dynamic range and Dolby Atmos object-based surround audio technologies.

LeEco put a positive spin Tuesday on its decision to slash the vast majority of its U.S. workforce. It comes roughly six weeks after LeEco blamed "regulatory headwinds" for its failure in closing its $2 billion Vizio acquisition (see 1704100045). “The breadth of our business model is capital intensive, and our leadership has been working to secure the appropriate level of funding for the U.S.,” said a statement. “While we’ve made progress in growing our distribution channels, the challenges with raising new capital have made it difficult in the past few months to support all of our business’ priorities. As a result, the capital we do have will have to be highly focused resulting in a significant restructuring and streamlining of our business, operations and workforce. This will impact approximately 325 people in the U.S.” LeEco believes its vision “to remove the barriers between screens for consumers” is the correct one, “and analysts have acknowledged this,” the company said. “Because we can’t access the capital needed at this time, we will need to take a phased approach to the U.S. market. We will continue to operate in the U.S. with our existing product portfolio that puts content at the heart of the experience, and we believe that our products can compete.” LeEco remains “committed to the U.S. and supporting our existing consumers,” it said. “To further demonstrate this, last week we finalized on-shoring our customer care call center in order to enhance the customer experience for our U.S. consumers. Our goal is to continue to gain momentum. In the past few months, we have gained a large foothold in Chinese-speaking households in the U.S. by offering tailor-made products and content for this community. We believe this provides us an opportunity to build on our strengths and grow from there.”

Revived rumors of SiriusXM’s interest in acquiring Pandora sent the music-streaming company’s shares up 5.5 percent Thursday to close at $9.42, after the New York Post Wednesday reported that the Liberty Media-owned satellite broadcasting company is in “active discussions” about making a bid for Pandora. Struggling Pandora received $150 million in capital funding by private equity firm KKR earlier this month (see 1705090039), which some analysts said reduced the likelihood of a near-term sale. SiriusXM has exhibited “on-and-off interest” in Pandora, said the Post. Pandora launched its Premium on-demand service in March, and CEO Tim Westergren said on an earnings call last week about 500,000 users were participating in a Premium trial. The company announced last week it was seeking upcoming changes to its board to provide “additional expertise and leadership.” A Pandora spokeswoman told us the company doesn't comment on rumors or speculation.

Comparative sales were down 1.3 percent at Target in Q1 as revenue slipped 1.1 percent to $16 billion from $16.2 billion a year ago, it reported Wednesday. Results were “better than our expectations,” said CEO Brian Cornell, as softness at the beginning of the quarter improved toward the end of the term ended April 29. But “we’re not doing high fives,” Cornell said. The company has “a lot of work to do.” Electronics benefited in the quarter from “healthy growth” in Apple Watch and iPhone, said Chief Merchandising Officer Mark Tritton. Electronics delivered a mid-single digit comp sales increase in the quarter, the strongest in three years, he said. Target is beginning a same-day delivery test in its Tribeca store in New York, said Chief Operating Officer John Mulligan. Shoppers will choose at checkout whether to have orders delivered in a delivery window of their choice later in the day, during the trial, which will reveal potential operational challenges as the company prepares similar rollouts to other markets, he said. The retailer guided to a low-single-digit decline in comparable store sales for Q2, and still expects a low single-digit drop for the full year in a “very choppy environment,” Cornell said. He repeated Target is in an early stage of a multiyear effort toward long-term growth and profit but warned of “multiple headwinds in the current landscape.” A 0.8 percent rise in digital channel comp sales helped offset a 2.2 percent decline in stores, which accounted for 95.7 percent of revenue vs. 96.5 percent in the year-ago quarter, said the company. Net earnings were $681 million vs. $632 million. Shares closed up less than 1 percent to $55.04.

JVC’s new Everio rugged camcorders are water-, dust-, shock- and freeze-proof -- and they float, said a Tuesday news release. The company is pitching the outdoor camcorders for situations where “use of a fragile smartphone is just too risky.” The lineup uses Konica Minolta HD lenses with a 40x optical zoom and 60x dynamic zoom. Features include time counters for recording and playback, self-check that repeats recording and playback at set intervals, slow-motion playback, time-lapse recording and zoom position memory, said JVC. The top-line GZ-R550B ($499) has 32 GB memory, and the $399 GZ-R440 models ($399) offer 4 GB memory, it said.

A $200 million award from Apple will support Corning’s R&D, capital equipment needs and glass processing at the company’s Harrodsburg, Kentucky, manufacturing plant, Apple said in a Friday announcement. The companies’ partnership began 10 years ago with development of Corning’s Gorilla Glass for the original iPhone, Apple said. The contribution is the first to come from Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund, created to support innovation among American producers.

Redbox added 300 rental kiosks in Q1 as part of a goal to add 1,500 net kiosks this year, it said in an announcement. That will bring the total number of Redbox kiosks to some 41,500 nationwide, with more planned for 2018, it said. "Renting discs remains an important consumer offering for families on a budget, or any consumer who wants a better value for new release content,” said CEO Galen Smith.

Control4 announced the first post-acquisition Triad speakers Wednesday. The Garden Array outdoor speakers include the GA4 satellite speakers and the GA10 subwoofer, Paul Williams, vice president-product management, briefed us. The GA4’s speakers’ incorporate Triad’s 4.5-inch ultra-broad dispersion drivers, said to spray 150-degree sound vs. 60-degree dispersion ratings for many competing outdoor speakers. The wider dispersion improves overall coverage and reduces the chance for “hot spots” and “dead zones” often found in outdoor audio installations, Williams said. Consumers can have fewer speakers to cover a yard and don’t have to “crank up” music to a level that disturbs neighbors, he said. Suggested retail prices are $300 for the GA4s and $1,000 each for the GA10 subwoofer. Control4 bought Triad earlier this year for $9.6 million (see 1702280028).