Latest news with #PatrickSpence
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Sonos Confirms Tariff-Driven Price Hikes Are Coming Later This Year
If you've been eyeing a Sonos speaker, now might be a good time to buy. In its latest earnings report, the company has announced plans to raise prices across its product range later this year. The price hikes, as Bloomberg reports, are in response to incoming reciprocal tariffs on Vietnam and Malaysia. These countries manufacture most US-bound Sonos products, and they were hit with 20% and 19% tariffs, respectively, last week. Sonos also relies on China for a few accessories, such as speaker stands and Sonance co-branded products, but they "are a very small part of our total business," the company says in its earnings report. The exact names of impacted products or the extent of the hike are yet to be revealed. Sonos products are already priced at a premium, and the planned hikes might just push them further up the high-end bracket. "I think the best way to think about what we're trying to do here strategically is to craft a pricing plan that supports our goal of optimizing growth profit dollars," CEO Tom Conrad said, while responding to an analyst's question. Notably, the company hasn't released a product since the Arc Ultra soundbar in October, much thanks to the mobile app disaster it had last year. An app update had caused significant problems with features like adding songs to a queue, volume sliders, sleep timers, alarms, Wi-Fi connectivity, and more. Former CEO Patrick Spence initially believed reviving the old app would sort the issue, but soon realized that it "would make the problems worse, not better." The prolonged issue forced him to step down from his position in January and continue as an advisor until June 30. Sonos initially named board member Conrad as interim CEO before giving him the permanent role last month. Meanwhile, President Trump, in his push to bring manufacturing back to the US, has threatened to impose a 100% tariff on foreign chips and semiconductors. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
07-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sonos is raising prices this year to make up for tariff expenses
Sonos plans to raise prices across its products later this year in order to minimize the impact of tariffs on its earnings, the company has revealed alongside its financial results for the third quarter of 2025. It hasn't listed the products and their new prices yet, but it said that it's evaluating any changes it might need to its promotional strategies and that it has flexibility to move production between Vietnam and Malaysia as needed. To note, the Trump administration had imposed a 20 percent tariff on imports from Vietnam and a 19 percent tariff on imports from Malaysia. Sonos also said that it will invest on diversifying its geographic footprint and expanding its presence in markets that represent only a small share of its revenue today to drive growth. The company took steps to diversify its supply chain last year, which led to its manufacturing facilities in the two aforementioned countries. It now only relies on Chinese plans for products bound to the US for a limited number of accessories, such as speaker stands. Still, for the third quarter of 2025, tariffs reduced Sonos' gross margin for the third quarter by $2.1 million and its cash flow by $3.5 million. In the fourth quarter of the year, which covers the holiday shopping season, Sonos expects tariffs to reduce its gross margin by $5 million and to remove between $8 to $10 billion from its cash flow. Overall, Sonos posted a revenue of $344.8 million in the third quarter, which is almost $100 million larger than its revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024. It's not a secret that 2024 was a tough year for the company. It rolled out a major update that broke its app, which led to the delay of product releases as it worked to fix the issue. Former Sonos CEO Patrick Spence even stepped down in the beginning of 2025 and was replaced by ex-Snap executive Tom Conrad.
Gizmodo
07-08-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
A Sonos Price Hike Is About to Make a Bad Situation Even Worse
As a company, there are lots of things you can do when people are upset with your product. You could offer concessions (discounts in an effort to drive demand), swap your CEO (that's a statement and a vibe shift), or you could pledge to do better and actually fix issues making people upset (imagine that!). One thing I would not recommend doing when times are tough, however, is raising prices, but Sonos seems to have been forced into this exact scenario. According to Sonos' newish CEO, Tom Conrad, tariffs for the Trump administration are—as they are for many companies—creeping in, and naturally, that's going to result in higher prices for its already expensive audio gear. Per Bloomberg, Conrad said in the latest quarterly earnings report that 'it has become clear that we'll need to raise prices on certain products later this year.' Which products? We don't know for sure, but that's not great considering how things have been going for Sonos lately. First, there was an app disaster that actually ended up delaying product launches in 2024 and led to Sonos swapping CEOs from Patrick Spence to Conrad. As if that wasn't bad enough, this week Sonos also admitted that a 'very low' number of speakers were overheating. By overheating, I mean they were getting so hot that USB-C ports melted. I'm no expert, but I'm going to go ahead and say that it looks like a bit of a fire hazard. There's also the fact, as I mentioned, that Sonos-branded products are also already fairly expensive to begin with. Its Ace headphones, for example, are $400, which is still cheaper than AirPods Max but more than competitors like Nothing and its Headphone 1, which sells for $300. Also, you need a Sonos soundbar to get the most out of those headphones and its TV audio swap feature. Similarly, Sonos' Move 2 speakers—a portable Bluetooth speaker—cost $450, which eclipses even the premium of Bose's newest SoundLink Plus. What wiggle room Sonos has for those products is unclear, but it seems to me that raising prices on those gadgets might be a risky maneuver. Sonos, for its part, seems to recognize that, and according to Bloomberg, Conrad says that price hikes will vary across different categories. Listen, I don't mean to single Sonos out here because tariffs are having wide-reaching effects across lots of different categories, tech and non-tech alike, but I'd be lying if I said this squeeze doesn't feel particularly ill-timed. One thing is for sure: if prices balloon further, Sonos will put its brand loyalty to the test in a way it's never done before.
Engadget
07-08-2025
- Business
- Engadget
Sonos is raising prices this year to make up for tariff expenses
Sonos plans to raise prices across its products later this year in order to minimize the impact of tariffs on its earnings, the company has revealed alongside its financial results [PDF] for the third quarter of 2025. It hasn't listed the products and their new prices yet, but it said that it's evaluating any changes it might need to its promotional strategies and that it has flexibility to move production between Vietnam and Malaysia as needed. To note, the Trump administration had imposed a 20 percent tariff on imports from Vietnam and a 19 percent tariff on imports from Malaysia. Sonos also said that it will invest on diversifying its geographic footprint and expanding its presence in markets that represent only a small share of its revenue today to drive growth. The company took steps to diversify its supply chain last year, which led to its manufacturing facilities in the two aforementioned countries. It now only relies on Chinese plans for products bound to the US for a limited number of accessories, such as speaker stands. Still, for the third quarter of 2025, tariffs reduced Sonos' gross margin for the third quarter by $2.1 million and its cash flow by $3.5 million. In the fourth quarter of the year, which covers the holiday shopping season, Sonos expects tariffs to reduce its gross margin by $5 million and to remove between $8 to $10 billion from its cash flow. Overall, Sonos posted a revenue of $344.8 million in the third quarter, which is almost $100 million larger than its revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024. It's not a secret that 2024 was a tough year for the company. It rolled out a major update that broke its app, which led to the delay of product releases as it worked to fix the issue. Former Sonos CEO Patrick Spence even stepped down in the beginning of 2025 and was replaced by ex-Snap executive Tom Conrad.
Tom's Guide
05-08-2025
- Tom's Guide
Sonos confirms reports of Roam speakers overheating and catching fire
Sonos can't seem to catch a break. In the last few days, a number of first-gen Sonos Roam owners have reported the Bluetooth speakers are overheating and, in some cases, partially melting or setting on fire. The company acknowledged the problem in a statement to Bloomberg while saying that there are a "very low" number of complaints that the company has "closely tracked." The company is not issuing a recall at this time. The recent Reddit posts showed photos of the Roam USB-C charging port partially melted and charred. There are some older posts from a few months ago reporting similar problems. Some Redditors claimed that Sonos replaced their speakers which had similar problems. This may be a known problem. A search on the official Sonos Community forums reveals a number of posts concerning melted, burned or smoking charging ports and cables from up to a year ago. Other indicate overheating in that area. From what we can tell the Sonos Roam 2, released last year, does not seem to have this charging problem. A spokesperson went on to say that environmental conditions may play a role but it wasn't elaborated on. Additionally, they said that the company has taken "several proactive steps" to prevent the issue from occurring via software updates and hardware improvements. What those steps entailed was not elaborated on. Tom's Guide has reached out to Sonos for clarification on the conditions that could cause the issue and how it is "reducing the likelihood" of it happening. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. It all comes after a period of relative quiet for the beleaguered audio company which couldn't stop stepping on rakes in 2024, thanks to the release of a busted version of the Sonos app that outraged customers and eventually cost former-CEO Patrick Spence his job and delayed or halted a number of projects at the company. Sonos only recently named interim CEO Tom Conrad as the official new head of Sonos in July. Tom's Guide has reached out to Sonos for more information on the Roam speakers and how it is addressing the problem. Meanwhile, the Sonos Move 2 is excellent, and as far as we're aware doesn't suffer from overheating. It is twice as expensive though. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
