Integrated Systems Events brings its Smart Building Conference to London, Tuesday 15 October.

A joint venture of the company’s not-for-profit association owners, CEDIA and InfoComm International, the Conference drew a sell-out attendance of more than 150 professional delegates when held for the first time in Amsterdam at ISE 2013.

The agenda places the AV industry at the heart of the UK’s intelligent building debate.

“After an extensive period of industry consultation, we are convinced that smart buildings represent a fantastic opportunity for the professional AV and electronic systems integration industry,” says Mike Blackman, Managing Director, Integrated Systems Events. Read more...

Systemax Q2 2013 results remains in the red despite turnaround efforts-- company revenues fall by -5.1% Y-o-Y to $805.8 million and operating losses reach $6.1m, up from $2.3m in Q2 2012. 

Back in November 2012 the Misco owner announced an exit from the PC making business, moved its pan-European operations to "a shared services centre in E. Europe" and dropped the CompUSA and Circuit City brands. 

Systemax sees 1.3% Y-o-Y growth in sales to business customers reaching $527.6m, but consumer unit turnover drops by -15% Y-o-Y to $278.2m. Inter-company corporate trade reaches $1.4m, while technology kit sales drop by -8% Y-o-Y to $685.5m. 

The only growth segment for the company is Industrial Products, with sales reaching $118.6m with 15.3% Y-o-Y growth.  Read more...

In a twist surprising to absolutely no one the PC market continues to decline in W. Europe-- according to Gartner Q2 2013 PC shipments total 10.9 million units with -19.8% Y-o-Y decline.

"The market exit of the netbook PC, and vendors reducing their inventory to get the new Intel chips and Windows 8.1 have fueled the decline in W. Europe," the analyst remarks.

One has to keep in mind Gartner does not count tablets (arguably the IT industry's one growth market) in its PC numbers.

Thus all PC segments see Y-o-Y declines in W. Europe-- mobile PCs by -23.9% and desktops by -12.2%. Consumer segment shipments are down by -25.8%, while the professional market sees a -13.5% decline.

Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica agrees to pay €8.1 billion in cash and stock for German KPN subsidiary E-Plus, amidst rumblings of a European telco industry heading towards consolidation. 

E-Plus has 23.9 million customers and 2012 revenues worth €3.4bn. Telefónica plans to combine it with O2 Germany, a move reducing the amount of network players in Germany from 4 to 3 and creating a large rival to T-Mobile Germany and Vodafone. 

The acquisition still requires approval from EU antitrust officials-- making it a litmus test for the European willingness to okay deals reducing the number of players in a given country.  Read more...