They can't all be Best Buy (NYSE:BBY). Yesterday, consumer electronics chain Tweeter (NASDAQ:TWTR) announced that its CEO would be stepping down. In a peculiar move, he will actually be leaving the helm to help run Tivoli Audio, a home electronics maker in which Tweeter has a 25% stake. So it's a lot like your son moving out of the house and into your basement.
Tivoli is actually a pretty interesting company producing stylish stereo equipment. It recently teamed up with Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI) to roll out the popular service's first table radio.
As for Tweeter, with its stock trading at a quarter of where it was three years ago, perhaps it was time for a change. The company had carved out a cozy living, acquiring independent consumer-electronics operators that flew under the radar of the much larger Best Buy and Circuit City (NYSE:CC) superstores, but the financials haven't quite panned out. Yes, that last point was a pun for you audiophiles tuning in. And look, there's another one.
Investors need to make the appropriate distinctions. Just because Tweeter sells iPods, that doesn't make it Apple Computer (NASDAQ:AAPL). It moves a good deal of Delphi satellite receivers, but it still isn't XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:XMSR). In fact, Tweeter's sales fell in fiscal 2003 and came in essentially flat in 2004, despite its aggressive acquisition strategy.
I've been keeping an eye on Tweeter since it acquired Sound Advice, a South Florida institution, and so far I've been unimpressed with what the company has been able to accomplish financially. The market has been feeling the same way. Yet I'll keep watching -- or, at the very least, listening -- to see if a new CEO at a time when the economy is improving may mean good times for the same retailers that have struggled to move pricey plasma televisions and high-end home theater equipment.
I'm already pining away for when that day arrives. Oh, the headlines one could write. After all, Tweeter rhymes with neater, sweeter, and market-beater. Let's hope the company finds a way to punch up the volume. If so, with so much room to run, be grateful for the opportunity because, thankfully, they can't all be Best Buy.
Some more thoughts on the consumer electronics landscape:
- Tweeter has been feeling the pressure for more than a year now.
- Seth Jayson thinks that Circuit City shouldn't look a gift offer in the mouth.
- Yes, Ultimate Electronics is hoping to get things reorganized.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz had a different idea of home theater. It's called watching his two sons argue. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
