I have been told there is a massive layoff? Our RSM, TSM, and many others let go...

You are never going to hear anything official being a private company. However, with Bob Madonna returning to the helm you knew there was going to be some restructuring. Many reorg moves and yes, unfortunately layoffs. A lot of pressure on Savant this year to compete in a very crowded landscape.

I heard near half of the staff? is that even possible?

When lots of people get laid off its usually one of two things...

#1. Things are not going well and the doors will close soon.

#2. Things are not going well so a major shake up is happening in an attempt to steer the ship back on course.

So far every savant dealer i talk to says that they love the product. I haven't seen any "this stuff sucks" posts at any of the private or public forums. What am i missing?

Likely, their push to get into the consumer market and the pull away from commercial and CI focus has them needing to shake things up.

William Lynch was a Huge mistake. Never understood how Bob Madonna figured he could push Savant into the future when hey couldnt figure out an eReader when he was the CEO of Barns and Noble

Has any AV related company laid off over half its staff and lasted more than a year? I can't think of any.

So the $500 DIY remote was a bad idea? Who would have seen that coming? Oh. Everyone apparently except for Savant? I see.

We received an email 10 days ago that our region was being re-organized. The only thing that changed for us is our inside sales person, however our old inside sales person is still contacting us. Haven't heard anything since.

Same here - undergoing reorg, and I know a couple of people who are not with the company anymore. These are good, quality people. I doubt and don't expect Savant to make any type of announcement; however, I am sure it is part of Bob Madonna's plan to bring the company to another level. I think they lost their identify for awhile when he left, so this could all be part of a complicated and several phase plan from the inside out.

I have been a Savant dealer for about 1.5 years and think the product is great. However, I do feel like offering RTI and URC is completely necessary for me to reach my entire market.

Savants head is in the wrong spot...that consumer remote was a horrible horrible move. consumers only know one universal remote company and thats harmony.

if savant and harmony are on the wall together and both similarly priced (harmony is cheaper) then people are going to reach for the harmony. Savant would need a huge nationwide marketing budget to market this remote.

Vince- C4 covers the high end all the way down to the $599 price point..no need to keep different sku's

F' Savant. Can't wait for them to be gone as we predicted this. Change this, change that, charge for this, free for that. GUI's change inexplicability when not meaning to; every time we approached our Savant person, it would be someone new. Our eventual straw was parts that could not be delivered from the factory but could be sourced a few months out. #ChokeonitSavant

I was just invited to a dealer summit in Jan. so things can't be too bad. I think simply having a webinar to discuss the new direction of the company would be a hell of a lot cheaper than hosting a $500k+ summit.

I do agree with the wild swings of the company. But at least that's better than not hearing anything from RTI for years (literally). It does take a lot of s#$t to get a system working properly but once it's done, it simply works. It's important to stay inside the box using the same equipment/profiles otherwise you spend A LOT of time chasing you tail...

The company structure had gotten unnecessarily complex and they had lost sight of what they were. The ousted CEO was far too enamored with the consumer play. I think that there will be renewed focus on innovating for the CI channel.

Can't agree enough!

IRKillers points absolutely resonate as well.

I wouldn't blame it on the "ousted CEO." He was hired for the specific purpose of doing what he did. Madonna was still chairman and involved every step of the way, and the investors (KKR) were very much behind it.

So ... maybe it didn't work (maybe it did; who knows?), but they gave it a shot and we are all learning from it, which is a good thing.