Sources say Pro Philips Pronto will re-emerge within 60 days, with “the same name, new owners,” and controllers announced at CEDIA will ship on time.
The buzz in Europe is that Philips Pronto is well on its way to a new life with “the same name, new owners,” sources tell CE Pro in confidence.
The news comes more than a week after Philips announced it would close its remote-control and home automation division, rather than sell the assets.
Philips had claimed that “no suitable partner was found for the acquisition of these [Pronto] activities,” even though major U.S. vendors told CE Pro that Philips never approached them about a potential acquisition.
It appears, however, that a partner has indeed been found.
CE Pro has obtained a letter, dated 2 November, from a major Philips Pronto distributor in Europe, telling dealers (translated), “As you can see, the future of Pronto is already on its way with new players. For you, for us, no worries, nothing changes.”
The distributor claims that the new Pronto Edit Pro 3 (PEP3) programming platform is still scheduled to ship this month, and that the Philips TSW9500 in-wall touchscreen will be delivered in December, as originally planned.
Furthermore, a new central controller (the Pronto CRX?) is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 2011, according to the distributor.
Reached today via email, another European source familiar with the Pronto business tells CE Pro, “There is a deal in process” and Philips will make an official announcement within 60 days. “Dealers and end users will not see the transition to new ownership.”
The comments affirm what CE Pro learned last week from a U.S. manufacturer that had inquired about purchasing some Pronto assets from Philips. The manufacturer shared with CE Pro some correspondence that indicated Philips was pursuing other partnership opportunities.
Meanwhile, a CE Pro reader in Europe tells us, “I did contact Pronto. None of the employees have been dismissed as of today.”
So Why the Announcement of Pronto’s Closure?
Why did Philips announce in the first place that it was closing its Belgium-based Pronto business and that it could not find a buyer, even though U.S. manufacturers told us Philips never even approached them?
We have heard that Belgian and/or EU regulations prohibited Philips from selling its assets to a company that would send manufacturing overseas. We know for sure that Philips had attempted to move its manufacturing to Asia, but was unable to do so.
Our distributor source in Europe points to the “Renault law” — named after the sudden announcement of the closure of the Renault plant in Vilvoorde in 1997 — which requires that companies with more than 50 employees make a public announcement prior to business closure or impending layoffs, allowing time for employees to respond.
According to the International Labor Organization:
Further to the Renault case (related to the sudden announcement of the closure of the Renault plant in Vilvoorde in 1997), some changes to the procedure for collective dismissals were introduced by the promotion of Employment Act of 13 February 1998 clarifying the obligation of employers to consult with workers’ representatives and creating an obligation on employers to analyse and formally respond to any proposals from workers’ representatives. In addition, sanctions for non-compliance are strengthened to include the reimbursement of any subsidies paid by the federal Government to the employer to create jobs.
So Philips dealers and distributors are optimistic that the Pronto will rise again.
Meanwhile, competitors are banking on the uncertainty. For its part, URC is offering training for Philips Pronto dealers, helping them to convert them to URC’s CCP programming platform. Training begins this week.
UPDATE
Philips posted this notice to Pronto dealers today, indicating that PEP3 programming software will be released this month, and the new TSW9500 in-wall touchscreen will be distributed on a “best-effort basis.” In the U.S., call center support services will be offered at least through 2011.
Dear Pronto Dealer,
This letter is intended to clarify the consequences of Philips’ decision to close our Pronto business unit in relation to support, warranty, product and software availability.
Although Philips will stop selling Pronto products, we will continue to offer product service and support for the Pronto products. The intent of Philips is to make sure all warranty and service obligations will be honored by Philips.
For the United States, Philips will continue to offer call center support services (888-773-7384) until at least the duration of 2011, and the Pronto repair center will remain operational throughout that time.
Outside the USA, all warranty obligations will continue to be honored by the present Pronto distributors. Philips will ensure that a sufficient stock of spare parts will remain available to service product repairs.
Regarding products and software, all current Pronto products are still available for purchase by Pronto distributors throughout the month of November. Dealers are advised to order any additional products from their distributor immediately to secure their required product quantities.
The recently announced ProntoEdit Professional3 (PEP3) will be released as scheduled this month. The TSW9500 product will be distributed on a best-effort basis, depending on the received orders and availability of components and resources to manufacture the unit. It is also Philips’ intent to put forth a best effort to make firmware for all TSU and RFX devices available to be fully compatible with PEP3.
We hope to have informed you sufficiently and would like to thank you for the loyalty you have shown to the Philips Pronto products.
Sincerely,
The ProntoTeam
By Julie Jacobson
Custom Installation Services, LLC – We specialize in fixing the $99 TV install by our “competitors”!
