LATEST ADDITIONS

Both Sonic Frontiers Inc. and The Lenbrook Group of Ontario, Canada stated June 5th that they will not be proceeding with a deal announced earlier.

On June 7, CDnow, the world's top online music retailer, announced that it had acquired superSonicBOOM, an Internet custom-compilation disc business. The acquisition gives CDnow the ability to offer its customers custom discs as well as catalog product, said Jason Olim, CDnow President and CEO.

James Dunning, Jr., Chairman and CEO of The Petersen Companies, Inc., announced June 4th the completion of the acquisition of Stereophile and Stereophile Guide to Home Theater (two of this country's leading high-end audio and home theater publications), as well as HI-FI '98, The Home Theater & Specialty Audio Show.

The practice of "Transshipping"---selling a product outside one's designated territory---is widespread in the audio industry. It's commonplace for dealers to sell not only to walk-in customers, but also over the telephone or Internet to customers in other dealers' territories, usually at discounted prices. While not problematic on a small scale, the practice favors large-volume dealers over smaller ones, and is almost always a violation of a dealer's agreement with a manufacturer.