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Audio manufacturers who know what's good for them avoid stepping on the toes of Bose">http://www.bose.com/">Bose, Inc. The Framingham, Massachusetts–based corporation is renowned for it ruthless marketing and zealous protection of its patents.

Dave McCurdy, president of the Electronic">http://www.eia.org/">Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), announced last week that Dr. Sidney Harman, executive chairman of Harman">http://www.harman.com">Harman International Industries, has been selected to receive EIA's prestigious Medal of Honor for 2002.

Harman International announced July 1 that it will close its Madrigal facility in Middletown, CT on August 30 as it continues to consolidate and reorganize its high-end brands under the Harman">http://www.harmanspecialtygroup.com/">Harman Specialty Group banner. Although the name Madrigal was itself not used as a brand on audio products, it had been the umbrella under which Harman had produced and distributed its Mark Levinson, Revel, Audio Access, and (recently">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11612/">recently discontinued) Proceed brands.

Harmonia Mundi, one of the world's leading independent classical music labels, has finally taken the downloading plunge. In an agreement with the Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA), the world's largest distributor of digital music content, announced on January 24 at the annual music conference of the Marche International De l'Edition Musicale (MIDEM) in Cannes, Harmonia Mundi will make available its entire catalogue of early music and contemporary recordings to hundreds of digital music outlets around the world. IODA will also handle digital distribution of HM's catalogue within France, where Harmonia Mundi is headquartered. A separate agreement with Apple's iTunes makes all Harmonia Mundi titles available on that site as well. Also available are the classical, world, and jazz titles from the more than 30 independent labels that Harmonia Mundi distributes in many parts of the world.

I was shocked when I learned that my dear friend Harry Pearson had passed away, on November 4 . . .

The Harvey acquisition of MyerEmco announced in Mayhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/051407harvey/">May; has been called off. The merger—which was supposed to have closed by June 7, later extended to the end of July, and then pushed back to August 10—called for Harvey to pay $10 million in cash and assume MyerEmco's debt.

Last August, we reportedhttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10515/">reported; that brick-and-mortar retailer Tweeter Home Entertainment Group had aligned itself with online retailer Cyberian Outpost to leverage each company's respective strengths, both on- and offline. The trend continues as, last week, brick-and-mortar retailer Harvey">http://www.harveyonline.com">Harvey Electronics announced that it has reached an "agreement in principle" with CoolAudio.comhttp://www.coolaudio.com">CoolAudio.com; (see previous">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10479/">previous story) to merge the two companies through an exchange of common stock.