No damage was sustained to Sony’s Kumamoto Technology Center in Kumamoto, Japan, from two 5.1-magnitude earthquakes that struck the region 12 hours apart Wednesday and Thursday, Sony said in a Thursday filing at the SEC. But operations at the facility that makes image sensors for digital cameras, security cameras and micro-display devices had to be halted to inspect the site’s building and manufacturing equipment, and those operations won’t resume until Friday morning, local time, Sony said. Sony is still recovering from the $1.1 billion operating income hit it took from the April 14 earthquakes in the same region (see 1605240001).

Garmin broke ground on a $200 million add-on facility at its Olathe, Kansas, campus, part of a two-phase plan to position the company for future growth. The first phase includes a 720,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution center in Olathe focused on the company’s aviation unit, Garmin said in a Friday announcement. The second phase will include renovation of Garmin’s warehouse and manufacturing space into an R&D facility, it said.

BenQ bowed a short-throw DLP 1080p projector optimized for gaming that produces a 100-inch image from five feet away, said a Thursday news release. The Colorific projector includes low input lag, fast response time, 2200 ANSI lumens brightness, a six-segment color wheel, 15000:1 contrast ratio and 1.2X zoom, said BenQ. The projector has dual HDMI inputs, including an MHL port that allows users to send content from mobile devices to a TV. Shipping is slated for early September at $1,299, it said.

Barnes & Noble’s launch of a new Galaxy Tab A Nook tablet took a back seat Wednesday to the company’s announcement Tuesday after regular U.S. markets closed that it cut ties with CEO Ron Boire, who joined the company in September. Shares closed down 11 percent to $11.91Wednesday. In the news release, Barnes & Noble said the board decided Boire, who before joining Barnes & Noble last fall held executive positions with Sears, Toys R Us and Best Buy -- after a 17-year stint overseeing Sony's U.S. consumer sales operations -- “was not a good fit for the organization.” The decision to let Boire go "was in the best interests of all parties," it said. Executive Chairman Leonard Riggio, scheduled to retire after the company’s annual meeting Sept. 14, postponed his retirement. Boire couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday. The newest addition to the Barnes & Noble tablet lineup, meanwhile, is the 7-inch Galaxy Tab A Nook, which went on sale Wednesday at company stores and online for $139. The Samsung-built Android device has a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, GPS, integrated FM tuner, expandable storage from the internal 8 GB to 200 GB via microSD card. Battery life is given as 11 hours of internet use. Existing Nook customers can upgrade to the latest Nook for $99 through a trade-in or by showing proof of purchase of any Nook device at a Barnes & Noble store. Members opting for the upgrade offer receive a free Nook cover valued at $40, it said. Nook Audiobooks will be available to Tab A buyers next month in a software update giving users access to roughly 80,000 audiobooks, said the company.

Imperial Capital raised the price target for Control4 to $11 from $8.50, while maintaining an in-line rating, in a Monday research note. Imperial analysts Jeff Kessler and Saliq Khan cited Control4’s buy of networking company Pakedge and the launch of its $500 EA-1 series controller, as differentiators having a “positive impact” on growth. Despite momentum, some investors “may be frustrated with the company’s largely hardware strategy, which has in recent quarters adversely impacted Control4’s core revenue growth rate,” Imperial said. The Pakedge buy should give Control4 access to a larger customer base and increase the frequency of product sales since Pakedge products have much shorter sale cycles, it said. Imperial is looking to Control4's newly tapped Senior Vice President-Worldwide Sales Bryce Judd to boost growth and execution, increase upselling to current customers and expand the number of active dealers, it said.

Metra Home Theater Group introduced a weatherproof TV mount that attaches to a vehicle’s trailer receiver hitch for outdoor viewing. The mount, designed to attach to a 2-inch hitch, is compatible with 32-55-inch TVs weighing up to 60 pounds, said Metra. The company will show the mount at CEDIA Expo next month in Dallas.

Pioneer Q1 operating profit increased fourfold to $3.7 million ($1 = 101 yen) despite a 12.6 percent sales decline to $943.3 million, the company said in a Friday report. Pioneer credited lower selling, general and administrative expenses for the higher operating profit, but blamed the lower sales on declines in car electronics “resulting from the negative effects” of the stronger yen and April’s Kumamoto earthquakes in Japan. Car audio sales fell across the board both in Pioneer’s aftermarket and OEM sectors, with particularly significant increases in North America, the company said. Aftermarket car navigation sales increased because of growth in China and Japan, despite a decline mainly in Europe, Pioneer said. But OEM car navigation sales decreased mainly from lower sales in China and Southeast Asia, despite higher sales in Central and South America, it said.

Sony America opened Sony Square NYC Thursday as “a showplace for the latest in Sony entertainment and technology,” the company said in a Thursday announcement. Located at Sony's Manhattan headquarters at Madison Avenue and 25th Street, the facility “offers visitors the chance to check out select new Sony technologies and products, some of which are still in the prototype stage,” Sony said. The company also plans to use the “intimate space” for consumer events, such as photography classes, exclusive movie screenings and invitation-only performances by Sony Music artists, it said. The exhibits at the facility will change periodically throughout the year, and after Labor Day will be dedicated to PlayStation-based virtual reality, it said.

Verizon named Ronan Dunne, former CEO of O2 UK, executive vice president and group president of Verizon Wireless, effective in September. For the past eight years, Dunne was CEO of O2 UK, the No. 2 U.K. wireless carrier, and a member of the executive committee of parent Telefonica SA, Verizon said in a Tuesday news release. He “will be responsible for all aspects of Verizon Wireless’ operations, including marketing operations, wireless operations, network operations, customer care and digital operations,” Verizon said. Dunne will report to John Stratton, Verizon president-operations.

Klipsch formed the nonprofit Klipsch Heritage Museum Association to preserve and study materials from the company’s audio museum in Hope, Arkansas, said the company in a Tuesday news release. The museum includes the original Klipsch factory, surrounding property and archives of company founder Paul Klipsch. The association's mission is to preserve the ideas, research, designs, documents and speakers by Klipsch and Klipsch and Associates and to host educational activities and events, it said. Jim Hunter, an audio engineer with the company since 1978, will be curator after his retirement from the company at year's end.