*By Bridgette Webb*
Turtle Beach is on a roll.
The headset producer unveiled a new line of gaming gear called Atlas that's specifically designed for PC gamers.
"We are doing the same thing in the PC segment that we are doing in the console headset gaming segment for many years," said Turtle Beach CEO Juergen Stark in an interview Thursday on Cheddar. "We've put a lot of effort in making sure the build quality, the audio quality and the mic quality is the best you can get."
The new headset was introduced after the company reported second-quarter results that blew away analysts' expectations. Net revenue, net income, and earnings were higher than any second quarter since the company's 2014 IPO. Turtle Beach reported $60.8 million in revenue for the quarter ー up from $19.1 million the year before.
Stark attributed Turtle Beach's success to cost cutting on one side of its balance sheet and the booming demand for headsets generated by the popularity of battle royale games Fortnite and PUBG.
As promising a year as it's been so far, Stark said international tariffs could hurt sales of the imported Turtle Beach headsets.
"It will effect retail pricing for us, and for everyone in the category if what people are threatening goes through," he said. "I'm hopeful that it doesn't happen, I don't see how increasing the prices for consumers for everything you buy that's electronic is going to help anybody."
When asked how tariffs would affect the price of gaming headsets, Stark offered a matter-of-fact outlook.
"If there is a 10 percent tariff and you are building a product in China, the retail price point is going to go up 10 percent. If it's a 25 percent tariff that's being threatened, the retailer is it going to go up 25 percent."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/turtle-beach-expands-further-into-pc-gaming).
Viacom CFO Wade Davis says the company's recent acquisition of Pluto TV gives it a competitive advantage as it vies for consumers in a saturated market."The market for video products has been segmenting for some time now," Davis told Cheddar Tuesday. "With this segmentation, consumers have become a lot more value conscious, and we think that that underscores the opportunity in what we talk about as the free price point."
Blue Hexagon, a company focused on protecting companies from cyberthreats, has raised $31 million from Benchmark Capital and Altimeter Capital, which called the startup's deep learning technology a "game changer" in cybersecurity.
Google parent company Alphabet slipped in extended trading on Monday after the FAANG stock beat Wall Street expectations on its top and bottom lines, but cost-per-click ー or the amount Google charges advertisers when an ad gets clicked ー fell 29 percent on Google properties.
Facebook has made its first acquisition in the blockchain space. The social network has quietly hired the team behind Chainspace, a small blockchain startup founded by researchers from University College London, Cheddar has learned. Chainspace was building a decentralized “smart contracts” system that could facilitate payments and other services through blockchain technology.
Chris 'Hellpockets" Fields reflects on the Red Bull Final Summoning. Hellpockets also weighs on the character changes in Dragon Ball Fighterz.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, Feb. 4, 2019.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
Millions of people around the world are getting ready for the Super Bowl on Sunday. And while the day is all fun and games, there's still a serious discussion happening about player safety. Now, two leading sports brands have teamed up to design new, state-of-the-art equipment using 3D printing. Joe DeSimone, co-founder and CEO of Carbon, stopped by Cheddar with more on how technology is making football more safe, head to toe.
Steve Case has been traveling the country in search of the next big thing, and he's eyeing Florida and Puerto Rico for the next leg of his journey. The former AOL CEO wants to find ー and invest in ー entrepreneurs outside the major coastal tech hub through his Rise of the Rest initiative. He told Cheddar Friday that the next big wave of innovation will come from the heartland, and he's putting his money where his mouth is.
Draftkings CEO Jason Robins told Cheddar that New Jersey residents alone could wager as much as $100 million on the Super Bowl, the first time sports betting will be legal there for the big game.
