Strategy in TECH...
On Tuesday, Bose Corporation – a privately held manufacturer and marketer of a variety of predominantly audio products like headphones, speakers, soundbars and car audio – announced it has acquired McIntosh Group, a high-end manufacturer of electronics under the McIntosh brand and speakers/phono cartridges under the Sonus faber brand. Terms of the deal were not revealed and a buzz has descended around the industry as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.
Highlander Partners, L.P., a Dallas-based private equity company, announced today that it has acquired McIntosh Group, a manufacturing and distribution company that offers several high-performance, high-end audio brands such as McIntosh, Sonus Faber, and Sumiko. It also operates under Fine Sounds U.K. and Fine Sounds Benelux.
Of all the success stories of the ‘70s high end audio boom, none was more unlikely than that of Audio Research Corporation (ARC). Based in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, historically a fly-over region for hi-fi, led by a balding, bearlike founder, and offering electronics based around vacuum tubes – considered obsolete for a decade – ARC somehow survived and thrived.
We’ve recently learned about a program at McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., in which the company approached select prominent individuals, such as famous musicians or other celebrities, and provided them with McIntosh products directly, without the involvement of its dealers. The program, according to sources, was launched by Linda Passaro, a former Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing for McIntosh when it was part of D&M Holdings. Passaro was terminated in November 2011 by President Charlie Randall, but the program apparently remained in force for some time.
Raleigh, NC-based Cary Audio announced this week that they will allow their high-end specialty electronics line to be sold online. At first blush, this looks like yet another specialty brand disrupting their bricks-and-mortar dealer base in favor of powerful online dealers – much like our recent story on McIntosh Labs doing just that. But this time, Cary took a completely different approach – one that takes their local dealers along with them.
We have learned through multiple sources that McIntosh Labs, the high-end American brand that was thrust into the limelight recently when it came to light that the company was authorizing internet sales of its specialty brand, has experienced a bit of a management shake-up. Specifically, two top executives have resigned their positions at the company in just the last few days.
Last week, we broke the news on Strata-gee.com that McIntosh Laboratories, historically a strong supporter of specialty A/V dealers, had decided to open up sales through the Internet. This decision hit the existing, largely offline, McIntosh specialty dealers hard…many reaching out to us to express their frustration.
The same day our story was posted, McIntosh electronically distributed a letter to dealers from Dan Wakefield, VP of North American Sales for McIntosh, explaining the company’s decision.
Multiple sources have told us that McIntosh Laboratory, Inc., a brand once deeply committed to the specialty electronics retail channel, has notified dealers by phone that for the first time in its history the company will allow Internet retailers to sell the brand. The list of online dealers that will be authorized to sell McIntosh products includes Amazon.com. The news has sent a shock around their dealer base and we have heard from several very loyal, long-time McIntosh dealers…who are very, very angry.
On Tuesday last week, much like any other day, after arriving at my office I powered up my computer and began wading through the usual 100-150 emails that greet me every morning. Some of these are client-related emails, some are personal, but most are press releases or announcements. On that day, however, one in particular caught my attention – it was from Richard Glikes of Azione and it included a link to a video which was…remarkable.
This press release caught my attention not because it was from Azione, that is an common occurrence. Rather it caught my attention because it was from Azione on a topic that I am not used to dealer buying groups concerning themselves with – sales representative companies.
News emerged today that Italian holding company Fine Sounds SpA has acquired 100% of McIntosh Laboratory, the Binghamton, NY-based high-end brand most recently owned by D&M Holdings. The announcement – which came from Fine Sounds, contained only a short statement from Charles Randall, President of McIntosh, with no other comments attributed to D&M Holdings or its parent Bain Capital.
Fine Sounds, backed by private equity company Quadrivio – also based in Milan, Italy – is the owner and distributor of other high-end brands such as Sonus Faber, Audio Research Corporation, Wadia Digital, and Sumiko. According to the company, their strategy is to “offer products that are the best in the world in their category.
[Read more…] about D&M Sells McIntosh Labs to Italian High-End Marketer Backed by Private Equity
