Strategy in TECH...
In a filing with Japan’s JASDAQ stock exchange, Onkyo revealed this week that at the end of June, major investor Gibson Brands became the largest shareholder for the first time since its relationship with the Osaka-based manufacturer of higher-quality electronics began in 2012. This small announcement portends a potentially significant change in the relationship between the two entities.
Gibson Brands announced Tuesday that it has hired Lee Cheng as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO) and executive vice president. This appointment takes effect immediately and follows a recent additional credit downgrade by the Moody’s Investor Service.
Just two weeks after we told you about Moody’s Investors Service downgrading Gibson Brands credit to junk status, the company has put two of their properties up for sale in an apparent effort to raise some much-needed cash. According to local reports, both properties contain warehouses and are located in redevelopment areas in downtown Nashville.
The music industry is positively buzzing about the announcement late last week by Moody’s Investors Service that, for the second time in three months, it has downgraded the credit rating of Nashville, Tennessee-based Gibson Brands. Gibson (formerly Gibson Guitars) is a tightly held private company that launched an aggressive diversification strategy a few years ago, focusing on acquiring several consumer electronics brands such as Onkyo Corp. and Teac, Corp. and recently Philips.
Gibson Brands (née Gibson Guitars) announced last week that it has opened a showroom in Tokyo, Japan that it calls a “pioneering music lifestyle concept showroom.” Although Gibson Brands owns many different brands, this particular showroom focuses on just three of them: Gibson Guitars, TEAC and Onkyo.
In a brief announcement today, Cabasse – a French loudspeaker manufacturer with a small niche following here in the U.S. – announced that it has appointed electronics brand Integra as its “exclusive” distributor for the United States. This new relationship takes effect retroactively to March 1, 2014.
Gibson Brands took advantage of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to make a bit of a show of their own to celebrate 120 years in business. The company, which serves up 23 different brands of musical instruments, professional audio products and, more recently, consumer electronics products, chose a unique way to mark the occasion by going “Back to the Future.”
2013 ends today and it is fun to look back on the top stories of the last year. Many times, this yields surprises as stories from early in the year are easy to forget. In this post, we are revealing the top Strata-gee.com stories from 2013 based on which stories generated the most page views…therefore, those stories that you – the reader – found most interesting.
Gibson Brands announced this week that it it has signed a letter of intent with Roland Corp. and Cakewalk, Inc. to acquire Cakewalk Inc., a music software company, for an undisclosed amount. The deal is pursuant to the successful negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement.
And with acquisition, Gibson says it will launch a new brand, Tascam Professional Software to sell the Cakewalk product line. See more on this acquisition below… [Read more…] about Gibson Brands Strikes Again – Seeks to Acquire Cakewalk from Roland
Gibson Guitar announced on Tuesday that – in a bid to better reflect its growing family of products outside of the guitar category – it will be changing its corporate name from Gibson Guitar Corp. to Gibson Brands. While the move looks logical, there will likely be many who will bemoan the fact that the new name loses its ability to honor the company’s stringed-instrument heritage and still-important namesake product.
