• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Strata-gee
  • Contact Us
  • Free Newsletter
  • Sponsor Strata-gee
  • Privacy Policy
  • Latest Posts
  • Strategy
  • Technology
  • Products
  • People
  • Statistics
  • Financial
  • Legal
  • Economic Data
  • Shows & Events

Strata-gee.com

Strategy in TECH...

What Savant Can Do
You are here: Home / News / After Year-Long Search, B&O Finds a Buyer…But Only One

After Year-Long Search, B&O Finds a Buyer…But Only One

March 23, 2016 by Ted Leave a Comment

Investors Who Bid Up Stock on News of a Buyer, May Be Sorry

B&O Logo

Bang & Olufsen A/S, the well-known Danish premium technology brand that balances high performance with high design, has spent a year searching for a prospective buyer. The good news is that they were successful. The bad news is that they were only a little successful…they found exactly one potentially interested party. And as any businessperson can tell you, that there is only one bidder doesn’t bode well for sparking a bidding war to drive up the deal to ever more profitable levels.

See the problematic situation B&O has gotten themselves into…



After five years of lackluster performance, B&O’s board of directors decided it was time to search for a potential buyer, suggesting that with a new owner the management could focus on turning the company around. Ultimately, the only interested party they uncovered has turned out to be the owner of its Chinese distributor, billionaire Qi Jianhong.

Savant

When a public statement of interest emerged from Jianhong this week, B&O stock jumped as excited investors hoped a deal was in the offing. But Jianhong did not actually make an offer…he only expressed some interest in B&O. When a newspaper report suggested that Jianhong may bid as much as 85 kroner a share, investors bid the stock up 12 percent.

Anyone Interested?…Anyone?

If B&O is unable to attract any other potential suitor such as Samsung, LG, or TCL, the company will be left negotiating with only one potential buyer. The situation is hardly optimal for B&O, says Patrik Setterberg, an analyst for Nordea Bank AB, who discussed the matter with Bloomberg Business. “Relying on a single individual lowers the potential for a price premium, reduces potential cost savings and increases the chances that the talks will fall through,” he told Bloomberg.

“It would have been optimal to have other bidders competing, now you’re left with one person,” Setterberg told Bloomberg. “The chances that we’ll see a firm bid isn’t 100 percent. One man could easily change his mind.”B&O home theater

‘At A Price We Find Fair’



Discussions between the parties have been running now for more than 24-hours now, but so far there is no word or statement by either side. A B&O spokesperson refused to comment on the situation to Bloomberg.

Jianhong put out a statement earlier this week noting that while “we love B&O,” he was in negotiation to buy the company “at a price we find fair, reflecting the potential of the company but also the significant uncertainty and the investments needed to ensure further development and growth.”Chart showing B&O sales

AudioControl Single Zone Amps

Why Didn’t LG Buy It?



It was surprising that South Korea’s LG didn’t enter the bidding process. The two companies had just negotiated a deal for LG to begin supplying TVs to B&O, who will shut down their in-house TV manufacturing capability. The deal is expected to save the company 150 million kroner ($23 million) to 200 million kroner a year when fully implemented.

It seems logical to expand the deal to take over B&O’s TV business into one where they takeover the entire company. It seems likely that B&O approached LG with the idea. But by all appearances, that appears to be a non-starter.

Once Worth $2 Billion, Now Not So Much

According to Bloomberg, B&O was worth $2 billion just a decade ago. But in the wake of the financial crisis in 2007 and the resulting worldwide economic slowdown, the company has struggled to recover. If the reported price of 85 kroner is indeed the deal, that would value the company today at about $500 million…or just a little more than its 2015 sales of $387 million.

Qi Jianhong is the principal owner of Sparkle Roll Group Ltd., a Chinese distributor of such luxury goods as Rolls Royce and Bentley autos, luxury watches and…B&O televisions, which cost $8,000 and up.


Share this post:

  • Tweet
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • More
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Filed Under: Brands, Financial, Manufacturers, News, Pivot Point, Strategy Tagged With: B&O, Bang and Olufsen, Qi Jianhong

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Search

Sign-Up for Our FREE Newsletter

loader

Latest Posts

T-Day+1: Tariffs…And So It Begins…

STORY UPDATED 4/30/25 - See a Selection of Tariff Increases from Around the … [Read More...] about T-Day+1: Tariffs…And So It Begins…

Strata-gee Founder Hospitalized After Suffering Injuries in Accident on Monday

Strata-gee Founder & Chief Content Creator Ted Green was hospitalized on … [Read More...] about Strata-gee Founder Hospitalized After Suffering Injuries in Accident on Monday

  • T-Day+1: Tariffs…And So It Begins…
  • Masimo.com Has Been Down for ‘A Few Days’
  • Gentex, Owner of Onkyo & Klipsch, Reports 1Q/2025 Results; Sales & Profits Declined
  • LVMH: The Small Shudder That Rocked the Luxury World; Is Luxury Spending Declining?

Categories

Sponsors

Crestron Infra-Bass
AudioControl Single Zone Amps
Sonance James Small Aperture
Savant
Oasys Residential Technology Group

Tag Cloud

acquisition Amazon Apple AudioControl B&W Bowers & Wilkins CEDIA CEDIA Expo CES Control4 Core Brands COVID-19 Crestron D&M Holdings Denon Emerald Expositions Foxconn Gibson Brands Gibson Guitar Google Henry Juszkiewicz Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. housing starts Integra Joe Kiani LG Marantz Masimo Nortek OLED Onkyo Panasonic patent infringement Pioneer Samsung Savant Sharp smart home SnapAV Snap One Sonos Sony Sound United SpeakerCraft Toshiba

Footer

Got News?

HEY PR & Marketing Pros: Have NEWS for Strata-gee readers?

Send it to: HotNews@strata-gee.com

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Sponsor Strata-gee

Strata-gee Ads

Archives

Translate

Ted Green Bio

A former dealer, manufacturer, distributor & more. Focusing on business strategy, my goal is to help you make better decisions for greater success.

Follow Ted Green

  • Facebook
  • X
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram

Copyright © 2025 Strata-gee.com · The Stratecon Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved · Log in

%d