Harman buys Sound United

Mike

Mike

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Harman Closes Sound United Deal | Stereophile.com

Harman today said it has completed its acquisition of Sound United, adding Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, Classé, Definitive Technology, Polk Audio, and Boston Acoustics to its portfolio. “This transaction unlocks meaningful growth opportunities for everyone,” said Dave Rogers, president of...
www.stereophile.com www.stereophile.com
 
They say they will keep Classe. So maybe some growth there someday.

I see Harman making their money back on selling the name brands to auto companies. OEM, right?

I suppose all companies may do it but I don't like the term "cross pollination". On one hand they say the brands will remain independent, at least in the beginning, then they mention that term. I don't want to see an audio company looking like GM where you have different badges but basically the same under the hood.
 
You can look at Massimo earnings reports that break out the Sound United segment and see that Harman probably paid too much for it.

Massimo wrote off over $300M in 2024 before putting SU on the block, probably goodwill.

First 9 months of 2024: Revenue ≈ $465.6 million vs $562.1 million prior year; Net loss ≈ $31.3 million vs $21.2 million prior year.

Harman will have to pull massive costs out of Sound United to keep it as a profitable stand alone as they claim thy are doing. It’s unlikely long term.
 
W9TR said:
You can look at Massimo earnings reports that break out the Sound United segment and see that Harman probably paid too much for it.

Massimo wrote off over $300M in 2024 before putting SU on the block, probably goodwill.

First 9 months of 2024: Revenue ≈ $465.6 million vs $562.1 million prior year; Net loss ≈ $31.3 million vs $21.2 million prior year.

Harman will have to pull massive costs out of Sound United to keep it as a profitable stand alone as they claim thy are doing. It’s unlikely long term.
Click to expand...

Massimo was a house divided. The CEO who bought SU was ousted. Any loss is due to circumstance IMO. SU has some strong brands and if managed properly should give Harman a nice return on investment. They should at least recoup just based on possible auto OEM name brand sales.

You can't under estimate the infighting going on at Massimo, they nearly killed SU. The person who bought SU had some grand plans but others on the board were definitely not onboard.

I wish I could find out the current status of Classe. The name was listed in the purchase but there's an online magazine who keeps referring to them as out of business. It will be interesting to see if Harman brings back the Classe engineers or if the name continues what will it be?
 
I too wish that Classé were back. I had one of their power amps, a Classè Model 15. Very balanced, good sounding amp.
 
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