Bose buys McIntosh

As others have mentioned, the last 2 owners have been private equity.  From a business standpoint, Bose is likely a far better option from an ownership standpoint than a PE firm.  PE firms often destroy culture, branding, quality and along the way load their investments up with a ton of debt.  They know going in that only a percentage of the companies they invest in will survive and their soul goal is to build up revenue, market share so they can flip the investment for a profit.  A PE firm could care less about the market their investments companies are in or their customers.  The fact McIntosh has not only survived but thrived during several sales, PE ownership / management is a testament to the brands value, staying power.  Doesn’t really matter if you like Bose or not, the fact they are at least in the Audio space and appear to value that space with an eye for growth sets up McIntosh for a better long term shot at success.  It wasn’t sustainable for Mac to continue to be spun off to PE Firms, no company survives continuing to ride on that Merry Go Round ride.  If you know PE firms and how they work, this isn’t a bad thing.  Now, could Bose damage the brand, hurt the quality by making bad decisions on cutting cost and hurting the quality of the gear, absolutely, hopefully they approach this from the top down, look to McIntosh for the blueprint on how to sell high end gear at what I would guess are way higher profit margins than what they are used to seeing.  

There is little doubt that Bose will use their stellar product management team to find ways to reduce the prices of McIntosh gear. 

Bose currently uses China, Malaysia, and Mexico to manufacture parts and using parts made abroad to utilize in McIntosh products is a no-brainer. The previous investment firm owners squeezed all the money they could out of Binghamton, but did not have the want or the expertise to reduce the price by outsourcing. Bose does.

McIntosh has been lagging as a leader in high end gear for years. Storied? Yes. Superior name associated with a hi-end sound signature? Yes. Competitive? Not so much.

To give one a quick synopsis; McIntosh revenue was $42 million last year. Bose revenue was $3 billion. Yamaha audio was nearly a billion. Harmon $2.3 billion. Heck, even Klipsch bests McIntosh with reference to revenue. Market share for McIntosh products has significantly decreased, while they are being beaten handily by competitors who are far more globally savvy. 

To be blunt, there is a lot that a company like Bose can do to increase revenue for a brand name as recognizable as McIntosh. The name will be compromised- the products will suffer- but more people will purchase them.

Capitalism is what makes America great. While outsourcing has been controversial in nature, there is no doubt that manufacturing in America is over - and there is no going back. 

Overpriced anyway.

Bose has outstanding engineering talent driven by outstanding product developers and a rigidly scientific approach to discovering what customers would buy.

I may not be their target audience, at all, but there are things they do very well.

I’m sure Bose will bring their background in market research and customer testing to McIntosh. This probably means the company will go in a different direction than it has so far, but don’t blame the engineers. Blame the test audience.

Of course, they could also feel the Mc brand was so affordable they can slap the label on imported plastic boxes and charge 10x more until they drive the brand into the ground.  Time will tell.

How many times does this make that Mac and SF has been sold?