Harman To Acquire B&W, Denon, Polk And Marantz From Masimo In $350 Million Deal

Wow...that sounds like a fire sale for all of those brands. 

That does sound like a bargain price for those brands.  Masimo didn't know what to do with those brands, hopefully Harman can be a better fit. Though you have to wonder what kind of attention each brand gets with the portfolio that Harman currently has.

Masimo on Marantz don’t have technical support after warranty. Even if you pay on your own pocket ? Their authorized repair shop won’t do it.

I thought Harman acquired Mark Levinson as well?

Harman (Harman Kardon, JBL, Mark Levinson, AKG, Infinity, Bang & Olufsen, Lexicon, Revel, Becker, BSS Audio, Crown, dbx, AMX, Arcam, Soundcraft, Martin, and JBL Professional) is owned by Samsung

Sounds undervalued. I see a bright future for Polk and B&W, they are very strong in their own segments. Marantz and Denon are probably OK but obviously not doing as well as they could.

Sounds like Harman is doing fine, which is good since I continue to enjoy my early-adopted lifetime subscription to Roon!

Since Harman is a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, then S. Korea must also be doing well.

and since S. Korea is part of the Planet.... :) Oh no

With the exception of Levinson, Martin and to a degree B&W it is all mid-fi brands.

Fire sale indeed.

massino also owns definitive , classe, heos and boston acoustics. i haven't seen sales figures, but i'd think only b&w (which does some car audio) and denon would have a lot of momentum--their other brands don't seem to have the same presence they once did. 

It's kinda sad to me that these brands aren't owned by people who really care about sound.

Nothing stays the same forever.  For every fading star there will be a new bright one and vice versa.   THose are fine brands but nothing all that unique or special about any of them any more   that I can think of.  All easily replaced perhaps by other items offering high quality and value.

Consolation is ongoing in all industries.  I love my Revel speakers, Denon AVR and Lexicon stereo in my car.  I have a Samsung fridge and washer.  I think everything else is made by Yamaha.  Innovation is important to stay competitive, profitable and on top.  It’s eat or be eaten in business.  When the lion is hungry he eats - cue Matthew in The Gentleman.  Looking forward new and better equipment whoever owns the company.  

The only thing in my system so unique that I consider irreplaceable are my Ohm Walsh speakers.  If Harmon buying the company were needed to keep it alive so be it.  It’s a very small privately owned company with limited production capabilities so would actually be interesting to see what a large company like Harmon might be able to do.  Regardless, I will be hanging on to the Ohms I have for the foreseeable future.

I also own gear from Cambridge Audio, Class D Audio, Schitt, Linn, Electrocompaniet, Denon, Rega, Polk, KEF, Sonus Faber, Fosi, Yamaha, Bel Canto, Boston Acoustics, Dual, Goldring.

Good. Masimo was a terrible owner

How could I forget Roon?   Harmon has done wonders for Roon.

@loomisjohnson  

Thanks for the post!  This is very important information.  I have seen nothing in the news feeds I get on a daily basis.  Might be a good idea to purchase stock in Samsung, as they now own (or soon) a large section of the audiophile equipment market!  

+1 @mapman 

When I was much younger I would have loved to have gear from many of the mentioned brands. Now I don't have nary a one.

Is all china or India now.   Most of those brands dont make anything in their home countries and the few that do make only a few of their small quantity highest end products there.  The real thing of value in those brands is the car audio.  There is millions available when you outfit a 500,000 new cars and Harman is HEAVILY invested in car audio.  ATMOS is coming and these cars will have 15, 16, 17 channels with speakers everywhere, including overhead.  The small amount of stuff B+W sells to audio dealers is dwarfed by the automotive business.   Here in Las Vegas, a purely audio store cannot make it work, they have to do home theater and video to turn any kind of profit.

And doesnt Samsung own JBL?  Harman sold that off some years ago already. Looks to me like a pure car audio play on the part of Harman. 

Personally I think Samsung/Harman has been a good corporate parent of their high end brands. I was rightly concerned when they bought JBL back in the 1990s and turned out a bunch of mediocre products. But since Samsung took over, they've allowed the consumer, high end, and pro divisions to separate and put out great stuff for each market. 

They seem to allow each brand to focus on their core customers instead of trying to be all things. Like any corporate parent, if a division hits their numbers, management continues as is. If not, things change. But it seems like there's continuity of brand identity and quality. 

And there are still plenty of boutique brands to explore. I'm more concerned about their continuity when founders leave. 

My experience with Harmon Luxury Group is that their service and support leaves a lot to be desired.   

"With the exception of Levinson, Martin and to a degree B&W it is all mid-fi brands."

Pretty dismissive and elitist attitude. 

@llg98ljk that is to be expected in a space that think it is a big thing when we’re a niche within a niche. To put how small we’re as a subset of audio, AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 3, and AirPods Max alone gave Apple almost 22 billion in revenue for 2024

Apple could’ve bought All of so-called Hi-Fi, Mid-Fi and Lo-Fi companies in our little pocket of audio and all they have to use is revenue from 2024 alone

But hey let us keep arbitrary metrics up

The only items I own in the list is some vintage JBL drivers out of some beaten up cabs.....'mid-fi' for them, LE-08's, 'empty' cabs with minimal padding, no internal structure...got the interior dimensions, everything including the ports....

No, I won't 'Walsh' them....I have some scruples...;)

I do wonder who bailed Ohm out when they went up for sale....but I've my own variants on the pedigree, and don't mind being Jack v. the Giant.....

"Practical Art Objects"....signed and limited to the versions produced.

Sue me...win Nothing.  Empty victories stink... ;)

Lifetime Guarantee....mine, but....*L*

Cue starts somewhere.....;)

Shrinking values in a shrinking universe of HiFi (and MidFi) brands. 

Even the cornerstone legacy brands are suffering. 

I think that a peculiar alchemy of lost creativity (including sucky music), lowering competencies, really cheap electronics prices, declining disposable income of those under 50 and pretty darn good sound out of AirPods, Beats and wireless boom boxes has made the last generation (or 2) of consumers unwilling to matriculate into bespoke gear. 

I read somewhere (sorry I can't recall where) that the average age of high end stereo buyers is 57 years old.  If true, the guys that buy the stuff we all love here on the AG forum are soon to be unable to hear well, and then dead. 

Anecdotally I see HiFi shops that managed to stay open moving to home theater to stay alive as their $10,000 to $20,000 separates sales are not covering the overhead. It appears that only the really large city/ rich areas have Hifi shops now. 

Additionally I see used gear on HiFiShark being marked down pretty substantially of the seller needs it gone. Overpriced gear sits on there for months/years. 

The same thing is happening to pre 1960 automobiles. The last Goodwood auction was awful for vintage Rollers, MGs, Triumphs, etc. The only cars catching a bid were early 1980s and later Ferraris and other hand-built exotics. 

There are exceptions which do not invalidate the generalization. Of course this is just 1 man's observation.

@kofibaffour + 1

some very intriguing opinions by @yesiam_a_pirate @kofibaffour and others...it does seem apparent that traditional two-channel audio is aging out and that home theater is being supplanted by sonos/wireless and soundbars (all of which have improved considerably). i recently went shopping for a new mid-tier avr and was struck by how flimsy and aesthetically unimaginative most of the mainstream models are--the current yamaha and onkyo were notably more plasticy and less substantial than their forebearers. the marantz avrs, despite a very substantial price premium, seemed like same generic product with a fancier faceplate. i do note that jbl has a newish line of visually appealing, affordable avrs, though i can't speak to their sound quality.

PS Audio & Focal, I'm good!

@fertguy Focal is good because of their portable devices like the Wired Headphones and Wireless Headphones. Not because of their two channel stuff. 

If they didn’t have those divisions, they’re be struggling too. As for PS Audio, most of their money is from their music production/label end.

Just pray they don’t end up being unprofitable. It has gone bankrupt before

Very large corporations owning small audio brands isnt a great plan.  I worked at one of the bradns mentioned during the early 90s and while it was wonderul staff and wonderful internal people, the management above seemed very motivated by stock values and getting the stock performance up.  The goal of such companies can shift in such a dynamic from great product to profitable product.  Theoretically great product should be profitable, but not always.  The challenge is product development cycles are long and the investment cycle is short,  which forces some manufacturers to pass on longer product development when it cannot contribute to a positive cash flow within the quarter.  I’ve seen this at work in smaller brands that get absorbed into larger ones.    

Brad

What Harmon/Samsung bring to the table are financial and marketing resources, and that is precisely what the small, innovative companies lack.  It's a tough slog for the small entrepreneur, with cash flow always threatening to end the dream.  A roll-up like Harmon is doing is a way for the creative guy to cash out and go try something else.  It's pointless to be romantic about business.  The large acquiring company will be unlikely to hold onto the creative types or foster innovation - not impossible but not likely either.  I, for one, do not lament the roll-up, but rather look forward to what the innovators will bring next.

Why do people still spell Harman wrong. It's not only this forum

kofibaffour

Who cares 

I've been trying to contact Harman for days now, without success.  They say they are  "luxury" brands but they don't reply to email or phone calls for support.  Can you imagine spending $50k, or even $5k, for a car and then when you need service they won't return your call or stand behind the warranty???

I'd watch for some brand discontinuation. Boston Acoustics is already moribund. Denon and Marantz pretty much compete against each other; I'd guess Marantz will be the survivor. JBL has become so all encompassing, I'd say Polk is on a short leash. Harman is bigger in audio than GM ever was in autos. 

Funny this company is buying up all of these private companies, then the government will say....it's a monopoly...change it..I own equipment from most of the companies listed...but at 73 ,I'm done buy new audio equipment...now my vintage stuff  will be worth more...perhaps. 

To repeat...  Harman has done a great job with Roon.

@coppy777 Roon is the last thing on my mind when it comes to what Samsung/Harman has contributed to pushing audio forward. but Yes, Roon is a good testament

I wondered if the quality of the mostly mid-fi brands would be affected when Masimo bought these brands several years ago and I saw little change except more of concentration on AVR and less on 2-channel. 

Harman has done a very good job supporting analogue film - so they have a positive track record in supporting niche interests.

Masimo's  diversification into audio was an unmitigated disaster - so they can hardly do worse.

All this sounds like a hostile take over….

Buy up more of the opposition and saturate/control competition and ultimately the market….then price out the smaller guys left. 
 

Greed, Greed and Greed, agreed?

mylogic

All this sounds like a hostile take over…

No, Masimo was a very motivated seller, and willing to take a sizeable loss to rid themselves of this unit. There was nothing hostile about it.

i sorta agree with @realgoodsound --polk, definitive, etc. may still be producing nice products, but query whether there's a real demand for so many brands. it's analogous to when gm used to sell identical sedans under buick/pontiac/olds/chevy (and sometimes cadillac) monikers--they wasted billions on promo costs, lot rentals, etc. there's gotta be some consolidation coming, which is smart business but also a little sad....

Maybe not a hostile take over then….

More a turkey shoot….

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble…… and maybe the same result in the end?

“Consolidation coming” and less choice. @loomisjohnson  ✔️
 

@realgoodsound  ✔️ Brand discontinuation extinction crystal ball gazing spot on! A turkey is not unlike a dodo.

If there is not profit to be made, why would any company continue?  Is mylogic willing to personally pay to keep a losing business alive?  

Businesses are acquired usually because the price is low due to an ineffective business strategy or mis-management.  Either way they are losers and not likely to survive on their own.

Healthy companies with good strategy and management serve their employees and customers well. An undeniable lesson we've learned from Warren Buffett.

@coppy777 

“Profit” and your stupid assumption.

l never said anything about any of these companies becoming insolvent, or even likely ever to be.

This is about an offloading from an incompetent controlling large corporation who arguably have not made a big enough profit, or have mismanaged the individual businesses.

An example of one of the said businesses is AKG. Previously a subsidiary of Philip, AKG still supply exceedingly good headphones since offloaded by Philips who moved away from the “hi-if” marketplace. The danger of takeovers are that some of these businesses being absorbed. With the possible duplications of similar products, some of these brands may fall by the wayside.
@loomisjohnson said exactly the same with his prediction. “This doesn’t bode well for the future”

@realgoodsound  was spot on too. The Denon and Marantz duplication of competition with their products is an example of the two brands possible futures. One “Brand discontinuation”

You answered my concerns with your paragraphs two and three. What was your point in pointing a finger at me? I can’t do anything about it!

As always, market trends, innovation, and the willingness of entrepreneurs to invest, will ultimately decide what is available to the consumer.  The serial acquisition and consolidation of smaller companies by bigger entities is not that unusual these days.