Sound United bought by a medical tech. company!

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sidvee

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www.businesswire.com

Sound United Enters into Agreement to Be Acquired by Masimo Corporation

Sound United, LLC (“Sound United”), a leading innovator of premium, high-performance audio products for consumers around the world, today announced that it h...
www.businesswire.com
Not sure what value addition Masimo is going to bring to this acquisition other than squeeze quality for profits.
Cheers,
Sid
 
sidvee said:
www.businesswire.com

Sound United Enters into Agreement to Be Acquired by Masimo Corporation

Sound United, LLC (“Sound United”), a leading innovator of premium, high-performance audio products for consumers around the world, today announced that it h...
www.businesswire.com
Not sure what value addition Masimo is going to bring to this acquisition other than squeeze quality for profits.
Cheers,
Sid
Click to expand...
if you see the post, and the quote of the CEO. It looks like an Audiophile at the helm. I would think (actually, hope) completely the reverse might happen. In the world of streaming music, I am guessing that most of Sound United's portfolio addresses a slowly shrinking market.

EDIT: the stock fell of a cliff after the announcement. investors seem unamused.
 
Last edited:
raghupb said:
Or put you in hospital by infusing new "audiophile disorders"
Cheers,
Raghu
Click to expand...
I don't that will help their bottom line.. Like big pharma, these medical devices company would like to feed audiophile addicts all sorts of the same old products wrapped in shiny new packages which ensures future sales.. If they put us in the hospitals then they kill their golden geese. So new Denon amplifiers with hospital grade speaker connectors and medical grade power supplies made with rare earth sourced from the foothills of the Himalayas will ensure sales... I think it is great news..
 
sound united was looking to accquire onkyo and pioneer last year or so and in 2022 they themselves got accquired
 
If Masimo is like MS, they will suck UA of all technology they need and then shut it down. And, remember, it is not even direct competition. MS recently wrote off 12B shutting down Nokia. And they have done that to 100s of companies.

I just cannot understand what Masimo's interest is in UA. Are they looking at audio/video as a curative technology? Are they looking at multilayer highly populated PCBs? Are they looking at DSP and related technology? But they can get all these at a fraction of the cost of buying UA. Unless UA has some patented technology they are planning to license out and make money.

Or, maybe UA is not doing well and this is just a way of bailing them out and keeping the brands alive. Maybe the ywo chairmen were classmates.

We will know by 2024 Masimo's real intentions.

Cheers
 
Not sure on intent
sidvee said:
www.businesswire.com

Sound United Enters into Agreement to Be Acquired by Masimo Corporation

Sound United, LLC (“Sound United”), a leading innovator of premium, high-performance audio products for consumers around the world, today announced that it h...
www.businesswire.com
Not sure what value addition Masimo is going to bring to this acquisition other than squeeze quality for profits.
Cheers,
Sid
Click to expand...
Sound United operates iconic consumer brands: Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Polk Audio, Marantz, Definitive Technology, Classé, and Boston Acoustics.
Click to expand...
Interesting news !
Sound United's overall market is only 200M USD which is very small compared to Bose which is almost 20 times bigger. and Massimo itself is around 1B

what i found interesting about Massimo is this
1.Joe Kiani founded Masimo in 1989 as a private "garage start-up" company because he was convinced that the use of adaptive signal processing in the measurement of physiological parameters
Click to expand...
2.rainbow®, introduced in 2005, allows additional parameters to be noninvasively and continuously monitored. Advanced signal processing algorithms and unique adaptive filters work together to isolate, identify, and quantify various types of hemoglobin.
Click to expand...

Maybe its the DSP tech they want.. or For all you know, maybe the audiophile in him wanted to buy it :rolleyes:
 
A 1B company is not going to spend 200M (in reality much more by valuation) to buy such unrelated technology. Looks more like a friendly bail out plan. Or just two friends creating a larger monster.
 
One just needs to use a search engine and read up from various sources what the claimed rationale behind said acquisition is. There's no need to idly speculate and look for demons where probably none even exist.
 
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keith_correa said:
One just needs to use a search engine and read up from various sources what the claimed rationale behind said acquisition is. There's no need to idly speculate and look for demons where probably none even exist.
Click to expand...
You mean prefer facts over gossip and fun ? how boring ....:D

What next..the earth is actually round ?
 
When reputed companies like Marantz, Denon, Polk with a very long and successful history were brought one after the other by Sound United, many screamed that it was a deathknell for these iconic brands in terms of continuing to manufacture high class equipment.
But these brands I think still continue to live up to their past reputation though they may also make products for the mass market.
I am sure we can keep a positive outlook to this merger also.
 
arj said:
You mean prefer facts over gossip and fun ? how boring ....:D

What next..the earth is actually round ?
Click to expand...
:D:D

keith_correa said:
One just needs to use a search engine and read up from various sources what the claimed rationale behind said acquisition is. There's no need to idly speculate and look for demons where probably none even exist.
Click to expand...
As arj said, there is no fun in that. Moreover, what is released to the press is less than 10% of the actual reasoning. Banks, investors, and trademark owners have their own reasoning and those are never mentioned.

How about this? This was all along a long term plan to kill the UK (B&W), Japanese (Denon, Marantz), Canadian (Polk, Definitive, Boston) AV businesses, and competition (Classe). So first Sound United acquires all these companies, the financial load drives them to the ground. Then Masimo acquires it. Maybe Onkyo was behind the whole thing and funded it to kill it's competition. They can make up the 500M by increasing all their prices by 10% over the next 5 years. Maybe India's own expert in killing communication competition was chief advisor to Onkyo. ;):D:D.

Just wild imagination, people. Read it and laugh it off. Dont get serious.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think his friend bought an all B&W nautilius HT and bragged to him and he bought the B&W company and holding company for bragging rights. If Ambani can buy Hamleys when he became a Grandfather,..why not this...
 
Sound United themselves are not a very old organization. I am new to hi-fi world(3-3.5 years) but what I have read up in various forums suggests that the quality of products like Denon/Marantz has gone down significantly as compared to what was on offer 15-20 years ago. Maybe Sound United themselves didn't have the capacity or will to change things for better and compromised somewhere in quality. Also, they couldn't scale up the capacity when needed - anyone who has searched for a Denon/Marantz receiver in the last 2 years wouldn't disagree much. To turn things around, a bigger purse always helps - and in hi-fi world, save a few exceptions, there aren't many powerhouses loaded with cash - Masimo can provide that. And medical devices companies are very advanced in terms of technology and RND.
This acquisition might turn out to be good for us - the end users! Let's hope for better days!
 
Barun7 said:
To turn things around, a bigger purse always helps - and in hi-fi world, save a few exceptions, there aren't many powerhouses loaded with cash - Masimo can provide that.
Click to expand...

The maths don't add up. Even at 1x, SU would demand 200M. Then you need another 100-200M for renewal and upgradation. An 1B company, even in medical electronics, can make a max of 40% gross or roughly 400M. I dont believe any board would agree to spend 80-90% of their margins on an acquisition, particularly into an industry they are completely alien to. Even if the Masimo CEO / Chairman is an avid audiophile, he won't be stupid enough to blow up company money to fulfill his personal tastes. If the board becomes aware of even such a possibility, he will get thrown out, Chairman or no Chairman.

There is something more than meets the eye. Either money is coming from somewhere else, or both companies are being used as patsies by someone with a large purse.

Let the adventure continue.
 
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