Bowers & Wilkins Sold - An App is in Their Future!

[eriksquires]

Not sure how I could have missed this. An article at What Hi-Fi claims (not that I doubt them, but darn!) that B&W has been sold to a California Silicon Valley start-up owned by the current owner of the San Francisco 49ers.

I imagine all future B&W loudspeakers will require a Facebook login to work.

More in the original article.

Best,


Erik

 

[system7]

AW. SEAS have sold out. Now B&W.

I've always liked B&W. Very honest support site.

One of the last speaker companies in the UK I might have worked for. All foreign owned now. But pretend to be British.

Those yellow Kevlar basses and third order tweeters.

And an occasional first order jobbie. For the cloth-eared, IMO.

TBH, if they play like the 49ers, they are doomed.

 

[eriksquires]

Yeah. When I first lived in California it was Joe Montana and Steve who? Now I am back to the Bay Area and it's weird being here with and having an iffy football team. Guess once they got the fancy ball park there was no reason to try so hard. Kind of like getting married and gaining weight.

Oh well. At least now if my career in IT doesn't work out then maybe I can try working in the home audio field.

Back to the topic, not that I've ever thought of buying a pair, but I hope they didn't just buy B&W for it's talent or distribution chain like Logitech did to Squeezebox.

Best,

Erik

 

[Jonasz]

AW. SEAS have sold out. Now B&W.

When did Seas sell out and to who?

 

[a3cervo]

When did Seas sell out and to who?

Sonavox China, I believe it was a couple of years ago.

 

[dudaindc]

It was officially announced here...
https://evaautomation.com/

 

[KatieandDad]

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...b-and-w-owner-turns-up-sound-for-speaker-firm

 

[billshurv]

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...b-and-w-owner-turns-up-sound-for-speaker-firm

So it's been under 'foreign' ownership for 30 years anyway!

 

[andy19191]

When did Seas sell out and to who?

SEAS and the Danish manufacturers have "sold out" to all sorts of people over their lifetimes. If you want the details Claus Futtrup is working on an excellent history here trying to pull together the main companies and people.

 

[multitask]

sonavox is a canadian company with some production in china.
dynaudio has done very well after their chinese buy. lots new capital, employees and products.

i dont get it why people think this stuff is always a bad thing, if you dont expand you die. do you really think previous owners are not interested in the company`s future?
they know better than anyone on a forum

 

[eriksquires]

Selling out like that is like having a baby on a sit-com. It can end well, but rarely does.

Jumping The Shark

Now, on the other hand, if they started producing under $500 Logitech Squeezebox clones I'd be all for it.

Best,


Erik

 

[eriksquires]

Just one hit after another. The BBC is reporting Tannoy will close.

The Music Group confirms Tannoy plant closure plans - BBC News

 

[cph2000]

sonavox is a canadian company with some production in china.
dynaudio has done very well after their chinese buy. lots new capital, employees and products.

i dont get it why people think this stuff is always a bad thing, if you dont expand you die. do you really think previous owners are not interested in the company`s future?
they know better than anyone on a forum

Hmm, remember how a small Californian cash strapped venture funded startup with a "major" new transducer technology (the LAT bass arrays, no longer in production) bought out DST (vifa, peerless, scan speak) - look what that did to vifa and peerless.
Good thing is we now have SB acoustics and a refocused scan speak as a result of talent leaving post the takeover.

I have worked in the semiconductor industry for 20 years, l have been though a lot of these mergers and acquisitions - sometimes it works out good, other times it goes south pretty fast

 

[eriksquires]

Hmm, remember how a small Californian cash strapped venture funded startup with a "major" new transducer technology (the LAT bass arrays, no longer in production) bought out DST (vifa, peerless, scan speak) - look what that did to vifa and peerless.
Good thing is we now have SB acoustics and a refocused scan speak as a result of talent leaving post the takeover.

I have worked in the semiconductor industry for 20 years, l have been though a lot of these mergers and acquisitions - sometimes it works out good, other times it goes south pretty fast

OMG! The LAT Arrays! I remember looking at pictures of those and doing a Butthead-like "That's cool!" and a Beavis-like "What's that?" at the same time. I never did see one after the initial press release, or whatever it was I saw. Hahahah. That should have made it into our list of drivers/tech that didn't survive.

Best,

Erik