Sound United has been sold....

[M Code]

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 th

www.businesswire.com

Just my $0.02....

 

[ryanosaur]

Wow.

 

[Hetfield]

that was unexpected!

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[TLS Guy]

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 th

www.businesswire.com

Just my $0.02....

The boiler plate press releases are always the same aren't they? This will probably be an unmitigated disaster. So a company with no experience of home AV now think they are experts in delivering nirvana. Something tells me this will not end well for any of us.

The regulators should not allow this to proceed.

 

[gene]

This has me concerned....

 

[Trebdp83]

 

[TLS Guy]

This has me concerned....

I agree. This has me very concerned. This is a very modern phenomenon that has been building for several decades now, to have CEOs who have no idea or clue about the businesses they are in charge of. That is why reliability of goods and services are really circling the drain.

The number of friends, family and neighbors who have major appliances and other high ticket items that fail prematurely, and I mean really prematurely is just staggering and a disgrace. When you do due diligence you find there is only one item in any category that won't fail. I am dead serious when I say there is only one brand of washing machine and dryer that will not fail prematurely, and only one dishwasher.

When I got the builder's list of appliances for our new home build, I put a line through the whole list, and chose very carefully. The builder built four homes on this circle. We were the first to occupy. We are the only ones who have not had a major appliance failure. Two of the homes have had more then one. One of my sons has had premature failure of his laundry equipment (Samsung).

A close friend had to have a new double oven set. She wanted Wolf. It took months to come. I warned her they were no good, despite being top dollar. They failed within a couple of weeks. Parts are not expected to be available until March 28!

There needs to be a law passed that no CEO can run a company that does not hold advanced qualifications on the goods being produced.

One of the root causes of this, is individuals being in charge of companies that they know absolutely nothing about.

 

[Eppie]

What the heck is a medical technology company doing buying into consumer audio? "MASI will leverage Sound United’s expertise across consumer channels to accelerate distribution of Masimo’s expanding portfolio of consumer products." What consumer products?

 

[Hetfield]

I agree that is very disconcerting. I don't get it and at the moment so not like this. I don't understand because sound united had a great thing going, they had bought up all these brands and for the most part done a decent job of integrating then together, I mean some not so much but for the most part they did.
I wonder if we are still gonna see some of the familiar faces in videos and on social media and of course on Audioholics YouTube channel where they had a good presence. I'm worried as of right now. I mean they hold 2 of the great AVR companies, Denon and Marantz, we can't have them falter.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[gene]

I agree. This has me very concerned. This is a very modern phenomenon that has been building for several decades now, to have CEOs who have no idea or clue about the businesses they are in charge of. That is why reliability of goods and services are really circling the drain.

The number of friends, family and neighbors who have major appliances and other high ticket items that fail prematurely, and I mean really prematurely is just staggering and a disgrace. When you do due diligence you find there is only one item in any category that won't fail. I am dead serious when I say there is only one brand of washing machine and dryer that will not fail prematurely, and only one dishwasher.

When I got the builder's list of appliances for our new home build, I put a line through the whole list, and chose very carefully. The builder built four homes on this circle. We were the first to occupy. We are the only ones who have not had a major appliance failure. Two of the homes have had more then one. One of my sons has had premature failure of his laundry equipment (Samsung).

A close friend had to have a new double oven set. She wanted Wolf. It took months to come. I warned her they were no good, despite being top dollar. They failed within a couple of weeks. Parts are not expected to be available until March 28!

There needs to be a law passed that no CEO can run a company that does not hold advanced qualifications on the goods being produced.

One of the root causes of this, is individuals being in charge of companies that they know absolutely nothing about.

You are 200% correct. Appliances have become a F*cking joke in build quality and reliability. My brand new house has a top of the line GE Profile Diswasher and the racks come out of the machine because they couldn't use real wheels as casters. Instead they had crappy plastic tabs that came off and melted in the heat. I had to bitch at GE for 3 months and have them come back multiple times until they fixed it and still NOT using real wheels like my mom has in her 20yo GE Profile dishwasher.

The amount of incompetent people running large corporations and handling production decisions on famed TV series is staggering. Just look at how crappy Star Trek has become, written by folks that never watched an episode of past shows in their lives.

I was just getting used to the folks at Sound United running these brands and now I hope it doesn't go the wrong way like so many buyouts in the past have in our industry.

 

[gene]

I agree that is very disconcerting. I don't get it and at the moment so not like this. I don't understand because sound united had a great thing going, they had bought up all these brands and for the most part done a decent job of integrating then together, I mean not so much but for the most part they did.
I wonder if we are still gonna see some of the familiar faces in videos and on social media and of course on Audioholics YouTube channel where they had a good presence. I'm worried as of right now. I mean they hold 2 of the great AVR companies, Denon and Marantz, we can't have them falter.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

One of the main guys at Sound United quit last summer and it was a shock to me. #concerned

 

[Trell]

What the heck is a medical technology company doing buying into consumer audio? "MASI will leverage Sound United’s expertise across consumer channels to accelerate distribution of Masimo’s expanding portfolio of consumer products." What consumer products?

Audiophilia does sound like a medical diagnosis.

 

[highfigh]

I agree. This has me very concerned. This is a very modern phenomenon that has been building for several decades now, to have CEOs who have no idea or clue about the businesses they are in charge of. That is why reliability of goods and services are really circling the drain.

The number of friends, family and neighbors who have major appliances and other high ticket items that fail prematurely, and I mean really prematurely is just staggering and a disgrace. When you do due diligence you find there is only one item in any category that won't fail. I am dead serious when I say there is only one brand of washing machine and dryer that will not fail prematurely, and only one dishwasher.

When I got the builder's list of appliances for our new home build, I put a line through the whole list, and chose very carefully. The builder built four homes on this circle. We were the first to occupy. We are the only ones who have not had a major appliance failure. Two of the homes have had more then one. One of my sons has had premature failure of his laundry equipment (Samsung).

A close friend had to have a new double oven set. She wanted Wolf. It took months to come. I warned her they were no good, despite being top dollar. They failed within a couple of weeks. Parts are not expected to be available until March 28!

There needs to be a law passed that no CEO can run a company that does not hold advanced qualifications on the goods being produced.

One of the root causes of this, is individuals being in charge of companies that they know absolutely nothing about.

But, but, but, MBA!

For decades, I have said that the glut of MBAs that began in the late-'70s was going to be the end of life as we knew it- once the large electronics manufacturers started stepping over the dollars to look at the nickels, the product quality, support and training went out the door.

 

[highfigh]

You are 200% correct. Appliances have become a F*cking joke in build quality and reliability. My brand new house has a top of the line GE Profile Diswasher and the racks come out of the machine because they couldn't use real wheels as casters. Instead they had crappy plastic tabs that came off and melted in the heat. I had to bitch at GE for 3 months and have them come back multiple times until they fixed it and still NOT using real wheels like my mom has in her 20yo GE Profile dishwasher.

The amount of incompetent people running large corporations and handling production decisions on famed TV series is staggering. Just look at how crappy Star Trek has become, written by folks that never watched an episode of past shows in their lives.

I was just getting used to the folks at Sound United running these brands and now I hope it doesn't go the wrong way like so many buyouts in the past have in our industry.

TV and movies are rarely original- most of the time, it's a remake with a new name, faces and sound effects.

Wait 'till they do a reboot of Friends with new noises. Yeah, that'll be great. Or, grate.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

What the heck is a medical technology company doing buying into consumer audio? "MASI will leverage Sound United’s expertise across consumer channels to accelerate distribution of Masimo’s expanding portfolio of consumer products." What consumer products?

Hey, MEDICAL people (Physicians, Pharmacists, Nurses, etc.) are Audioholics too.

Medical-Hosptital-precision high-tech meets AUDIO.

Imagine MEDICAL + ENGINEERS involved in the company.

 

[Movie2099]

You are 200% correct. Appliances have become a F*cking joke in build quality and reliability. My brand new house has a top of the line GE Profile Diswasher and the racks come out of the machine because they couldn't use real wheels as casters. Instead they had crappy plastic tabs that came off and melted in the heat. I had to bitch at GE for 3 months and have them come back multiple times until they fixed it and still NOT using real wheels like my mom has in her 20yo GE Profile dishwasher.

The amount of incompetent people running large corporations and handling production decisions on famed TV series is staggering. Just look at how crappy Star Trek has become, written by folks that never watched an episode of past shows in their lives.

I was just getting used to the folks at Sound United running these brands and now I hope it doesn't go the wrong way like so many buyouts in the past have in our industry.

Some people at Sound United are going to have a few more dollars in their pockets after the deal is done. That's why I went with Yamaha instead.

You are correct with Star Trek. Nothing is on regular CBS anymore. It's all made for their paramount+ subscription services. It's just weird not having any type of Star Trek on during the week on regular TV.

 

[Movie2099]

Hey, MEDICAL people (Physicians, Pharmacists, Nurses, etc.) are Audioholics too.

Medical-Hosptital-precision high-tech meets AUDIO.

Imagine MEDICAL + ENGINEERS involved in the company.

It would've been better for SpaceX to purchase Sound United rather than a Medical tech company. Haha

 

[TLS Guy]

But, but, but, MBA!

For decades, I have said that the glut of MBAs that began in the late-'70s was going to be the end of life as we knew it- once the large electronics manufacturers started stepping over the dollars to look at the nickels, the product quality, support and training went out the door.

Yes! As I have said for years, here and other places, between MBAs and marketers, they have sent us on the road to ruin. They really are the most ghastly of types.

 

[Replicant 7]

Hey, MEDICAL people (Physicians, Pharmacists, Nurses, etc.) are Audioholics too.

Medical-Hosptital-precision high-tech meets AUDIO.

Imagine MEDICAL + ENGINEERS involved in the company.

Yeah, poor Denon,Onkyo, Marantz getting past around like a Redheaded step child in foster care. Lolo. Just buy Yamaha.

 

[TLS Guy]

One of the main guys at Sound United quit last summer and it was a shock to me. #concerned

On digging in to this I am even more worried. Masimo was founded in Irvine California in 2011, where it is still based.

It specializes in oximetry, both in hospital and especially home monitoring. It also makes add devices for ventilators, including capnea and end tidal volume monitors. They also have a partnership and may be ownership with Newtech Inc. of Shenzhen, China.

Masimo seem to be under the impression that they can integrate home monitoring with home entertainment systems. So though far fetched, they seem to want to make your AVR do you oximetry monitoring and probably monitor your CPAP remotely, This sounds like a great business model to me. What could go wrong!

Sound United is owned by Viper corporation, and Masimo have purchased the whole works for a billion dollars. It seems Masimo have contributed a small amount of cash, but the buyout is largely leveraged by debt. I regard this as extremely ominous.

The bottom line is that Masimo do not make or design major medical devices, despite to glowing boiler plate about being leading manufacturers of medical equipment. They do not seem to be, but very much peripheral players.

Anyone see a train crash in the offing?