This article is from the Audio Revolution website:
Rumors surfaced today that Kenwood USA is closing their home electronics business. Contacts at Kenwood and their PR firm were not available for comment at the time of publishing.
Email correspondence confirmed by sources inside the AV industry imply that the brand manager for Kenwood’s home audio division, Dean Hutto, was let go by the company today. Kenwood is likely to stay the course in its car audio business where the company owns a much larger portion of the electronics market.
Kenwood is a legendary Japanese audio brand with tremendous brand equity. They were first to the market with many technologies. Most recently, they were one of the first home theater brands to incorporate Faroudja’s internal video processing chips inside a DVD player at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, their Sovereign line was never the success the company had hoped for. With $49 DVD players lining the shelves of Costco, it is easy to see how an added-value brand like Kenwood could get lost in the din of consumer electronics in 2005.
Other sources have suggested Kenwood Home Electronics could be sold to other international companies. With a brand that most consumers know and respect, don’t be surprised to see Kenwood make a comeback someday soon.
