B&W Sold to a Silicon Valley Startup

@ coli

He sold it for an equity stake in the new combined entity, which is still privately-held and VC-funded, not yet publicly traded.  The purchasing firm doesn't have that level of funding for a cash purchase. 

Makes me wonder...given how many VC-backed private equity deals are finally being seen for the ZIRP-driven, QE-liquidity unicorn-fantasies they are, with valuations called into question, I wonder if that's a part of the buyer's mentality.   Add hard, leveragable assets, a predictable cash flow and globally-known brand name with marketable value and overnight the unicorn startup turns into a real company that will likely have no trouble raising additional equity.

Sounds like a new direction for B&W and will be interesting to see what happens.

Very interesting. Didn't B&W buy out Classe a few years back?

jmcgrogan2, good point. B&W also owns Rotel brand. In the acquisition news, there was no mention of Classe and Rotel brands.   

I wonder about their future as well. Never cared for Rotel but I sincerely hope for better Classe amps than current Delta series. 

Let's hope for bigger and better things for B&W / Classe brand. 

It sounds like the Venture guy just bought himself a brand and retail distribution.  He also got a CEO from inside the high-end audio business - which probably bodes well for (tho hardly guarantees) future product audio quality.  Beyond that, I think it would be hard to conclude what's likely to happen to the products (beyond software integration).  I wouldn't view this as a bad thing.