Bose Corp. will buy McIntosh Group, a deal that offers the Massachusetts-based company control of one of the famous names in high-end audio.
McIntosh will proceed to make the high-end audio equipment the corporate is understood for from its longtime headquarters in New York, Bose CEO Lila Snyder said. The deal also includes Sonus Faber, an organization that handcrafts high-end speakers in Italy.
Buying the 2 audio workshops gives Bose access to the high-end luxury audio market, Snyder said in an interview with CNBC.
“There's this opportunity for luxury where the consumer is more sophisticated and really interested in the heritage and the history and the handcrafted nature,” she said.
Snyder, who took over as Bose CEO in 2020, didn’t disclose terms or a price for the deal. McIntosh was previously owned by Highlander Partners, a Dallas-based private equity firm.
McIntosh has been making high-end amplifiers and other audio equipment since 1949, and certainly one of its units can cost tens of hundreds of dollars. Sonus Faber is selling a pair of speakers for $140,000.
The purchase shows how Bose is navigating an environment where competition in headphones and audio electronics is bigger than ever. Bose is privately held and doesn’t share in annual revenue, although the corporate had sales of about $3 billion in 2023. in line with Forbes. It employs around 3,000 people.
Bose is entering the high-end luxury audio market
According to an estimate from Futuresource Consulting, total sales in luxury audio — defined as products costing greater than $5,000 — rose 12% to about $2.8 billion in 2023. The deal will allow Bose to check a high-end marketplace for its already expensive products – a pair of Bose headphones can easily cost $350.
“These are different customers that we’re not really reaching with our technology and our products right now,” she said.
Snyder didn’t rule out the likelihood that Bose makes headphones or other McIntosh-branded products.
“We believe there is a real opportunity for wearables in the luxury and high-performance space as well, and we expect you will continue to see that from us in the future,” Synder said.
Bose is best known for its speakers and headphones, including the QuietComfort line of headphones, which was certainly one of the primary noise-cancelling headsets to hit the market in 2000. It also sells soundbars, wireless earbuds, speakers and automobile audio devices. It sold a bunch that built auditorium sound systems other skilled environments within the last 12 months.
The audio market has grown since Bose was certainly one of the few high-end brands.
Bose now competes with a few of the largest corporations on this planet, including Applewhich bought Beats Electronics for $3 billion in 2014 and launched the AirPods in 2016, targeting the premium headphone market.
There's also recent audio-focused competition for Bose.
Sonos, best known for its home speakers, introduced its first noise-cancelling headphones earlier this 12 months, although the corporate has been hit by an app redesign in May that was poorly received by users. In the last decade, Bose has also developed smart speakers comparable to: B. competes Amazon And Google whose prices were often aggressively low to encourage adoption.
Buying the 2 luxury audio repair shops could help Bose grow within the automobile stereo market, which accounts for a few third of the corporate's overall business, in line with Snyder. For example, Sonus Faber makes speakers for Lamborghini cars, and a few Jeeps have a McIntosh-branded audio system. One possibility Bose is worked up about is integrating its noise-cancellation technology into electric cars to make the vehicle's ride quieter, she said.
“Today there are places where the Bose brand probably can’t go. Lamborghini is a great example of that,” said Snyder. “You really want the very best cutting-edge technology to be in these luxury or performance vehicles.”
REGARD: Why the hearing aid industry will grow
image credit : www.cnbc.com