Bowers and Wilkins sell Classé

[Audio_ElF]

So Classé has been sold to Sound Unitied (owner of Marantz and Denon amongst others)...

https://www.soundandvision.com/content/sound-united-acquires-classé-audio

[Alaric]

Well, shit.

[Audio_ElF]

Well, shit.

I’m not sure if you think this is a good development or a bad one?

[Ovation]

Denon and Marantz have fared reasonably well in that group, but Boston Acoustics no longer offers anything close to my VR-M series speakers (15 years and still going as of April in my main system) and are no longer on any of my speaker shopping lists. Time will tell with Classé.

[Alaric]

I’m not sure if you think this is a good development or a bad one?

Boston Acoustics no longer offers anything close to my VR-M series speakers (15 years and still going as of April in my main system) and are no longer on any of my speaker shopping lists.

I assume Classe wasn't making (sufficient) money, so B&W got rid of them. I can easily imagine trying to make the brand appeal to a more mainstream customer base. I guess we'll find out eventually. With the recent activity at Classe headquarters, I wonder if all that was sold was a brand.

[Norm]

One also must correlate Classe's sale with Bowers and Wilkins' recent change in ownership:

https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/03/venerable-audio-company-bowers-wilkins-bought-out-by-gideon-yus-eva-automation/

Recall the comments at the time of that sale (quoting from the linked article):
"Bowers & Wilkins, an audio gear brand that has been familiar to millions for decades, has been bought out by EVA Automation, a two-year-old company that has never released a product. Yet the old company’s name and CEO will remain. You’re not going to hear about a weirder deal today. EVA Automation is the company founded by Gideon Yu, currently an advisor at Formation 8 , but well known from his involvement in various top-tier funding rounds at major tech companies, from Square to Facebook. The mission at EVA is to “reimagining the audio/video experience by making products that will change how people interact and think about the home.” That’s proving difficult, it seems: EVA has no products to speak of. Solution: buy a company that does!"

Given the stated goal "reimagining the audio/video experience by making products that will change how people interact and think about the home" my guess would be EVA is more interested in the Zeppelin than a rack of Classé.

[Norm]

Another take: What Really Happened with Classé Audio?

https://hometheaterreview.com/what-really-happened-with-classe-audio/

[Alaric]

Another take: What Really Happened with Classé Audio?
https://hometheaterreview.com/what-r...-classe-audio/

Thank you!

Interesting read. So Classe was a goner before Sound United bought them. It will be interesting to see what they do with positioning now that they have McIntosh and Classe.

[Kal Rubinson]

Interesting read. So Classe was a goner before Sound United bought them. It will be interesting to see what they do with positioning now that they have McIntosh and Classe.

McIntosh was never a part of Sound United.

[Alaric]

Oops. I was thinking D&M Holdings? What happened to McIntosh?

Edit: I looked it up. I didn't know (obviously) that they sold McIntosh that long ago. Today was officially a success, I learned something. :T