Samsung buy Harman International

[musht]

Samsungs own press release seems to offer a home for some of them:

 

• Professional: The combination will also expand the combined company’s business-to-business platform through its ability to deliver integrated, large-scale audio and visual professional solutions at stadiums, concert facilities and other performance centers such as The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and STAPLES Center – home of the GRAMMY Awards®

 

https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-electronics-to-acquire-harman-accelerating-growth-in-automotive-and-connected-technologies

 

Bearing in mind Samsung are one of the World`s largest display makers and have more than a toe in LEDs http://www.samsung.com/global/business/led/ means being able to shift more boxes marked Samsung into large projects.

[Judge]

This must be a bit mind boggling to Samsung. Here is a company that makes excellent little products. Millions of them. Low value items in large numbers = monster profit.

Obviously they knew what they were getting and the figures must have made their head spin.

So, these speaker boxes are £15k each, and you need at least 20 to make a system? Plus a £60K console? Plus amps. Thats what...nearly half a million?

And what are these Mac Viper things. £10k each? How many of them are used at The Grammys and other event. Oh, hundreds?

 

As long as the Samsung factor stays well in the background it might be okay. But I would rather see the pro light and sound brands sold off to companies that know what to do with them.

 

I see now that the Harman consumer audio brands are a big deal though. I didnt realise quite how big they were till all this came out: From Wiki

 

"Harman Kardon supplies audio equipment to a several vehicle manufacturers including Audi, BMW, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, MG Rover, Volvo, Buick, Kia,Ssangyong, MINI, Saab, Harley-Davidson, Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, Subaru and Tata Motors."

 

Plus Mark Levinson are also in Lexus cars. Bowers & Wilkins are in BMW, Maserati and Volvo.

So thats a nice slice of the auto audio business to own. They just need to buy Bose now and its a wrap.

[chelgrian]

This must be a bit mind boggling to Samsung. Here is a company that makes excellent little products. Millions of them. Low value items in large numbers = monster profit.

 

Samsung are a South Korean chaebol(1) they make approximately everything from semiconductors to container ships it's just that you only see quite a small area of what they do in the west, mainly in the area of consumer electronics.

 

They are massively siloized most lines of reporting only meet right at the top of the company. Exactly what happens will depend on exactly which bit of Samsung was actually behind this acquisition as management can be radically different between the different bits.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol

[Bobbsy]

Well, considering my 20 month old Samsung TV has just died and with all the furor about the Galaxy 7 note, I assume that Soundcraft will soon be marketed as single use barbeque lighters.