audio research sells out good or bad ?

02-05-08: Chadnliz
Well I hope they dont cheapen up quality and performance, guess its a good thing my dad bought his Ref3 last month.

I bought my Ref 3 in March 2007, but my concern is service (though knock wood, I haven't needed any yet). I've heard too many horror stories from Aragon and Mark Levinson owners after their companies sold out. It is comforting knowing, worst case scenerio, that Steve Huntley will be there for ARC owners though....

Cheers,
John

Pops,

That's the corporate World, not just America. In my part of the country German and Australian companies have come in, bought businesses, bled them, shut them down, and then walked away. In one case (Australian) more than 1,600 people lost their jobs.

Tomryan, your so right wallstreet and all foreign exchanges drive business today. And most of the major companies are run by younger ladies and gentlemen and in many cases they have never experienced tough economic times like we are going through today. Expected returns that are unattainable is where desperation and brand killing begins.

I don't think SGR is unintelligent. They have analyzed profits and probably have a reasonable expectation of Return On Investment, not an unreasonable one. That being said, expected ROI nowadays is 38-40%. In my particular industry that's insane, when we express that 25% is about all that's possible, they say "O.k.,we understand- we want 38-40%".
That seems to be pretty universal now.

The upside is that if they can attain those types of numbers, all will be well. Buying ARC gear instead of shying away will insure that nothing changes. With ARC's excellent level of customer support, they could take a hit in that department and still be very good, so I wouldn't lose much sleep over it.

Hopefully, they will keep manufacturing in Minnesota, seeing it change to China production would be the first thing to make me NOT consider buying ARC. I pays the bills and takes the lumps in the High End because it helps support products made in the US and other reasonable economies, if I wanted mass produced mass market garbage I would have a different hobby.

RFG

I would expect more HT from the new ARC now. While I do note the case studies of past buyouts I doubt things will be as doom and gloom as many have posted. Either way it will be fun to watch.