McIntosh purchased by Bose...NOT an April Fool's joke.

....at least it was Bose and not Harmon I guess

How is that any worse than being owned by a private equity firm?  As long as they don’t dilute the product, and from reading the article it seems they understand what the brand means and where it lives within the market (for both McIntosh and Sonus Faber).  I guess we’ll see.

"....at least it was Bose and not Harmon I guess"

There is no "o" in Harman ... ;-)

@ghasley *LOL* "We’re sooo au courant...."

Saw that site this AM and thought another news tidbit that’ll thrill the Mac mob....not.

Mac in Jeeps.....how long before Mac clock radios..... Mac phones (not cells, no...)....

....ChiMac’s.....MacChi....

".....I listen to the ’new Mac’s ’ and I’m hungry for more music in an hour or so....

I know, so rude....kill me later.... ;)

Opened a parallel forum under a different title...y'all feel free to abuse me there.....😏

At least it’s Bose and not Sanyo or Sounddesign.

Trivia: My first hifi was a $199 Sanyo all in 1. Best hifi I ever had in all my 12 years, but at age 12 I yearned for Mac and Bose. Kids will be kids.

Next trip to dealer give the Mac/Bose pairing a fair shot.  If not then back to Sonus Faber just like in the good old days. 

“Unfortunately, the world is officially in decline.“

…Indeed, it is… I can’t think of anything of this magnitude that could justify the world’s decline… Our entire existence feels unjustifiable after this…

1st world problems. 

"....at least it was Bose and not Harmon I guess"

I didn't see Harmon ruin Levinson.

I kinda like harmon jbl crown.revel.went to the foreigner concert they had 6 crown itec 12000 there in play.12000 watts ea I have a few and there great.enjoy the music

Sadly its downhill for Bose from here........My Bad?

McIntosh was spun off twice already by Private Equity.  It wasn’t sustainable for Mac to continue to be bought and owned by Private Equity.  A PE firm buys companies as investments, they know many won’t survive and only a percentage will hit, allowing them to flip those investments for a profit.  Generally, what they do along the way is build up market share and revenue but not necessarily profit, for many companies this leads to bankruptcy or various pieces being sold off leaving usually the weakest pieces of the business left with an unsustainable, survivable amount of debt.  
 

Bose appears to be buying Mac as an entrant into the HiFi, Audiophile club.  They likely paid a lot of money for the company, name, branding and market position.  They could really mess everything up with poor management or if they decide to reduce cost, cheap out on the quality of parts, design, engineering but their main goal going in is to maintain the Iconic Brand and position of Mac along with enabling true, profitable, sustainable growth.  That’s a vastly better starting point than a PE firm.  It could all go to you know what but if Mac continued to be churned through the PE machine being bought / sold every 7-8 years it was inevitable Mac would have eventually faded away either quietly over time or potentially in an epic fashion.  

How many times does this make that Mac and SF have been sold?

Most PE companies purchase a firm with lots of cash and/or good cash flow, drain the cash and replace it with debt, keep the investment for a few years and sell off the asset.  From what I've read Highlander Partners purchased McIntosh, but was very much "hands off" and probably made a good return on their investment because of that.  I suspect that Bose won't cheapen up this brand, too much to lose if the quality slips and it's not respected as the sort of high-quality product it currently is.

@tkrtrb125 ... indeed, best response!!

@blackbag20 Thank you.

Wow, so just for curiosity, I just looked up both net worth and Bose was $5.2 Billion while Mcintosh was around $40 millions....

However.... sad news.

Where’s all the customer service gonna be for all the MAC owners? I guess they’re gonna contact Bose now?