Thiel Acquired by Private Equity Firm


Just saw the news regarding Thiel's acquisition. I have an outsider (and mostly uninformed) opinion that the company was very much driven by Jim's vision and that after his passing, something had to happen to replace the energy and focus he had. When the owners could not find a suitable replacement with their own resources, they opted to sell the business. Any thoughts as to what happens now? I am concerned that we will not see future innovations in the same vein as the past (maybe the will move more downstream to grow market share). I also worry that they might lose expertise which could impact their ability to honor warranty work...
miles_trane
Thanks for the heads up - I can tell you from experience that value engineering and better efficiencies will be a big priority. The first innovation from them will be a good indicator of strategy going forward - I am with you Miles growing share will most likely be priority number 1.

Could be a good thing - they have bought a highly regarded brand in the industry that has played in only 1 category for 30 years that no doubt will benefit from an influx of investment.
http://hometoys.com/news/2012/11/29/thiel-audio-acquired-by-nashville-based-private-equity-firm-/20000501

http://www.dealerscope.com/article/thiel-audio-acquired-private-equity-firm-25055493/1
The article mentioned that Gary was a long time Thiel employee. I though he was a fairly new employee?

So who will be designing the speakers now? After Jim passed, they came out with the CS2.4SE which is a CS2.4 with boutique caps and some cosmetic changes. Making new versions of existing products did not seem sustainable to me. I figured that's all they could do without Jim, then they came out with the CS2.7. Who designed that speaker, and who is going to design future products?