audio research sells out good or bad ?

I can say one thing from my job perspective.
I have worked at the job I am at now for 18 years.
When I started here, the company was headed up and run by 2 brothers and they traveled from state to state and country to country to keep there FAMILY buisness thriving.
They took risks and invested in People, the bottom line was impoertant< but the people who worked for them were just as important, over the last 7 yearsmy place of imployment has changed, 7 years ago the brothers retired, they gave the reins to the Family, and in turn the family brought in people who's only interest was $$$$$$.
Our quality has gone down as has the pride and worth of the Associates. so from what I have sen the PASSION of the brother sis GONE, and the only thing now is the $$$$$$.

let's see if the new company can retain and/or attract qualified designer/technicians who can sustain product quality.

all of the comments so far are conjectural. within some reasonable period of time, the viability of the company will be apparent. give the new company a chance to show its true colors.

Very sad indeed. Look what happened to Aragon when Klipsch bought them out. Same deal when Saul sold Marantz and Fisher sold out to Sanyo. Anyway I'm not suggesting that Klipsch is a bad company but buy-outs in audio don't usually result in better new products for the consumer especially since their original designers are not included in the sale. One exception comes to mind where McCormack audio was bought out by Conrad Johnson and CJ kept on Steve McCormack as the principle designer of McCormack audio products, a very excellent marriage of two well respected companies and the results speak for themselves!

My wife, who is an executive at a major bank, very quickly pointed out the sale to an investment firm is not necessarily a bad thing. Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet) is a good example of investment firm that very, very carefully chooses good companies to invest in and keeps the team in place that made the company worth buying in the first place. Sure, we can all try to look into the crystal ball and predict, but I don't think I'd be afraid to buy ARC just because of this.

To all the naysayers in this thread ... take it from me, the employees at ARC are totally dedicated people. The new "owner" is leaving them alone to continue producing that great ARC gear. The attitude of the new owner is (In an Italian accent): "Hey, you guys know what you're doing, so just keep doing it." Sales are going really well, new equipment is on the horizon, and the service will remain great too. Personally, I think we can all continue to enjoy ARC gear for a very long time.