Wow! Samsung is buying Harman (AKG, Lexicon, JBL, Digitech, etc)!!!

I think consolidation is generally bad but it seems to be the trend in everything lately. Behringer has bought up all the European companies. It is increasingly difficult for small companies to do business. The cynic in me says that's exactly what the governments want as they are controlled by large corporations.
 
Economies of scale and such. And for the right price, what small business owner wouldn't sell, especially at the risk of being run out of business.
 
Its interesting that once smaller companies start kicking big companies asses in innovation and sales, how fast big companies start swallowing up the small companies. Seeing that in the craft beer industry a lot lately. How many of our local craft beer companies have recently been bought by Busch/In Bev because people want to drink good beer, and Busch keeps putting out crap. If you can't beat em, buy em....
 
I mostly share @FractalAudio's sentiments here: consolidation in to mega-corporations never seems to work well from where I sit. That being said, I already looked at Harman as a pretty big amalgamation of companies -- it's been a pretty big holding company of its own for quite some time now. But maybe I'm misstating the size of the Harman Group?
 
Jimmytwotimes said:
Its interesting that once smaller companies start kicking big companies asses in innovation and sales, how fast big companies start swallowing up the small companies. Seeing that in the craft beer industry a lot lately. How many of our local craft beer companies have recently been bought by Busch/In Bev because people want to drink good beer, and Busch keeps putting out crap. If you can't beat em, buy em....
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Around here what they did is strong-armed all the restaurants. Almost every restaurant now carries only InBev products so you get your choice of Bud, Bud Light, Stella, Sam Adams and a few others (or Swill, Swill Light, European Swill and Craft Swill).

There's only a handful of places where you can get real craft beers and they're slowly being overtaken by the InBev goons.

So you get Sysco food products and InBev beverages. Yummy :rolleyes:
 
I am working as an "accountant" in company that does administration and invoicing and accounting for large international corporation made out of many national corporations and while this thing is making a huge profit, I see a lot of rivalry, general mistrust, secrecy whilst at the same time talking about team work and cooperation and achieving better results and more profits. We work hard and the work load gets bigger, but generally it is hard to talk about pay raise.

And I worked in a small company before, where the pay was actually better and everything was much clearer and not layers and layers of management and no responsibility - it is very hard to find people who will actually take responsibility upon themselves when needed, because it is so easy to hide in all that hierarchy mess :)

On the other hand - there are things that cannot be achieved, unless large number of people is involved.
 
FractalAudio said:
Around here what they did is strong-armed all the restaurants. Almost every restaurant now carries only InBev products so you get your choice of Bud, Bud Light, Stella, Sam Adams and a few others (or Swill, Swill Light, European Swill and Craft Swill).

There's only a handful of places where you can get real craft beers and they're slowly being overtaken by the InBev goons.

So you get Sysco food products and InBev beverages. Yummy :rolleyes:
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Yeah - its sad.... Luckily around here we still have a pretty strong craft (beer, wine, and distillery) industry. But, it seems like I'm reading more and more about some of the local companies that "sold out" to InBev or Coors. They current owners always say - " its not going to affect our product - its going to give us more marketing reach". I say BS - once "the man" buys you, then they start saying " hey - why are you buying these really good expensive hops - when you can buy these cheaper ones?" the next thing you know the product suffers. Its sad - I always buy from local companies when I can.
I try to put myself in that situation - what if I'm 35 and owned a small successful company for a few years, and some big company came around and offered me enough money that my family and I would never have to work or worry about money again? I don't know what I would do...
 
FractalAudio said:
Around here what they did is strong-armed all the restaurants. Almost every restaurant now carries only InBev products so you get your choice of Bud, Bud Light, Stella, Sam Adams and a few others (or Swill, Swill Light, European Swill and Craft Swill).
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I live in the land of beer and honey. Move west, young man, and you too can enjoy all the craft beer you can drink and psycho high housing prices! :D
 
FractalAudio said:
Around here what they did is strong-armed all the restaurants. Almost every restaurant now carries only InBev products so you get your choice of Bud, Bud Light, Stella, Sam Adams and a few others (or Swill, Swill Light, European Swill and Craft Swill).

There's only a handful of places where you can get real craft beers and they're slowly being overtaken by the InBev goons.

So you get Sysco food products and InBev beverages. Yummy :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Time to move operations up to VT, where its actually getting increasingly harder to find those swill beers in a restaurant (no complaints from me), even the big chains carry decent local stuff! A tiny gas station near my house carries some of the best beer I've ever drank.
 
We have some pretty tasty craft beer & vodka in Jersey. Luckily they fly under the radar for Coors & InBev.
 
I hear Line 6 is buying out Fractal... *ducks*

Just kidding (obviously!). Like most here I see that kind of consolidation as a dilution of the focus of each component, but it is what it is. Like mentioned by @iaresee Harman was already a grouping of companies, albeit mostly music oriented. Time will tell.

Cliff... don't do it!
 
FractalAudio said:
Around here what they did is strong-armed all the restaurants. Almost every restaurant now carries only InBev products so you get your choice of Bud, Bud Light, Stella, Sam Adams and a few others (or Swill, Swill Light, European Swill and Craft Swill).

There's only a handful of places where you can get real craft beers and they're slowly being overtaken by the InBev goons.

So you get Sysco food products and InBev beverages. Yummy :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Cliff,
Is there much of a brewpub/microbrewery scene in your area?

I'm a little spoiled in my neck of the woods - there's at least 6 brewpubs or microbrewery's within 7 miles of my house and at least that many other establishments that serve a lot of craft beers.
 
dr bonkers said:
We have some pretty tasty craft beer & vodka in Jersey. Luckily they fly under the radar for Coors & InBev.
Click to expand...
Same thing here out in westchester, if anything I'm seeing more and more crafty stuff show up (there's a BBQ place around me that carries nothing but and it's probably my favorite place in the world haha). Knock on wood!
 
It is not very comforting to know that the company that built my POS refrigerator will be steering those companies. It seems to me that businesses with paper-thin profit margins (like the restaurants Cliff mentioned) fall prey to the Engulf & Devour Corporation. The consumer always suffers with fewer choices and inferior quality. Thankfully, I live in TX where we have a bazillion unique (and good) restaurants as well as a thriving craft beer community. If you have an appetite for Sysco food and Bud Light, of course you can find that, but if you want to try the Rabbit Hole Brewery or the Istanbul Grill, you can strap on the feed bag there and enjoy a walk on the wild side.
 
They can have Harman (JBL) - JBL used to be an innovator and supplier of top notch professional products. If you've ever sat next to a dual 15 inch JBL monitoring system cranked, you'll know what I mean! Now - Harman have reduced them to distributors of chinese earbuds, bluetooth speakers, and plastic monitors. In the quest for short term profit, the long term is sacrificed and eventually the core customers go elsewhere.
I miss the Old JBL and companies like them - that have mad scientist types with genuine passion designing products. Please hold out as long as you can Cliff!

Thanks
Pauly
 
Samsung is the Chipotle of electronics now?

//intentionally confusing. Won't eat either product. :)
 
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