A few more well-known brands in the hi-fi and AV industry are facing an uncertain future.
This is because the owner of the brands, VOXX International Corporation, is pursuing several options to return the company to the black including selling the company or segments of it.
On Aug 27, 2024 VOXX International Corporation, a leading manufacturer and distributor of automotive and consumer technologies for the global markets, announced that its board of directors has been conducting an exploration of strategic alternatives in connection with its ongoing effort to maximize shareholder value.
As part of this process, the board will consider a wide range of options for VOXX, including, among other things, a potential sale of the Company, a sale of segments, operational improvements, or other strategic transactions.
Patrick Lavelle, President and Chief Executive Officer of VOXX International Corporation continued, “We also embarked on a strategic alternatives process to explore all avenues that could generate better value for our shareholders given what we believe to be a significant disconnect in our asset value and stock price. This could mean a sale of our entire business, or additional business or asset divestitures as we still have significant value within our portfolio, as well as owned real estate. Irrespective of the outcome of the process, we are laser focused on getting VOXX back to profitability.”
VOXX has already sold several non-core assets including the RCA trademarks, and the Energy and Jamo speaker brands. These disposals were according to the company’s stated strategy of monetizing assets, realigning the organization and paying down debt.
On Aug 8, 2024 the company announced that it has entered into an Asset Purchase Agreement to sell certain assets, including the Company’s iconic RCA trademarks and other intellectual property, to Established Inc. The total value of the transaction was expected to be approximately US$25 million, and the companies anticipated the deal to close on or before August 30, 2024.
The Energy and Jamo speaker brands were sold to Chinese buyers.
On August 30, 2024 Premium Audio Company, an innovative provider of premium audio solutions announced that Rayleigh Lab and Cinemaster have successfully completed the acquisition of the Jamo and Energy brands from its parent company, VOXX International Corporation. The transaction date was effective August 15, 2024.
Rayleigh Lab, an innovative leader in audio R&D and manufacturing headquartered in Shenzhen, China, is led by its founder and CEO, Thomas Li. Cinemaster, the largest audio distribution company in China, was founded by Xiaodong Yang, who has had a long and fruitful partnership with Jamo since 1996.
That leaves VOXX International with Klipsch, Onkyo (owned in a joint-venture with Sharp Corporation), Acoustic Research, Singsation, 808, Magnat, MacAudio, Heco, Terk, Audiovox, Schwaiger and Oehlbach.
In an earnings call for fiscal 2025 second-quarter results on October 11, 2024, the CEO was asked if Klipsch was for sale.
Bruce Olephant (Analyst, Oppenheimer and Company)
VOXX purchased Klipsch for US$166 million in March 2011, can we make the assumption that in — that 11 years later that Klipsch is worth more than that purchase price?
Patrick M. Lavelle (President and Chief Executive Officer, VOXX International)
Can we, I would say, yes, because adding to the Klipsch valuation is the Onkyo valuation that we acquired back in 2021. They are a much stronger company today technologically because of the combination of Onkyo’s electronics experience and Klipsch’s acoustic experience, and we think that is going to be a big driver for us as we move forward. When we look at the passive loudspeaker today, it is morphing into powered speakers or active speakers, where actually the electronics of pushing the sound through the speakers inside the speaker. And the addition of a very, very strong Onkyo Electronics team is allowing us to develop products that we think are going to be most important as we look into the future.
Bluetooth, broadcast Bluetooth and a number of different products that we will be able to integrate better into our speakers because of our experience with the Onkyo team.
Bruce Olephant
Is Klipsch up for sale?
Patrick M. Lavelle
We are in a process, and that process is to determine the value of the company. And there will be, in my estimation, offers for the entire company, which you’ve seen with the Gentex offer. And we believe that there will be offers for the entire company, additional offers for the entire company, and there will be offers for some of the parts.
So will Klipsch be sold (along with Onkyo?) to another company? What about the other brands? We will find out soon.
