Are Brand Acquisitions GOOD Or BAD?
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- Опубліковано 7 жов 2024
- With the recent Fender acquisition of Persons, let's talk about what can come of such a thing!
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Ever since Gibson bought Mesa Boogie, the 2 music stores that carried Mesa no longer do; from what I understand, this is due to an increased minimum order (or something like that) that these stores can't afford to make anymore.
I actually saw a similar situation with Gibson guitars at my local music store the other day. Thriving store, great selection, decent/reasonable prices... Gibson's??? Tumbleweeds and gunfighter music plays, LOL.
Yea. They dropped the Mesa dealer in my neighborhood too 😤. And these dudes were the biggest Mesa aficionados u could imagine.
Last I heard, Mesa distributors are now required to buy a quarter of a million dollars in Mesa stuff in order to remain a distributor. So, I would agree that Mesa has now access to Gibson's distribution network, but also to their corporate voracious greed.
To sell Mesa products online, dealers will now have to pay massive extra fees. Just one of the really ridiculous demands Gibson is making. Thats why a lot of the Mesa dealers are being dropped. Really parasitic moves by Gibson behind the scenes. Fluff basically did zero research with this video…
Even without modern-Gibson dragging another brand down its bureaucratic rabbit hole, I'll venture a guess that Mesa was not able to adopt to today's budget-digital-centric market, so they're gonna get gobbled. I'm not gonna lie, the bulk of us guitar players (myself included) are more like console/PC-gamers than actual musicians (at least it seems that way).
Off topic, I prefer the old intro tune. This new one doesn't sound like the bass and the guitar gel together well.
@@brianbergmusic5288 True. Covid, inflation, high lumber prices, parts shortage, schumacker going out of business…. All this forced them into making a deal with the devil. Instead to laying off workers and shutting down production, Randall Smith sold to keep Mesa running. Sad, but true.
Interesting that you mention Gibson's distribution network as a bonus for Mesa because after the acquisition Mesas are seemingly no longer for sale anywhere except their own website. At least no longer available in Norwegian stores, nor on Thomann or Gear4Music which have been my go-tos for online shopping. I do like the sound of Fender recording starter packs though, I hope they do something with that!
I know some guys from TC and some of their best product developers left. I know 4 guys who quit the day they found out they sold the company. It's about credibility and freedom. Behringer is a control freak. One of them left for UAV.
I think the acquisitions are always viewed with such fear is because of just how many brands have been killed by mismanagement after the acquisition. Just think of all of the great brands that died under the hammer of Fender/KMC (SWR, Hamer, Tacoma, and more) and Gibson (Tobias, Trace Elliot). These were all brands that had loyal fanbases and made great stuff. Then they were acquired, streamlined, and reduced to the point where they often no longer fit in the company picture. After that, they'd either be discontinued completely or shuttled off again to a new owner just to be a shadow of their former self (Guild).
I know there have been far more good acquisitions than bad. But those bad ones really sting.
Don't forget the highly relevant Gibson killing (as we knew it) Cakewalk.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s different for product companies I would imagine but I was part of an acquisition, they wanted our engineers - we had no product or IP, and 90% of us quit over three years. They destroyed our consultancy with micro management, long hours, outsourcing, and corporate compliance efforts.
I agree that the Presonus move really made sense. I reallllllllly don't like the Gibson management anywhere near Mesa although that move made sense for Gibson. I see this as being more money with fewer companies, potentially closer to monopolies, not necessarily better competition in the long run.
It's amusing to hear your affiliate link bit at the end, because we don't yet know how the acquisition of Sweetwater by venture capitalists will affect that brand.
I mean... Sweetwater already cut down the affiliate time from 30 days to 2 weeks and halved the percentage from each purchase. This was last year during the "guitar boom" too. Still dont understand what the amusing part about it is tho.
I think it would be cool to see like some sort of Fender interface that comes with built in Amp modellers like the Twin, Deluxe reverb etc. Sort of like the Tone Master amps but in Interface form! Thats what i imagine. Get that Twin sound on your DAW!
Being both a business and a music guy, I thought you highlighted some good points here Fluff. People tend to conflate "acquisition" with "hostile takeover" and assume that the bigger brand has sinister intent when sometimes it's just what is best for both brands. I think Fender and Presonus are a good match and I don't think Fender is going to mess with them much.
Also, incredible idea about Fender starter packs coming with a cheap interface, I definitely see them doing that
Nailed it on the head! :)
You literally just popped in my mind while I was jamming (actually on my sons synth this time) and I NEVER see your vids on my main page. I had to bell you now bro! Good to see you are still at it! I'll catch up on content soon :)
Very levelled-headed Fluff! Not worried whatsoever but it's always a good thing to be reminded and also educate others why this is not an apocalypse :D
TC Electronic is basically a zombie brand at this point
Aaaahhh, acquisitions. I've been a software developer for 25+ years straight. I've been hired by two different companies (and only interviewed for one of them), but I have been an employee of 6 (six) different companies. I'm actually quite happy with my current employer, but other buyouts weren't all that great. In my experience, a buyout is good if the parent company is looking to break into a market they don't have (and therefore want to keep the products going), and bad if the parent company is looking to acquire a bigger market share of shared customers (and therefore sunset the products). There can be exceptions to the latter situation (Gibson buying Kramer, perhaps), but I think they're rare.
I liked hearing you comment on a different segment of the music gear industry.
TC electronics can no longer be found in any music stores (at least is Canada) since the Behringer acquisition because Behringer has decided to try to move all their sales out of store to online only
Cosmo Music is currently the sole Behringer/TC Electronic/Bugera etc distributer in Canada. They got it after Long & McQuade stopped distributing those products early last year.
Crazy, glad I grabbed my Flash Back when I did.
no company gibson bought got better lol they destroyed all of them
I really love how people are already trying to sell “Pre-Gibson” Mesa products.
They don’t understand that they’re still using the same parts and employees. They just have a larger budget and better distribution channels now.
That whole Mesa price hike because "Gibson is the Devil" is one of the most infuriating things to happen in the used market as of late, next to 5150s rising in price because of Eddie's death. Gibson haven't even done anything with Mesa yet other than oversee the awesome Badlander Rectifier amps, which as far as I am aware, have been received pretty darn well.
@@blendernoob64 One of the best Rectifiers to date!
I’m seeing a lot of that to,funny because there’s damn sure no shortage of boogie amps that I’ve see,there everywhere
@@tommilitello198 Boogies are notoriously hard to sell because of how expensive they are. My local independent music store stopped being a Mesa dealer because they couldn't sell those things.
They are switching out all the transformers. So no, not the same parts anymore, bro….
Like 90% of these brand acquisitions are fine by me. The issue I have is when they get the names and rights and then completely phase out the brand as soon as possible.
I will never forgive Fender for what they did to Sunn.
Damn. That was like 21 years ago.
Not only did they kill Sunn but first they crapped on the brand first by putting a red knob Fender Twin in a Model T style head cabinet and calling it a reissue.
Didn’t they do a cool reissue?
Well I think TC Electronic actully went downhill. They have not released anything new in the past ~4 years, except some cheap entry level chorus, drive pedals...
The Zeus is a pretty spankin pedal.
Thank you for saying TC Electronic. 90% of people get it wrong and say “TC Electronics”.
Speaking of Presonus, why did you stop using Studio One?
Did not hear about the PreSonus acquisition. I have some PreSonus E5s....
This was my thinking. I use both S1 and the ioStation 24c interface and I’m hoping for a guitar-centric interface similar to the Axe I/O so I wouldn’t have to deal with IK
Gibson buying Boogie was a bad idea, when Randy and Mike retire? Who’s going to do what? The ears will be gone and Boogie will just be a memory
Hey Fluff! Why did you switch to the SM7B for dialogue? Genuinely curious.
Presonus is in that cheaper Behringer/Mackie/Midas class of mixers and the Fender acquisition might push them to pro level status. None of it matters right now since no digital mixers are for sale in the USA.
Just curious, if you were to sell that room with everything in it, what would you're price be?
$100k or so
I got a Presonus Studio live and it bricked itself in like 3 weeks and Presonus wouldn't warranty it
Man, so sorry for that, i don´t know where you live but that is illegal even in most 3rd world countries.
@@pdmcrew80 Canada lol
@@pdmcrew80 Got a Presonus rack mount a year before that.... 2 channels are dead.
Anyone remember Sonar? That got bought from Gibson and is now Cakewlk
About that Boogie/Gibson thing. It might be great for both Companies. But since Gibson bought Boogie, ther's no chance to get the Boogie stuff over here in Germany. I'm intrested in the Badlander, but as a said.. thers no way to get it here.
I'm not going to lie, I'm a flat out Presonus fanboy. I am slightly apprehensive about what the acquisition by Fender, and how they're planning on changing(or not as the case may be) things. I'm hoping that they'll keep people on and around at least until they get the hang of it. The recording hardware industry is VERY different from the guitar industry. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I'm not going to hold my breath lol
Same as you I got a lot of Presonus stuff. But what will happen as with most of companies that get aquired is they'll run autonomously so I wouldn't expect to notice any difference. It's just a way of Fender making more money.
@@broomwinkle of course that's the hope anyway. Behringer's acquisition of TC Electronic was mentioned in the video and from different interviews and articles I've read, it appears as though letting them run autonomously definitely was not the reality.
People don’t understand acquisitions will happen or businesses will fail because they’ll lose out on both innovation and R&D.
Fitbit was taking a huge dump, while Pebble was being liked by their base, and they agreed to an acquisition by Fitbit, which ended with Fitbit having access to all that R&D to go on and make new products. If they don’t work out, they don’t work out. They can choose to innovate or acquire, otherwise, they’ll fail. It’s just how business works.
Most companies buy other companies in these situations to acquire their patents. And I’m sure it’s already been mentioned but many dealers are dropping Mesa due to increased minimum order requirements. Not good. But that’s more the fault of Gibson itself rather than the idea of acquisitions. Personally I think more dealers need to grow some balls and drop Gibson.
Yamaha buying Cubase was also a great move 😊
When Dell bought Alienware, that killed Alienware. BTW Fluff, it's PreSonus! lol
IMO, each case is different. Like, there's the glorification of pre-Fender Jacksons, but they've made so many amazing guitars (except for the JS series, but then again, there were PLYWOOD Charvettes in the early 90s) since, it's hardly justified. On other hand, there are such disastrous acquisitions as of UA-cam by Google, Instagram by Facebook and heaps of different game developers by EA. There's always a reason to be worried, but not to react with instant backlash against the deal. And Gibson? Hell, who trusts Gibson nowadays? They've fucked up so many times, people have lost count.
whats wrong with the JS32? they are killer mod platforms, and still have amazing Jackson necks and plywood is still wood, literally not anything but a griping poiint that sounds like an issue for tone wood warriors
@@FulcrumsEdge True on mod platforms, but as for stock quality for price - they're trash.
@@Admiral_Bongo most guitars at that price range need work, but... anything that actually plays really well at around 300 bucks should be lauded as a gem... I just picked up a lefty JS32 Randy Roads in matte Grey with the Jackson branded FR Special. It's the 2nd JS32 RR I've owned. Paid 315 brand new unopened and was "unlucky" enough to have had a right handed locking nut installed. When I messaged the seller they refunded me as compensation for the replacement locking nut, so i essentially paid 285 after the refund, put a spare lefty nut on that I had around my shop, replaced the string lock screws, replaced the nut locking screws and after i set up the guitar, it hasn't dropped pitch on a single string going on about 2 weeks, minus a couple of cents once in a while that needs the slightest fine tuner adjustment. I also installed a GFS Crunchy Rails humbucker in the bridge. I haven't been able to put the thing down. It's got a poplar body and has perfect density for good pick attack. I'm not done fiddling but to be honest as it sits, it's almost totally stock and is an awesome fun instrument to play.
Just hope they don't "Cakewalk" Studio One.
Randall have been doing great since their take over. Right???? Right????
until the entire music work is 2 conglomerates. coke and pepsi own almost all the food and beverages. if you disagree with the moral alignment of either company, your options are cut down pretty hard. eventually it stifles everything.
fender already owns jackson, gretsch, EVH, SWR, guild, sunn, ovation, charvel, gibraltar, genz benz, hamer, takamine, and now presonus.
gibson owns epiphone, kramer, mesa, baldwin, stanton, krk, steinberger, tobias, slingerland, and cerwin vega.
yamaha, line 6, ampeg, cubase.
PRS is a cult, so they wouldn't get bought. ibanez and ESP do fine on their own, and likely only haven't been bought because they are asian companies. who's got the money to buy roland/boss?
sounds like coke, pepsi, and dr pepper to me.
Behringer Purchased Midas
Roast some rigs.
Ah yes... the Beard Files
An up in price….
Demo the mark IV already
He already did that. Search his channel.
@@jsullivan2112 that video is OLD
Mastodon is goat
Presonus is already a failing company. Fender will mothball their name and use some of their technology in its products. It’s neither good or bad because presonus is basically worthless
Answer: Both.
Love your content fluff!
Oh no the sky is falling! :)