Gibson Guitar - T.C. Group (T.C. Electronics) merger.

[TheLiveSoundGuy]

I put this in the Les Paul forum, since there is no OFF TOPIC forum. Admin please feel free to move this thread whever you need to, or lock it for that matter. However I think it's important for those who want to learn more about what the future holds for Gibson.

 

Background:

Gibson Guitar and TC Group To Merge

 

Anaheim, CA (January 22, 2008)--Henry Juszkiewicz, chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar, and Anders Fauerskov, CEO of TC Group, announced that they are planning to merge. The announcement was made at the NAMM Show.

 

"This merger will revolutionize the music industry for many years to come," said Henry Juszkiewicz, chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar. "The synergy between the two companies will allow us an enormous advantage in the development of new audio technologies and brings together two of the world's most powerful brands."

 

"The opportunities ahead are very exciting for us," said Anders Fauerskov, chief executive officer of TC Group. "This merger will create exciting new opportunities for all employees within TC Group and Gibson, and in particular, fantastic new tools for our markets and customers. This partnership will allow us to expand our leadership position in the marketplace."

 

The announcement marks a preliminary agreement between the two companies. Under the terms of the new acquisition, Fauerskov will remain based in Europe, and serve as chief operating officer of the new combined Gibson Guitar Corp. The two companies expect to finalize the deal by the end of February 2008. Terms of the deal are not disclosed.

 

TC Group, headquartered in Risskov, Denmark, is a holding company of five individual companies consisting of Tannoy Group, Lab.gruppen, TC Electronic Group, TC-Helicon and TC Applied Technologies. Founded in 1894 in Kalamazoo, MI, and headquartered in Nashville since 1984, Gibson Guitar Corp.'s family of brands now includes Epiphone, Dobro, Maestro, Kramer, Steinberger, Tobias, Echoplex, Electar, Flatiron, Gibson Baldwin Music Education, Slingerland, Valley Arts, Oberheim, Sunshine Piano, Take Anywhere Technology, Baldwin, J&C Fischer, Chickering, Hamilton and Wurlitzer.

 

 

So how does everyone feel about the merger?

I'm thinking we are going to start seeing a lot more than just robot tuning guitars.

 

This move cements the commitment that Gibson has begun in joining old fashioned guitar making skills, and state of the art electronics. And I'm talking a lot more than just pick-ups and wiring the electronics.

The future of the modern guitar, as well as live and recorded sound, is about to change before your very eyes.

 

Your Thoughts?

 

 

-TLSG

[ALIEN8]

It's an interesting merger. It has the potential to take things to a new level - making a true synth out of a guitar - ie each string on the HD 6.0 could be a trigger for some kind of MIDI madness just to get started. (or even using the new Epi)

 

In the end though, Gibson guitars will probably not be directly affected, unless they start putting chips into the guitars for fx etc which will just make the purists angry. So at least that would follow Gibson's trend to remain controversial.

 

IMO The merger is probably to further the areas of FX and amps etc.

 

Soon we won't have to play guitars anymore, just hit a string, like a button.

[TheLiveSoundGuy]

Very valid comments on the amp and its synthesized future.

If you check the following link:

CEO Forum: Music man turns Gibson Guitar around

 

I think you will find it an extremely interesting read. I did. It seems Henry has been wanting

to take Gibson in this very direction at least since 2006, if not since he took over in the mid-eighties.

 

I would fine it hard to believe that he would settle for just the acquisition of the T.C. Electronics group.

Just the opposite, I would think.

I think it's just the beginning of many more acquisitions to come in the electronics field.

With the current lawsuit against Activision, it doesn't take much of an imagination to see a future settlement,

and actually an alliance with Activision. It just makes sense.

It may very well be a far stretch, but that's how my mind sees it anyway.

[Ignatius]

From the interview with Henry done in USA Today (linked above):

 

Q:What else did you do?

 

A: I said we are going to increase prices. Prices were ridiculously low. And people said, the price has been decreasing 20% a year, how can you reverse that? I said I'm just going to double the prices on a lot of models. I actually tested it and got an inverse price curve. Basically it showed that every time I raised prices a certain amount, volume would go up.

 

Ouch!!

 

and:

 

Q:Are there other companies that you look at and say these are our competitors or this is a company we want to be like?

 

A: I have a couple of metrics, companies that I think have shown exceptional performance and reflect sort of the philosophy that I would like to view in Gibson. One is Nike.

 

Double ouch!! I'm not even sure Nike actually produces anything itself anymore: it is a "brand identity."

 

Ignatius