SWR To Be Sold Again? Fender Up For Sale

[GeorgiaHonk]

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentSe...=1012571727304

[Finger Blister]

Looks like Fender is up for sale.

Which might mean that SWR is up for sale again
the second time in less then 2 years!

If your interested, here's the article:

Fender sale value put at up to $500m

[Jack]

Cool, wonder if anyone buy them, and is so, who? Be great if they were bought out by someone who understood really how to make guitars.

PS - Not that I have anything against Fenders, im about to buy a USA P in the next month.

[john turner]

this is not bass specific related, so i'll move it on over to miscellaneous.

[Blackbird]

At the time, Fender was owned by CBS, which bought the business for $13m in 1965 from Leo Fender, who created the first electric guitar with a solid body.

Excuse me? Les Paul?

I don't get it. Why would the Fender management buy so many companies (Gretsch, Charvel/Jackson, Guild, SWR, etc.) just to sell the whole lot?

Maybe the upper management realized that Fender's market share is shrinking and they want out while the going is still good.

Sad

[Benjamin Strange]

Bah! I doubt this very highly. Fender is one of the biggest names in the music industry, and I don't think $500 million is nearly enough to buy them. They've been aquiring other brands alot lately, so why sell themselves off?

[XPshychoticXPyr]

And their only worth 500million, i know thats a crap load but with so many companies and being so alrge i figured they would of atleast hit te 1billion mark. Guess i was wrong oh well, as long as the product dosnt decrease in how good it is then there will be no complaigning from me, but feel free to increase how good the products are made and then decreaseing the price i promise ill try not to put up a fight.

-Vince

[Max]

Acquiring the other companies like Guild and SWR makes perfect sense before putting Fender for sale. Strategy would be to have a lot of brands associated with the company to make the over-all purchase more attractive.

[3 crotch grabs]

Originally Posted by Blackbird

Excuse me? Les Paul?

if i'm not mistaken, the earliest les pauls were chambered bodies. but, there were some hawaiian style electric solid bodies out there already. fender was the first spanish style solid body.

[MAJOR METAL]

I would have thoght it was worth more, did anyone of you notice a diffrence in quality when fender boght SWR?.

[Benjamin Strange]

Ok, if Fender is truly for sale, I say we buy it. I've got $5000 to put up. Who's with me?

[3 crotch grabs]

i'll skip coffee next week and throw in $20.

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Strange

Bah! I doubt this very highly. Fender is one of the biggest names in the music industry, and I don't think $500 million is nearly enough to buy them. They've been aquiring other brands alot lately, so why sell themselves off?

$500 mil is a pretty big jump from the $12.5 mil Fender sold for in the mid-80s (source:http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/index.html , go to "timeline"). At the time, many in the industry thought the company was a goner. As big as Fender seems, I can say from having worked there that it's not all that.

[MAJOR METAL]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Strange

Ok, if Fender is truly for sale, I say we buy it. I've got $5000 to put up. Who's with me?

Great idea, lets have the Talk Bass community buy Fender Muscal Instruments as an investment.

[3 crotch grabs]

here, if we can't get the half a billion, we could settle for buying this popular entertainment company:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ken_ranch_sale

[funkyebk]

In their last concert on the roof of Apple Headquarters in the movie Let it Be, the Beatles' entire backdrop was fashioned from Fender amps

Dear Lord! The Beatles Invented Time Travel!!!!

[Baofu]

I'll throw in $1500.

[rabid_granny]

Fender is a private company so it's financial statements are not readily available. I checked one site that posted up to 2002 financials:

2002:
Revenues: $254.0M
Income: $15.0M

2001:
Revenues: $256.3M
Income: $14.1M

2000:
Revenues: $262.9M
Income: $7.3M

1999:
Revenues: $216.0M
Income: $5.7M

The net income amounts are surprisingly low but a buyer doing due diligence (pre-acquisition research) would have a better understanding why it is low.

Also note that acquiring other brands does not necessarily make the company more attractive. If the acquisition is botched, the integration issues may reduce the value of the buyer.

[freshmeat1989]

Originally Posted by XPshychoticXPyr

Guess i was wrong oh well, as long as the product dosnt decrease in how good it is then there will be no complaigning from me, but feel free to increase how good the products are made and then decreaseing the price i promise ill try not to put up a fight.

For real. I hope the qality control goes up, but not the price. I'll be interested to see who buys them. BBE Sound? That would be cool since they already own G&L Guitars.

[joshsmog]

i wonder if they accept visa