You know when a company sells off a beloved business and stuff goes really well afterwards?
Yeah, me neither.
So hey join me in pouring one out for Sennheiser.
The unthinkable has happened: audio brand Sennheiser has sold off its consumer products.
Sennheiser signalled its ambition to sell the consumer part of its companyin February.
Its now found a buyer:Sonova, a Swiss company thats best known for making hearing aids.
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Sennheiser refers to this a, umm, cooperation.
But here is where we bump into the first problem.
The press release states that Sennheisers consumer electronics arm has 600 people currently working for it.
Theres no word on how many of these will transfer across.
But you’ve got the option to bet on one thing: it wont be all of them.
It may not even be most of them.
Its done so to make money.
Getting a return on this investment is its end goal.
And this is bad news for audiophiles and lovers of Sennheiser equipment.
A slide in quality seems inevitable.
One assumes Sonova will slash Sennheisers workforce and ship its top minds to work on its hearing aid business.
Sonova will then coast on Sennheisers reputation for a steady stream of sales, despite slowly declining quality.
This isnt a crazy statement Ive written about this sort of brand license buy-out before.
I hope Im wrong, I really do.
I struggle to see any other way itll pan out though.
All thats left to do is enjoy the memories we had together.
See you in Valhalla, Sennheiser headphones.
