Samsung has completed the previously announced acquisition of Harman (for almost 7.5 billion euros). The completion follows the satisfaction of all conditions to the closing of the transaction, includ... Samsung Electronics Completes Acquisition of HARMAN
Sorry if this is a stupid question but is this Harman international? With brands like JBL and Mark Levinson?
Most people don't even know how much brands Harman has. AKG Acoustics - microphone/headphones AMX - video switching and control devices Bang & Olufsen Automotive Becker - car infotainment BSS Audio - signal processing Crown International - pro amplifiers dbx Professional Products - signal processors DigiTech - guitar products HardWire - guitar pedals HiQnet - audio digital network, based on Ethernet harman/kardon - home/car audio Infinity - home/car speakers JBL - home/car speakers & amplifiers, professional speakers Lexicon - digital processing Mark Levinson Audio Systems - home/car audio Martin Professional - stage and architectural lighting and effects fixtures Revel - home/car speakers Selenium - home, car and professional speakers, amplifiers, sound tables/mixers S1nn GmbH & Co. Soundcraft - mixing consoles Studer - mixing consoles
Complete BS. AKG, B.O, SOUNDCRAFT, JBL have been and still are great maufactures who have supported the Audio industry with outstanding audio hardware for years and along comes Samsunk (not a spelling error) **** it all up. so disapointed with this news.
Most of them, if not all, will probable still continue as before, with Samsungs big pockets as a safty net, while dead weight get the axe. Just imagine the patent&tech portfolio Samsung now can dive into without license fees, and Samsung tech&hardware&fabs these brands now can pick and choose from, well spent billions for Samsung, and probably better for customers and these brands as a whole...
Nooooooooooooo. Samsung will f**ck up these legendary products. Terrible news. Why did they sell? If I was Harman and offered $100,000,000,000, I would never sell. There is more to life than money such as reputation.... Samsung may have some good electronics, televisions, fridges, etc. But speakers? Lol, they are **** and have no experience whatsoever in the sound department so it's bizarre they acquired Harman. Worst news in history...
Harmon have some of the most sophisticated audio engineering facilities in the world, especially their speaker testing labs. Extensive double blind listening tests are conducted on many of the speaker models with hundreds of test subjects evaluating the sound. They really give their all when it comes to speaker design, especially with the high end Revel line. Even the lower tier brands (JBL, Infinity) have some fantastic sounding stuff for the money.
This is going to be interesting to see where these product lines end up going. I absolutely love my two Harman Kardon AVR receivers as well as my full 5.1 JBL Studio-S Series loudspeakers. Yeah, they're big... but they blow away all these craptastic satellite/sub setups everyone loves to buy these days.
Yeah, I wonder about true reasons... Is it to save some cash on licensing or components purchased? Is it to expand Samsung brand? New products. Is it to remove much higher quality competition?