Thiel Acquired by Private Equity Firm


Just saw the news regarding Thiel's acquisition. I have an outsider (and mostly uninformed) opinion that the company was very much driven by Jim's vision and that after his passing, something had to happen to replace the energy and focus he had. When the owners could not find a suitable replacement with their own resources, they opted to sell the business. Any thoughts as to what happens now? I am concerned that we will not see future innovations in the same vein as the past (maybe the will move more downstream to grow market share). I also worry that they might lose expertise which could impact their ability to honor warranty work...
miles_trane

Showing 1 response by detoured

Greetings All,
I am writing for new THIEL CEO Bill Thomas who is recovering from surgery. Questions posted to this forum will be addressed by THIEL in as timely a manner as possible. Mr. Thomas wanted to make a few key points:
1) All of THIEL's customers can count on their 10-year warranty being honored along with the same high level of customer service that THIEL has been known for.
2) Our top priority will be to locate like-minded engineering talent of the highest caliber who can interpret and continue the innovation and design ethic that Jim Thiel established for this brand so many years ago. Phase and time coherent loudspeaker design will continue to be the foundation of future THIEL products.
3) Far too much is being made of the term Private Equity Group (PEG). The new owners of THIEL are music and hi-fi enthusiasts who have had a successful track record in business. The press release spoke about “manufacturing efficiencies”...with some modernization at the THIEL factory and new systems in place, we are confident that we can shorten the time from concept to production of new models without any compromise in quality. We will not lower the standards of anything we do at THIEL. The press release also referred to “expanding markets”...While we are still researching and processing a tremendous amount of market data, it is clear that high performance speakers for design and architectural applications are in demand by our dealers and end-user customers. These additional products will accompany our floor-standing speakers in the marketplace. There are many other new product concepts that we are exploring at this time as well.
We are most thankful for your interest in THIEL and for submitting all of these thoughtful questions!