MUSIC Group (the parent company of Midas, Klark Teknik, Turbosound, Behringer and Bugera) has announced that it has acquired TC Group (parent company of Tannoy, Lab Gruppen, Lake, TC Electronics, TC Helicon and TC Applied Technologies).
“Since the acquisition of Midas, Klark Teknik and Turbosound, we have been continuously pursuing brands that complement the mixing console, processing and loudspeaker excellence offered by these historic brands,” said MUSIC Group founder and CEO Uli Behringer. “Throughout our search, TC Group has clearly stood out as the ideal match because of their world-class brands, impressive intellectual property, sterling reputation and first-class team of people. I am very proud to welcome the TC Group team into our family.”
According to MUSIC Group, the addition of Tannoy, Lab Gruppen and Lake allows it to round out their professional install and touring sound offerings alongside Midas, Klark Teknik and Turbosound, while TC Electronics and TC Helicon represent the industry’s leading brands in the guitar effects and voice processing sector, and complement MUSIC Group’s Bugera guitar tube amplifier brand and Behringer prosumer division.
Tannoy, Lab Gruppen and Lake will now join MUSIC Group’s Midas, Klark Teknik and Turbosound brands to strengthen MUSIC Group’s continued expansion into the professional A/V market. With the acquisition, Music Group is positioned to deliver complete system solutions to Install and Touring customers, the combination of these brands represents an unprecedented range of choice for the most demanding of applications.
Behringer (right) continues, “We will invest heavily in positioning TC Group’s brands at the very pinnacle of the industry, as we have done with Midas, Klark Teknik and Turbosound, where we have invested over $100 million in highly automated and integrated manufacturing facilities, quality control systems and engineering resources, including a new Center of Engineering Excellence in Manchester, UK.”
“TC Group will now equally have full access to MUSIC Group’s extensive resources and advanced automated system platforms in such areas as product development and lifecycle management, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and finance.”
The music industry’s Borg….
not sure how to feel about this…..
A very aggressive strategy. Didn’t see this coming. What happened to the synthesizer?
gonna be some serious frankenstein shit coming out of all this
If Midas is any indication, get ready to see TC products plugged into new Behringer models (with Midas mic pres) at a tiny fraction of the cost of comparable products.
TC makes some of the best effects and voice processors in the industry. I hope this doesn’t effect them too much. It’s generally not a good thing when corporate umbrella corporations buy up smaller brands. It can lead to a lack of competition and stagnant development.
Tannoy quality took a bit of a hit when TC took them over, but I’m hoping this doesn’t effect the Dynaudio line. Buy ups like this are usually not a good thing.
The Tannoy Reveal range are currently getting the best reviews for a budget line of studio monitors, those 402’s are killing it, at $119 a unit. I think I may get the 802’s, seem to have a great range of 42Hz to 43kHz, which is crazy at that price.
They also make chips that are used by some other very big audio interface companies. It will be very interesting to see how that part plays out.
Clever pun…
They were looking for digital FX for their new analog synth.
Hey, crime DOES pay!
The positive evolution here is that they’ve actually started acquiring intellectual property instead of just stealing it. Although they might as well have invested the money in R&D to come up with original, innovative products.
What I find worrying is their price policy. Ultimately they will be pushing competitors out of the market who are truly concerned with innovation. And I wonder how much they’re paying the workers in their Chinese factories.
The perverse thing about the Germ
This acquisition is not unexpected. The musical instrument/pro sound/recording industry is ripe for consolidation.
Behringer has one of the industry’s most efficient and flexible manufacturing operations in China. And their product quality has greatly improved over the last few years. The new brands will allow Behringer to exploit more market niches, while all of the acquired brands will benefit from Behringer’s better economies-of-scale and pricing negotiating position when dealing with suppliers.
I think it is a good thing. Behringer has much improved over the past years and come up with solid innovation, look at x32 and other gear. They are growing and that’s how they can afford to buy these companies. Just look how they turned Midas around.
Remains to bee seen as to what comes out of this..
A very smart purchase.
Behringer know they need Software support their hardware.
they see akai, native instrument, Arturia, yamaha,UAD Apollo their product huge success.
Of course he need Buy TC to help him.
Well, the positive evolution is that they’ve actually started acquiring intellectual property, instead of simply stealing it.
What I find worrying is their price policy. Ultimately they will be pushing businesses out of the market who are truly passionate about innovation but can’t compete with the “Ikea of audio equipment”. I also wonder what they’re paying the workers in their Chinese sweatshops. When prices are brought down to this level, someone down the line is going to suffer, and you can rest assured it’s not Uli.
The truly perverse thing about the German discount business model is that it puts high-end products within reach of the middle class whilst creating poverty at the same time. By cutting costs, companies like Behringer are actively creating a global class of working poor who can’t even afford one of their $20 Electro Harmonics ripoff stomp boxes.
i was thinking some time ago that Behringers products are getting much better, but their name is so ingrained into the industry as being crap and a bit of a joke that they would be much better served to start another name as well and call their “boutique” products this new name that is not so tarnished.
Alternatively they buy a reputable name and company that has this position already in the market…TC. makes sense….
I’m sure the first thing a Behrigner VP will point out is that a bundle of money could be saved by replacing every 1% resistor in a TC product with a 20% carbon equivalent!
X32 mixer update with TC VoicePlay integration! One can dream 🙂
i love tc’s effects. their toneprint stuff is stellar for the price of admission. the nova line is great too. hoping for the best with this one
I’ve seen this before when Peavey tried to buy credibility. They ended up trashing the Crest Audio brand instead of elevating Peavey. With Uli’s name sake being the main company I doubt he will subordinate Behringer to any of the other brands. Too bad, this does not bode well for “pro” audio.