UNITY, NOT UNIFORMITY

Why Bowers & Wilkins' new owners won't be tinkering with the brand's sound

- Andy Madden

Deputy editor Andy Madden spoke to Harman's Dave Rogers, President, Lifestyle Division about what having so many brands under one roof will mean for hi-fi fans.

The recent news that Harman International's $350 million acquisition of Sound United and all the brands associated with it has been signed, sealed and delivered is one of the biggest pieces of hi-fi news to break in recent memory.

In case you missed it, Bowers & Wilkins, Denon and Marantz are all now under the same ownership as AKG, Arcam, Harman Kardon, JBL, Mark Levinson and Revel.

This makes Harman quite the audio behemoth, with an even longer list of major hi-fi brands under its belt, all with serious pedigree and impressive global reach.

We sat down with Dave Rogers, President, Lifestyle Division, Harman, to give us a bit of background on the deal, explain how Sound United and all its brands fit into the Harman family, and how things might take shape moving forward.

Second time lucky

Early on, Rogers reveals that when Sound United was originally bought by Masimo back in February 2022 for all of $1.025 billion, Harman was also in the mix as a potential purchaser.

"When Masimo bought them, we were in the discussion at that point. We were one of the companies - there were some other parties involved - and then Masimo stepped in while we were talking to them, made the offer that they made, and we stepped away at that point."