Audio’s New Powerhouse: Sound United Acquires D+M

Sound United today announced its acquisition of the D+M Group, a move that unites five venerable brands in one of the biggest brand consolidations in the history of audio.

The combined company, which will be known as Sound United, puts D+M’s Denon, HEOS by Denon, Marantz, and Boston Acoustics brands under the same corporate umbrella as the Sound United-owned Definitive Technology, Polk Audio, and Polk Boom.

D+M is the largest supplier of AV receivers worldwide and a leader in wireless multi-room audio, according to the press release; Sound United is the largest supplier of loudspeakers in North America and a leading supplier of sound bars and wireless music systems. The statement said the acquisition will provide “synergy opportunities for the existing core businesses, while also unlocking the potential to expand the product portfolio and market reach.”

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

“Sound United and the D+M Group employees share a culture of innovation and customer focus,” said Kevin Duffy, CEO of Sound United, who will serve as CEO of the combined company. “We plan to leverage those core values in the combined company in order to offer consumers and our channel partners a breadth of complementary products while expanding our investments in technology development and marketing.’

“We welcome the addition of the D+M team and are excited to work together to ensure that this strategic combination capitalizes on its global leadership position while also ensuring that each of our individual brands continues to be highly differentiated in the marketplace,” Duffy said. “Our existing customers and channel partners will benefit from the enhanced breadth and depth of the combined product portfolio, while our strategic suppliers should be well-positioned to expand with us as we grow.”

“By joining Sound United, we expect to deliver tremendous value to our customers through access to Sound United’s aspirational speaker brands including Polk Audio and Definitive Technology,” said D+M Group CEO Jim Caudill, who will continue as an advisor to the consolidated company. “We believe that this transaction will drive compelling opportunities for our employees, customers, and suppliers, and are looking forward to ensuring the success of the new organization."

Sound United is a division of DEI Holdings, a portfolio company of Boston-based private equity firm Charlesbank Capital Partners, LLC. Charlesbank acquired DEI Holdings in 2011.

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“Entertainment is integral to the connected home and our Control4 dealers are designing end-to-end experiences for family room entertainment, home theaters, and indoor and outdoor multi-room music for their customers,” said Martin Plaehn, Control4 chairman and CEO. “The acquisition of Triad brings proven premium-acoustics experience and innovation to our company, enabling us to immediately deepen our entertainment offering and develop new integrated-audio experiences for the future.”

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