Confirming a rumour that has been going around for a number of months, the inMusic acquisition machine has gone and snapped up some prime pro audio brands from D&M Holdings. This includs Denon Professional and Marantz Professional, but of most interest to us, Denon DJ.
Here’s the press release from the burgeoning inMusc HQ:
inMusic Brands Inc., comprised of Akai Professional, Alesis, Alto Professional, ION Audio, M-Audio, Numark, and others, expands its technology portfolio with the addition of three iconic brands.
Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA – April 15, 2014. Today, inMusic announced the addition of three professional product brands from D&M Holdings to its existing family of brands. Denon Professional, Marantz Professional, and Denon DJ join a family that includes Akai Professional, Alesis, Alto Professional, ION Audio, Numark, M-Audio, AIR Music Technology, and Mixmeister.
“By adding Denon Professional, Marantz Professional, and Denon DJ to our family of brands, we’re strengthening our base of DJ assets while extending our footprint in the professional market to the commercial installation and contractor segments,” said Jack O’Donnell, owner and CEO, inMusic. “We’re excited about the products and technologies developed by these established brands, and look forward to writing the next chapter in the D&M Pro story by creating new, innovative products for Denon Professional, Marantz Professional, and Denon DJ customers.”
“We are pleased to have reached agreement with inMusic to license the rights to the D&M Pro brands as this is another step in our strategy to continue focusing on our core consumer brands,” said Jim Caudill, CEO at D&M Holdings. “We are confident that inMusic will bring the required focus and investments to accelerate the growth of these well respected brands.”
So inMusic grows even stronger in pro audio, snapping up brands that not only supplement their existing DJ based brands, but also give them a strong foothold in new areas for the group. It really doesn’t seem so long ago that D&M adopted the same aggressive acquisition model as inMusic. The difference here seems to be that D&M has tried to work Allen & Heath and Denon into something more, but now has decided to offload them both in comparatively double-quick time. Just last year, A&H was sold to venture capital company Electra, and now the Denon Pro/Marantz Pro/Denon DJ trinity has been moved on too.
From a DJ perspective, it’s a very smart move. When you compare Denon DJ with the Numark product range, there is a degree of common ground, and areas where both Denon DJ and Numark are strong. But Denon DJ’s higher end offerings, including media players and mixers, whereas Numark is stronger at the lower end (and indeed has no high end mixer offering), will get a serious boost within the inMusic roster. It’ll be interesting to see how the DJ brands will coexist, and if they naturally develop areas where both can prosper. With this move, inMusic just fended off Reloop a little, but also stepped toe to toe with Pioneer.
It’s going to be fun to see what, if anything develops from this. inMusic is becoming a huge behemoth of a corporate entity, and things don’t always move quickly in such things. I imagine that there will be the inevitable reshuffling of heads, rationalising of resources, and all that other business acquisition stuff most of us will never see. But one thing is for sure — inMusic just got a lot stronger in pro audio.