General Forum

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

Alex — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:32:56 GMT

Samsung and B&O collaborate on more than you'd think. The LCD panels in BV7 are sourced from Samsung, obviously they manufacture Serene & Serenata, B&O (apparently ... I still don't believe it) designed that cheap Bluetooth Earpiece Samsung released a few months back and it was actually in the last quarterly report that all upcoming Samsung music phones will in one way or another feature ICE power amplifiers. At the end of the day, the ICE Power division of the company is there to for supply other manufacturers with chips and amps, not just to look pretty and give us a nice "buzz word" to use when selling BeoLab 5s!

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

Christian — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:59:03 GMT

soundproof:

He-he. He'll eat crow. Could be he's thinking of the relative voting power of the shares.
Thanks for the clarification!

You're welcome. Anyway he will probably have a very good explanation.

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

andyp — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:52:47 GMT

Samsung need B&O for one thing: brand support.

They wouldn't be interested in B&O for design, they have a massive team of excellent designers around the world, including Samsung Europe based in London which drives most of the creative / blue sky concepts: a more creative and informed team would be hard to find (and that includes Lewis' consultancy).

The current range of Samsung products are excellent, from their GUI to product design; good work which do not look at B&O but are general contemporary product design. I would actually say that B&O have changed their language recently to become more contemporary and less 'classic B&O'. The BV8, with its radii detailing is a clear example of B&O looking to update their aesthetic values.

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

soundproof — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:45:51 GMT

He-he. He'll eat crow. Could be he's thinking of the relative voting power of the shares.

Thanks for the clarification!

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

Christian — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:38:10 GMT

soundproof:
Christian:

soundproof:
Am I wrong in remembering that 60% of the shares in B&O are still in the hands of the descendants of the founders? And that only 40% are on the exchange?
It is a little more complicated. I DK we typically have two classes of shares A and B. A-shares has 10 times more voting power than B-shares. The descendants control the firm, but they are not the majority shareholder. You cannot buy A-shares off the market.
Dividends, however, are distributed equally between A and B shares.
Yes, but I do think the split is 60% A shares and 40% B shares. About 40% of the shares are tradeable, I'm being told by my business partner, who does way too much such trading. He'll hate it if I tell him he's wrong, so just let me know.

He is wrong The split is actually almost 1:10. According to the annual report for 05/06, published medio 2006, there was issued 1.1 mill A shares and 11.3 mill B shares. At the time B&O Corp. owned 0.6 mill shares. Nothing about the distribution of value, however the holders of A shares controlles over 50 percent of the votes.

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

mobeyone — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 06:26:02 GMT

Gatex:
samsung is developing nearly everything from lcd to semi-conductor. What they need is to hire some B&o designer then no need to buy up B&o.

I think you can see the influence in a lot of samsung designs now, their range of digital cameras were very avantgarde and plasmas do have that B&O look about them...

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

Alex — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 06:07:49 GMT

godotz:

IMHO , the B&O / SAMSUNG relation looks like the case of LEICA and PANASONIC . if somebody tell me one day that SAMSUNG is offering to buy up B&O , i will be feel surprise .
OPPORTUNITIES (LET'S MAKE LOTS OF MONEY) Lyrics of PET SHOP BOYS
" I've got the brains, you've got the looks
Let's make lots of money ."

samsung is developing nearly everything from lcd to semi-conductor. What they need is to hire some B&o designer then no need to buy up B&o.

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

soundproof — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 06:02:21 GMT

Christian:
soundproof:
Am I wrong in remembering that 60% of the shares in B&O are still in the hands of the descendants of the founders? And that only 40% are on the exchange?
It is a little more complicated. I DK we typically have two classes of shares A and B. A-shares has 10 times more voting power than B-shares. The descendants control the firm, but they are not the majority shareholder. You cannot buy A-shares off the market.
Dividends, however, are distributed equally between A and B shares.

Yes, but I do think the split is 60% A shares and 40% B shares. About 40% of the shares are tradeable, I'm being told by my business partner, who does way too much such trading. He'll hate it if I tell him he's wrong, so just let me know.

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

frog — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 05:53:59 GMT

I really can't see the alarm raised - it is entirely normal for a company to license any technology they develop to third parties and it doesn't mean that they are being taken over. It is just good commercial sense in that a generic technology can have more outlets than just those used by the originating company.

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

godotz — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 04:49:23 GMT

IMHO , the B&O / SAMSUNG relation looks like the case of LEICA and PANASONIC . if somebody tell me one day that SAMSUNG is offering to buy up B&O , i will be feel surprise .

OPPORTUNITIES (LET'S MAKE LOTS OF MONEY) Lyrics of PET SHOP BOYS

" I've got the brains, you've got the looks
Let's make lots of money ."

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

Christian — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 04:32:11 GMT

Add Henry: You are welcome!

Regarding Samsung and generel cooporation with other compagnies: I think it is ok, and necessary, that B&O buys much of the component from other manufactures. However they must never compromize their main values, like design and quality. They can charge 1000 € for a MP3 player if it is "real" B&O, but no-one will pay even 200 € if it is just a Samsung replica.

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

Stars — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 04:16:18 GMT

Christian:

soundproof:
Am I wrong in remembering that 60% of the shares in B&O are still in the hands of the descendants of the founders? And that only 40% are on the exchange?
It is a little more complicated. I DK we typically have two classes of shares A and B. A-shares has 10 times more voting power than B-shares. The descendants control the firm, but they are not the majority shareholder. You cannot buy A-shares off the market.
Dividends, however, are distributed equally between A and B shares.

Nice and informative post Christian, thank you.

I agree with Wings. I was never really happy to hear that B&O would design one of their own products with Samsung.

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

Christian — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 00:24:00 GMT

soundproof:
Am I wrong in remembering that 60% of the shares in B&O are still in the hands of the descendants of the founders? And that only 40% are on the exchange?

It is a little more complicated. I DK we typically have two classes of shares A and B. A-shares has 10 times more voting power than B-shares. The descendants control the firm, but they are not the majority shareholder. You cannot buy A-shares off the market.

Dividends, however, are distributed equally between A and B shares.

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

Wings — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 20:24:28 GMT

9 LEE:

I get a horrible feeling though, that Samsung would love nothing more than to buy Bang & Olufsen. They are a very ambitious company, and what a great little catch it would be to have such a prestige company with such a lovely history under its belt.
...
It would worry me if this were the case, even though they would be a great asset technically. It would just take away some of the "magic" B&O has which lays in it's ownership and history if a mass manufacturer owned it.

Lee

In my mind, B&O has already started towards this path with the Serene. I was disappointed to see the Serene on a wall with all the other scores of cell phones in a "Fortress" store [the local mass market electronics store -- the equivalent of Dixons or Malpins{?}], selling for a few hundreds dollars less than the Serene in the B&O shop up one level in the mall. B&O had its Serene spot-lighted on a revolving platform in a glass case set on a column. My girlfriend said the Serene in the Fortress shop looked "cheap and certainly not worth the price".

Re: Some very worrying news about Bang & Olufsen

9 LEE — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:37:04 GMT

Ah.. this is exactly the question i was asking!

So, i take it that a hostile takeover would not be possible? Can i just say that this is only a thought, and a very unlikely thought at that! It's only a remote possibilty, but one that does bother me as i really do feel a 'part' of B&O !!

Lee