Sequential responded to me on Facebook when I asked about them moving production to China.
"...Sequential’s day-to-day operations and product development remain unchanged and will continue to be guided by Dave Smith and his team."
That doesn't say anything about production or manufacturing itself. When Focusrite brought Novation manufacturing was outsourced to China with obviously R&D and the day to day stuff remaining in the UK
What can happen in these cases (and I hope it doesn't), is the parent company says "we don't want to introduce product X, because our marketing team sees overlap between that design and product Y that our other subsidiary just released". Not that product cannibalism isn't a valid concern, but sometimes small company independence and innovation gets lost to overall corporate strategy.
Hopefully they stay hands off enough to let Sequential continue doing what they are doing.
Then why buy them?
My guess is there will definitely be changes, the only question is the timescale.
I'm afraid I don't quite don't follow your question (why buy)... there are just as many reasons that an organization like Focusrite might possibly want to expand their product portfolio by acquiring the works of the Father of MIDI and Polyphonic Synthesis as there are reasons Dave would want to sell to them. We could speculate about Focusrite's internal corporate strategy, but it would be just that -- speculation.
I'm not sure to what extent Focusrite let Novation retain their independence, compared to how they operated before. I've had more than one Novation synth and MIDI controller, and I've had more than one Focusrite audio interface, and they more or less felt like two different companies to me. But there are a lot of factors that can affect that dynamic.
From a sheer brand-value standpoint, adding Sequential synths (and their pedigree) to their portfolio is something that a lot of larger companies would be proud to do. I mean, the history behind the Prophet, plus the fact that there is a spot-on reissue of the P5 being sold today. That alone is gold in coolness factor.
Of course it’s speculation, along with every other post here.
Logic determines that there is a cost, that cost has to be offset against future profit.
From my personal experience when the company you work for is purchased, things change. There is a cost.
As you speculate this is speculation, time will tell.
I've had similar experiences when acquisitions occurred at companies I've worked for, although none of these companies were synth or audio companies...they were just mainstream corporate tech companies in hungry pursuit of as much profit as possible.
I've been told that the music instruments and audio industry has a different outlook and has a philosophy that is much more collaborative than competitive. I remember even Pym (primary software engineer for Sequential) replying on these forums with a similar perspective; many others have conveyed the same over the years and from what I can tell, the industry does move to a "different beat" (gratuitous pun). This could be because the fundamental goal of making music is a considered an "art of the heart", and one piece of music typically isn't "better" than another, it's just different, and more or less to the taste of a individual or listening audience... the same can mostly be said about musical instruments.
To attempt to answer the question of "why buy?" (and know I wasn't trying to debate the topic, I truly wanted to understand your question better), I think for Focusrite it is an opportunity to add a truly legendary brand with an awesome reputation to their portfolio... as some said, perhaps their long-term vision is Sequential for vintage analog products and Novation for digital/modern. Or maybe it's such that every synth has enough of its own character that neither of the subsidiaries need to compartmentalize.
Thinking of another past audio industry acquisition that seems to have turned out well is Yamaha's acquisition of Steinberg, another company with a strong pedigree in their niche. Cubase has only gotten better, I suspect some of their hardware offerings may not have ever happened without Yamaha...yet Steinberg seem to have fully retained their own identity some 18 years later. Unless you look for the Yamaha relationship you almost never realize its there.
I think change is inevitable with or without an acquisition -- not many companies just stand still decade after decade. Guess we'll just have to hope the net positive result of changes with Focusrite are greater than they would have been if Dave did nothing and closed shop when he got too old to run it.
58 Replies
16346 Views