Going once, going twice... Black Diamond sold!

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/clarus-to-acquire-black-diamond-equipment-and-gregory-mountain-products-2010-05-10?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Wow..... Looks like BD got bought by a group of investors....

claruscorp.com/

That sucks...

I guess "Employee Owned" is out the window.

not necessarily a bad thing. an investor group coming in could mean more money for an R&D Budget among many other things.

On the other hand, it is very difficult to provide the best possible services when the ultimate goal is satisfying the stock holders. This is why Chouinard has resisted publicly trading Patagonia.

We'll have to wait and see, but I'm pretty skeptical that this is for the best.

I bought some.

This is probably not the best thing. Shareholders looking for ROI are going to want a higher/faster sales curve. Typically means opening up to a larger demographic.

Although maybe BD in Walmart is OK?

The Current BD execs are remaining in place and will own a pretty substantial chunk of the buyer. I just don't see this as a negative, at least not on its face at Day 1.

I'm one to think there are more negative potentials than positive ones with BD's new ownership. Look at how North Face went up and down and back and forth with all their ownership changes. Now they are all about fashion for the most part.

Again, just my Monday morning .02

Seth

North Face was primarily clothing to start with though - jackets, tech shirts, etc - more of a natural progression to main stream fashion to expand the margins..

In my experience with buyouts like this, wehn they leave existing management in place AND give them a substantial stake in the new company - they are looking for it to continue down the path it's been on. In other words, they bought it because it's been working, not because they think they can do a better job with it.

On another note - anyone see any irony that this is announced on 5.10?

seth0687 wrote:I'm one to think there are more negative potentials than positive ones with BD's new ownership. Look at how North Face went up and down and back and forth with all their ownership changes. Now they are all about fashion for the most part. Again, just my Monday morning .02 Seth

True, but I do have to admit that when the Summit Series got a boost again, it was the shiznit. Took a number of years, but it's pretty good stuff!

From reading the article, it seemed more like BD was buying out Clarus (whatever the hell that is...some kind of "virtual" corporation). The new company name will be "Black Diamond Equipment", the president of the new company will be Peter Metcalf, etc.

If anything, it's just a way to take the company public, thus getting their hands on more cash. It sounds like they are interested in expanding their influence in Europe more, and this will help them do that. The odd thing to me is that I, for one, would never want to invest in a climbing company, but maybe that's because I know too many climbers. Let's just say profit is not the first thing on their mind. I think there is a legitimate concern that BD will become more North Facey. If Metcalf retires, how long will it take the next CEO to discover that cams, ascenders and portaledges aren't that profitable, but hats and t-shirts are?

Dana Designs
Jagged Edge
Lowe Alpine
Cloudveil
Montrail
NorthFace

Just a few companies that went down this path. Some no longer around. It will be interesting... I have my popcorn on the desk.

SAL wrote:Dana Designs Jagged Edge Lowe Alpine Cloudveil Montrail NorthFace Just a few companies that went down this path. Some no longer around. It will be interesting... I have my popcorn on the desk.

How well things have gone for cloudveil...

splitterchoss.com/2010/04/0…

Anyone have a pair of Black Ice Bibs size large kicken around?

Mike Anderson wrote:From reading the article, it seemed more like BD was buying out Clarus (whatever the hell that is...some kind of "virtual" corporation). The new company name will be "Black Diamond Equipment", the president of the new company will be Peter Metcalf, etc. If anything, it's just a way to take the company public, thus getting their hands on more cash. It sounds like they are interested in expanding their influence in Europe more, and this will help them do that. The odd thing to me is that I, for one, would never want to invest in a climbing company, but maybe that's because I know too many climbers. Let's just say profit is not the first thing on their mind. I think there is a legitimate concern that BD will become more North Facey. If Metcalf retires, how long will it take the next CEO to discover that cams, ascenders and portaledges aren't that profitable, but hats and t-shirts are?

+1, sounds like Clarus was just an empty publicly traded shell with no operations with over $200M loss carryovers from previous operations. I think this was just the way for BD to acquire Gregory for their larger Asian (Japan, Korea) distribution network and for earlier investors to cash in...