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Altec Lansing- For Sale

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Negotiableterms

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Altec Lansing On The Market
By Lisa Johnston -- TWICE, 7/17/2012
San Diego - Altec Lansing is being sold by its parent company, industry sources told TWICE.

The company has retained an investment banker and is in discussions with a number of strategic buyers from within the industry. The sale process started a few weeks ago.

The brand has been shuffled around in recent years. It was purchased by Plantronics in 2005 and then sold again in 2009 to an affiliate of Prophet Equity LP, a private equity firm, where it was integrated with Avega Systems.

Altec moved its offices to California last year from Milford, Pa.
 
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It would be interesting if the price got low enough to where GPA could reunite the name with the technology. From what I understand of the consumer/commercial split, they'd still have to label their commercial products as "Great Plains Audio," but they could sell real Altec consumer products under that name again.
 
If you really want to screw up a company, all you need to do is pull up stakes and move it - been there - done that - shame on them!
 
24HACKER said:
If you really want to screw up a company, all you need to do is pull up stakes and move it - been there - done that - shame on them!
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Still have their name on the factory in milford, drove by it the other week. Shame to see such a prestigious company thrown around over the years like it has been
 
kn8243 said:
Still have their name on the factory in milford, drove by it the other week. Shame to see such a prestigious company thrown around over the years like it has been
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I never had high hopes for them when the old "Spark-O-Matic" car stereo company bought the assets of Altec and changed their name to Altec Lansing.
 
Maybe

Maybe we could all pool our spare change and make an offer. Couple bake sales and a car wash here and there. Something to ponder. :scratch2: I know, perhaps Bose might be interested! :D
 
DanO55 said:
Maybe we could all pool our spare change and make an offer. Couple bake sales and a car wash here and there. Something to ponder. :scratch2: I know, perhaps Bose might be interested! :D
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Perhaps Bose could devote their marketing magic to get large horn-based systems to have WAF. Heck, if they could pull that off I'd become a Bose fan!
 
Zonker92 said:
At this point, it's just a name (brand), right?
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That is the sad truth. I was in college in the late 60's and used to go listen to the equipment at the local hi-fi shop. There were some great speakers-AR3, KLH-6, Bose 901 among others, but my favorite was that 6 foot tall monster Altec Lansing VOTT in the walnut cabinet with the wood lattice grill. They also had the small WAF model, but the big one had the WOW factor.

The Altec name has gone the way of other great names of that era-Fisher, Scott, Sherwood, KLH, Dual, among others. The names lived on long after the great quality died.
 
Yup. You could brand Chinese toilet brushes with the Altec logo now, for all the meaning it would have. :(
 
It pisses me off to no end in what Happened to Altec ! All It took was a couple douchebag owners to run it into the ground, (James Ling) comes to mind.. They were spun off with massive amounts of debt..Before this,Altec was doing great..They incurred some other companies debt when LTV (Ling-Temco-Vought) spun them off.Debt they were never able to get rid of... So to me, they just destroyed a very viable company for no other reason then they could.Because his other companies were losing money hand over fist..

I too would Love to see Bill at GPA, to be able to grab it !!! :yes: :thmbsp:

@ Negotiableterms - Thank You for posting ! :) I tried to google it but couldn't find anything current..Most current was 2009 (Prophet Equity & Plantronics).Can you keep us posted or post a link to the info please, when it becomes available... Thanks again !
 
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Just a name, that has been run into the dirt from Sparkomatic on - means nothing now unless you qualify it with a date.

Very good thing that the real Altec lives on over at Great Plains Audio though, a very good thing.
 
I was once young and foolish and had Sparkomatic 6 x 9 woofers in my first truck.
PA has had some speaker manufactures that are no longer. One being I.M. Fried who lived in my area.
 
Altec Best said:
It pisses me off to no end in what Happened to Altec ! All It took was a couple douchebag owners to run it into the ground, (James Ling) comes to mind.. They were spun off with massive amounts of debt..Before this,Altec was doing great..They incurred some other companies debt when LTV (Ling-Temco-Vought) spun them off.Debt they were never able to get rid of... So to me, they just destroyed a very viable company for no other reason then they could.Because his other companies were losing money hand over fist..
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Good ol' vulture capitalism...
 
Negotiableterms said:
No problem, as all I did was read the current TWICE article and copy it to start this thread (in case that wasn't clear):
http://www.twice.com/article/487336-Altec_Lansing_On_The_Market.php
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Negotiable, True but since that was the first I had read about it just wanted to Thank You for posting ! :yes: :thmbsp:

Billfort said:
Just a name, that has been run into the dirt from Sparkomatic on - means nothing now unless you qualify it with a date.

Very good thing that the real Altec lives on over at Great Plains Audio though, a very good thing.
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Bill yes just a name.. But it was a great company and we are all very fortunate that we can still buy OEM parts and new drivers with GPA... Better than nothing IMHO... I have been a longtime Altec fan if you haven't noticed.. :D I have since talked to Bill about the sale so he is aware of the pending sale.

sm19422 said:
I was once young and foolish and had Sparkomatic 6 x 9 woofers in my first truck.
PA has had some speaker manufactures that are no longer. One being I.M. Fried who lived in my area.
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Yes those Sparkomatics were junk and I was fortunate enough to have found a pair of Altec Voice of the Highway 6x9 4B's.This model was very hard to find and took me 6 months to locate a pair in NYC, 65 miles from home to give you an idea how far away I was looking for these.They were light years ahead of Sparkomatics.. They sounded like 604's in your car they sound that good..I still have them and they are 30 years old and still playing.. When I first heard these car speakers I was completely blown away at the sound quality..Everyone who heard them ? First question what kind of speakers do you have in there ? At the time it was mostly Jensen Coaxial & Triaxials, and they weren't no competition at all. I still have about 7 pairs of various models, their best being the 4B's in the 6x9's :yes: :smoke:

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Altec Best said:
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One of my favorite Altec ads. Maybe I should do that to my daughter's car once she starts driving. Sure fills up the back seat.....:thmbsp:

And yeah, wouldn't it be nice if Bill H and GPA could grab the Altec name, cause for all intents and purposes, they are Altec now....:yes:
 
Wonder if Great Plains Audio would consider selling stock or doing a bond issue to raise money for the Altec brand purchase?
I'd buy some stock/bonds to fund a worthwhile purchase like that, and I don't even own any Altec gear!
 
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