Masimo to Buy Sound United for $1 Billion

Noninvasive monitoring tech firm Masimo began a deal to acquire audio products maker Sound United yesterday. The transaction is valued at about $1 billion ($1.025 billion, exactly). Sound United oversees design and manufacture of audio products including loudspeakers, sound bars, AV receivers, wireless speakers, amplifiers, turntables, and headphones.
 
Masimo will obtain Sound United consumer brands Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Polk Audio, Marantz, Definitive Technology, Classé, and Boston Acoustics. The company also gains online retail and custom installation channels, a cloud-connected home ecosystem, and extensive R&D capabilities.
 
“Sound United is a company with a premium consumer technology platform and iconic, universally-recognized brands like Bowers and Wilkins, Denon, Polk Audio and Marantz, as well as an integrated wireless software platform, HEOS, connecting devices and networks in the home,” Masimo Chairman and CEO Joe Kiani told the press. “The Sound United transaction aligns with Masimo’s priorities, objectives and vision by advancing our strategy of enabling connected monitoring across both the hospital and home. We see significant opportunities to cross-leverage technologies, bringing Masimo’s clinically superior solutions into the home and on-the-go as well as bringing Sound United’s premium technologies into the hospital to advance our hospital automation connectivity and cloud-based technologies. The technology and expertise within Sound United will serve us well as we aim to augment our Masimo SafetyNet strategy. Their well-established reputation and presence in the home can help us accelerate adoption of our wearables, and integrated, home-based telemedicine solutions.”
 
Masimo expects the deal to close in the middle of this year. Sound United CEO Kevin Duffy will continue to lead the franchise post-closing.
 
Masimo also reported its full-year 2021 financial results yesterday. The company’s fiscal 2021 revenue rose 8.3 percent over the prior year to reach about $1.2 billion. In the final quarter of 2021 the company accrued $327.6 million, rising 11 percent over the same period in 2020.
 
“While 2021 was a very challenging year in global healthcare and for millions of patients, we were able to help ease the burden on hospitals and caregivers by providing them with our breakthrough technologies,” said Kiani. “Our team truly demonstrated our commitment to our mission and guiding principles by putting our customers and patients’ priorities first. We manufactured and installed record amounts of innovative products last year, building on our reputation for innovation, responsiveness and dedication to customers. As we enter 2022, we look forward to introducing new innovations and solutions to improve patient outcomes and reduce the cost of care.”