Notice: WWBW now owned by MF

Normally I don't go on consolidation rants ... but this is really bad for some of us. Musicians' Friend now owns Woodwind/Brasswind! This means that a lot of us are stuck for sales tax from yet another site.

WWBW hasn't updated their site yet to reflect this information, and the operators don't like to explain it ... but many of us will be hit with sales tax at the last step of billing, so be aware.
 
And guess who owns Guitar Centre?






The Umbrella Corporation
 
Guitar Center's sister companies/subsidiaries incorporate Music & Arts, Musician's Friend, GuitarCenter.com, LMI, Giardinelli, Musician.com, Private Reserve Guitars, Woodwind and Brasswind and Harmony Central.

On June 27, 2007, Guitar Center agreed to $1.9 billion buyout from Bain Capital, totaling $2.1 billion including debt. The deal was led by Goldman Sachs and amounted to a per-share price of $63, or a 26% premium on the June 26 closing price. The deal was approved by shareholders on September 18, 2007, and closed October 9, 2007.[8]

Bain Capital. The same conglomerate that owns my Hospital Chain and was the big deal with Romney during the run for office. dig deep and you will be surprised at who owns whom???


I also got a catalog from zZounds one day and it had the same warehouse address as the MF catalog. I called and was told they just share warehouse space. They also sold me some swamp land.
 
Just a few notes thoughts:

-This isn't exactly breaking news. WWBW has been owned by MF/GC for years, certainly before WWBW ceased to have a physical location in NW Indiana.

-While MF/GC own both brands, they prefer to keep them separate for brand integrity. Musician's Friend and WWBW have different associations in people's minds, (one is thought of as more of a pro audio/combo shop, and the other is more closely associated with classical instruments/genres,) and the people at corporate want to maintain that brand integrity. Look at it this way: Proctor and Gamble owns a whole bunch of different brands, some of which compete directly, (Fusion and Gillette, for example.) Just because they both exist under the same broad corporate umbrella, doesn't mean that they don't still compete with each other.

-Actually, a lot of us won't suffer sales tax, just customers who live in states where MF/WWBW have physical locations, (and by physical locations, I mean warehouses/call centers/servers/corporate HQ,) which is only about 6 states.
 
Guitar Center's sister companies/subsidiaries incorporate Music & Arts, Musician's Friend, GuitarCenter.com, LMI, Giardinelli, Musician.com, Private Reserve Guitars, Woodwind and Brasswind and Harmony Central.

On June 27, 2007, Guitar Center agreed to $1.9 billion buyout from Bain Capital, totaling $2.1 billion including debt. The deal was led by Goldman Sachs and amounted to a per-share price of $63, or a 26% premium on the June 26 closing price. The deal was approved by shareholders on September 18, 2007, and closed October 9, 2007.[8]

Bain Capital. The same conglomerate that owns my Hospital Chain and was the big deal with Romney during the run for office. dig deep and you will be surprised at who owns whom???


I also got a catalog from zZounds one day and it had the same warehouse address as the MF catalog. I called and was told they just share warehouse space. They also sold me some swamp land.

The funny thing is GC used to be a private company. They went through a lot of trouble to become public and have actual stock holders. Then Bain came along and bought up all the stock and made them private again.

It's been a bit of a pain for Baine though, as with the recession, GC doesn't make enough to pay down the debt incurred from purchasing all that stock.

Which gets really far reaching, because Fender recently tried to go public, but they pulled their IPO because inventors were wary of how much of Fenders sales was tied to a company that deep in debt. And unknown to many, Fender 100% owns KMS, and KMS owns Latin Percussion, Toca, Gibraltar Hardware, and all distribution rights (and much of the manufacturing) of Gretch drums. As well as KMS is a major wholesale distributor for Zildjian, Sabian, Remo, and dozens of other percussion products to stores that don't have direct accounts.
 
Back
Top