Great forum.

I'm looking at potential investment with Mackie, and would like anybody/everybody's opinions about their rep, products, future, etc. As you probably know, they’ve weathered recent $ probs via outside investors (ie: Sunn), but their stuff seems over-priced and hyped to me, and that could spell disaster in the current economy. I’m leery of signing on to a sinking ship…

I was born in Bentonville, Arkansas, and grew up listening to a few of the older Wal-Mart execs and their philosophies on investment while I was on the floor playing Hot Wheels with their kids.

I came up with a theory from my childhood experience of overhearing things I probably should not have overheard. My theory has four parts: 1. Invest on inside information; 2. Otherwise, the market will generally beat out handpicked stocks; 3. Look for companies that are ripe to be bought out by someone else; 4. Invest in the monster known as Wal-Mart.

Let's apply my theory to Mackie:

1. Do you possess some insider info telling you there is an upside to investing in Mackie? I'm guessing you don't.

2. Are you aware of any info indicating Mackie will outperform the market? I'll assume the answer is no.

3. Is it possible that Mackie might get bought out by Behringer or another company? I'm not aware of an attractive price/earnings ratio, some unique technology or something else about Mackie that'd attract another company to buy Mackie.

4. Is Mackie a monster such as Wal-Mart or Microsoft? No. Mackie doesn't dominate a single market segment. Mackie took a beating being undercut by other companies manufacturing with cheap labor.

The good news/bad news is that Mackie relies on Guitar Center for about 15 percent of its US sales. This might turn out to be a good thing in the long run as Guitar Center probably dictates price/product/marketing to Mackie which will put it more in line with reality, which is some place Mackie has not been. I'd expect this to also put a downward pressure on the profit margin per item.

Thanks for the interesting thread topic.

--Steve, publisher of Mojo Pie
www.mojopie.com

Thanks for the reply ozraves, you make very good points.

In retrospect, maybe my question should have been more specific (and I shouldn't have revealed my motivation?)...

Why does Mackie command their relatively high prices, and maintain decent re-sale values, when they don't, as ozraves stated, have "some unique technology or something else about Mackie that'd attract another company to buy Mackie", and don't "...dominate a single market segment"?

Sorry if my initial question was mis-leading.

W-

Advertising, Advertising, and Advertising.



http://www.tonavigate.com

Mackie's main asset is the Mackie name. For the guy on the street, the Mackie name means "professional" gear. And, we're talking about guys who don't know a Great River mic pre from an A Designs mic pre. But, they are the bulk of the musical equipment buying public.

Due to its name value, Mackie does possess a possible upside. Mackie sort of reminds me of Harley Davidson some years ago when Harley totally got out of touch with the market.

--Steve, publisher of Mojo Pie
www.mojopie.com

I dunno, Mackie's future just looks to hazy to me. They were a rising star when they were on compact mixers and the 8 bus analog boards, but their product range went to the "a pot for every turkey" approach, that is more specialized products than the market calls for. That and they made a lot of questionable acquisitions, some of which are unlikely to pay off. Soundscape - might well be a great platform, to hear the fans describe it, but it doesn't sell worth a damn. I think they have a new generation digital mixer coming out, but there are some strong competitors that have established userbases and which have already worked out their bugs. And I don't see their M-Box clone taking off. I just don't see a big upward move for them.

Bear

Guys who bought the HR824´s are complaining that is being a pain in the... to find pices like a spare woofer and so... P
I´m happy I traded my 2404 for an 01V OF in 1998.
Behringer acted like a xerox copy, I can not understand how can that be done... similar gear and so...

Eng. Alécio Costa
Studio Digital Performance
Music Producer/Singer/Musician
http://br.geocities.com/studiodigitalp