This is official announcement from Sparkomatic, er, Altec Lansing Technologies, er Plantronics, via one of their talking heads:

"I regret to inform you that Altec Lansing Technologies has decided to exit the Professional Audio business. Although the Professional Division has been an important market segment, Altec Lansing and the parent owner, Plantronics, have decided to focus on the company's much more rapidly growing consumer businesses.

* The limited manufacturer's warranty will be honored. Altec Lansing is making every effort to retain sufficient stock to cover the five year limited warranty on Altec Lansing Professional products.

* Should you have any near-term projects with Altec Lansing products, the remaining inventory is offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

* Once Altec have identified inventory that is in excess of their warranty requirements, a list will be generated for distribution with closeout pricing.

* Beyond that, Altec will work with you to cross-reference their product to a another comparable source.

To contact Altec direct dial 1-866-570-5702 and ask for Stan Shields or John Sexton. To reach John by cell, dial 973-997-3771."

Well, Sid Harmon (who recently sold JBL to Bosch), and Bob Pabst should be happy - they got what they wanted...

[ September 12, 2007 07:46 PM: Message edited by: Todd W. White ]

[ September 12, 2007 07:47 PM: Message edited by: Todd W. White ]

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Todd W. White, Owner & Webmaster
Altec Lansing's (unofficial) Homepage
http://alteclansingunofficial.nlenet.net/
Visit my website for lovers of CHAMBERS stoves -
http://www.chamberstoves.net/

Dave

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"When words fail, music speaks" - HC Anderson

Frankly, I'm glad the Chinese stuff is no longer stinking up the Altec name. Sadly, Bill will lose some business, but hopefully we can get word around about bill's products.

I gotta be honest, I can not bring myself to cry for Altec Pro. IMHO they were just fakers.

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"There are four boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order."

I think they just have had enough of the ceiling
stuff and I don't blame them. It's not very prestigious anyway.

So will have to wait and see.

They also have a speaker division and a commercial division.

Klipsch used in theaters
Klipsch also features its speaker designs in the Hard Rock Cafe line of restaurants and in several AMC and Regal theaters.

Theatres such as Hollywood's BM Theatre house are using Klipsch theatre systems for the 18000 audience capacity movie house. On a smaller scale, cinemas like Golden Village (Singapore) used Klipsch custom speakers for their GV Grand and iMAX theatres. iMax have chosen Klipsch to be the exclusive partner for premium sound for the audiences.

LANDMARK WESTSIDE PAVILIONS 12

Los Angeles, CA 90064
Approx. 5.94 Mile(s)

AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE AERO THEATER

Santa Monica, CA 90403
Approx. 9.45 Mile(s)

REGAL ALHAMBRA RENAISSANCE STADIUM 14

Alhambra, CA 91801
Approx. 12.22 Mile(s)

KRIKORIAN PICO RIVERA VILLAGE WALK 15

Pico Rivera, CA 90660
Approx. 16.24 Mile(s)

KRIKORIAN MONROVIA CINEMA 12

Monrovia, CA 91016
Approx. 19.99 Mile(s)

REGAL THE AVENUE STADIUM 13

Rolling Hills Estate, CA 90274
Approx. 22.05 Mile(s)

HOLLYWOOD MALIBU CINEMAS

Malibu, CA 90265
Approx. 23.82 Mile(s)

REGAL LA HABRA STADIUM 16

La Habra, CA 90631
Approx. 24.55 Mile(s)

KRIKORIAN METRO PLEX 18 AT BUENA PARK DOWNTOWN

Buena Park, CA 90620
Approx. 25.70 Mile(s)

REGAL GARDEN GROVE STADIUM 16

Garden Grove, CA 92841
Approx. 29.97 Miles

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Loud Is Beautiful, If It's Clean

The A7 was discontinued long ago. You can look up it's PDF in retired products. Many Altec pro product were retired within months.

And what are you talking about the K-horn is in their consumer division?

The operative word is Legacy. That means discontinued. You are just plain wrong. Altec ain't gonna bring out nothin' but more Chinese toys.

But I am just SURE I read that Harmon sold off some stuff.

Equity Firms Back Out of Harman Buyout
By DAN CATERINICCHIA – 55 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two private equity firms on Friday backed out of their $8 billion buyout of upscale audio equipment maker Harman International Industries Inc., marking the latest such deal to sour amid tightening global credit conditions.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s private equity unit told the company they are under no obligation to complete the merger because "a material adverse change" in its business had occurred, Harman said in a statement.

Harman, whose audio equipment brands include Infinity, JBL and Harman Kardon, said it disagreed, but did not make clear what action, if any, it would take.

Investors punished the stock all day long as word dripped out that KKR and GS Capital Partners were attempting to nullify the deal. By the end of the day, Harman shares had plummeted by more than 24 percent.

A person familiar with the negotiations who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly told The Associated Press that the private equity firms sought to squash the deal over questions about Harman's financial health, not because of any financing difficulties in a tight credit market. The person said the effort to back out was not a negotiating tactic.

Representatives for KKR and GS Capital Partners did not immediately return phone calls Friday evening.

Shares of Harman dropped $27.25, or 24.3 percent, to $85. In the past year, the company's stock has traded between $79.98 and $125.13, which it hit after the deal was announced in April. KKR and GS Capital Partners agreed to pay $120 per share in cash for Harman and the company's board approved the deal, which was scheduled to close at the end of the year.

The once-booming private equity industry has stumbled during the past few months as tightening credit conditions have caused investors to balk at funding the deals. Buyout firms — which snap up companies and then take them private — had grown used to easy credit, but recently have had a difficult time persuading banks to underwrite their takeovers.

While KKR on Friday had success in attracting investors to a $5 billion loan used for its acquisition of First Data Corp., the company originally planned to raise $14 billion but faced reluctance by Wall Street.

Cerberus Capital Management in July had to inject more equity into its takeover of Chrysler Group from Germany's Daimler. More recently, Home Depot lowered the sale price on its wholesale supply unit by 17 percent to complete its sale to private equity firms.

The Harman deal's collapse comes a day after SLM Corp., commonly known as Sallie Mae, issued a statement saying it expects the investors seeking to buy it for $25 billion to honor their commitments. The Sallie Mae deal includes a $900 million breakup fee compared with a $225 million termination fee in the Harman transaction.

About two hours before Harman announced late Friday afternoon that the buyout was off, NYSE Euronext Inc. issued a release saying the exchange had asked the company if there were any events to explain unusual trading of its stock. Harman said at the time that its policy was not to comment on unusual market activity or rumors.

Shortly before 4 p.m. EDT, however, the company issued a terse press release, explaining what had happened.

The credit crisis caused four of Wall Street's top investment banks to report this week that they wrote-off some $4 billion of loans during the third quarter. In some cases, the banks weren't able to find funding for the loans — or they plunged in value as investors retreated.

There also has been a number of reports that major investment and retail banks have approached private-equity firms about calling deals off. The banks have offered to pay the breakup fees to keep the large loans off their books.

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bfish

"We're going ALL the way, till the wheels fall off and burn!"
Bob Dylan, from Brownsville Girl