Author Topic: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!  (Read 2791 times)


OldManC

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Re: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!
« Reply #1 on: October 11, 2013, 03:25:07 PM »
Woo-hoo, price boom coming for pre TPG  guitars and basses! Dude, they were SO much better before those idiots took over...  :mrgreen:

Pilgrim

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Re: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!
« Reply #2 on: October 11, 2013, 03:43:07 PM »
Hmmm...that really sidesteps the firms which used to get the online orders.  I predict highly pissed online vendors who just dropped out of the ordering chain.
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the mojo hobo

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Re: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2013, 03:49:12 PM »
They say they have high aspirations for what the Fender brand can be, engaging music fans on many more levels and points of contact.”

It has already started: http://web.vw.com/coupe/beetle/fender-edition/


OldManC

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Re: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2013, 03:50:57 PM »

the mojo hobo

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Re: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2013, 03:52:00 PM »
Hmmm...that really sidesteps the firms which used to get the online orders.  I predict highly pissed online vendors who just dropped out of the ordering chain.

I doubt they will match pricing of the online mass resellers. It sounds like an online custom shop more likely on the order of Carvin.

Dave W

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Re: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2013, 03:54:06 PM »
This is news to me, but looks like they're still FMIC. At the time of the IPO that was pulled, Weston Presidio Capital and Yamano of Japan owned a majority of the privately held shares, but Servco was one of the shareholders. Obviously Weston has sold to TPG Capital.

The bottom line is that FMIC has been majority owned by venture capital firms for several years now.

The direct ordering could be great or a disaster, depends on the pricing.

Psycho Bass Guy

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Re: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2013, 04:02:43 PM »
I doubt they will match pricing of the online mass resellers. It sounds like an online custom shop more likely on the order of Carvin.

I'm willing to bet they start limiting Custom Shop and US-made instrument sales to dealers to force higher margins while marketing only mid-low tier instruments at retail. Ever price a Carvin? By the time you add all the "options" to one of their instruments that come standard on most US-made instruments from other manufacturers, they cost $500-1000 more to something comparable from a dealer.

Obviously Weston has sold to TPG Capital.


TPG Capital is a real estate venture group. Loud Technologies anyone?

Quote
The direct ordering could be great or a disaster, depends on the pricing.

If their updated retail prices are any indication, it's gonna be VERY bad. An AMST Jazz now retails for $1889.99 and sells for around $1300. Especially in this economy, charging investment premium prices for new standard guitars is idiocy. You can get a Gibson for that kind of money!  ;)
« Last Edit: October 11, 2013, 04:09:51 PM by Psycho Bass Guy »

Dave W

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Re: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2013, 04:14:13 PM »

 TPG Capital is a real estate venture group. Loud Technologies anyone?

Could be, or not. I hope not. They're diversified. Everything from retail to biotech.

If the article is accurate about the two presidents, at least they're guitar fans. That's a start. And they pumped money into refinancing the debt. So I won't assume the worst. It could mean better days for Fender.

Psycho Bass Guy

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Re: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2013, 04:43:15 PM »
Looks like Henry wins.

It's no surprise when one investment group has the same strategy as another. The challenge is to manage the brand both as a manufacturer AND an intellectual property. So far, all Henry has done is plaster the Gibson name on everything BUT instruments and use politics(pretty ineffectively) to try and drum up publicity. FMIC already owns most of its former competitors, and has already all but shuttered many of them. It's much more cost-effective to market crap (SWAG-branding-lifestyle) than make quality instruments that are profitable. I don't get why venture capital went after MI retail so hard. Even with an artificially high market value of $7 billion, it's small potatoes compared to other much LESS expensive industries, yet for MI it's like the 80's was for industrial manufacturers: get leveraged and bought out, shuttered or moved totally offshore. It's not so much that many of FMIC's US workers will be losing their jobs; I've come to accept things like that as a plutocratic inevitability. It's that venture capital considers MI an industry worth destroying. Do investment bankers really want so badly to be rock stars? Wasn't destroying record labels and the world economy enough?

Psycho Bass Guy

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Re: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2013, 04:45:54 PM »
If the article is accurate about the two presidents, at least they're guitar fans. That's a start. And they pumped money into refinancing the debt. So I won't assume the worst. It could mean better days for Fender.

Half of my jabs are in jest, but you've gotta admit, the track record for corporate ownership of MI is pretty dismal.

Rob

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Re: Fender ain't FMIC anymore!!
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2013, 06:46:17 PM »
Half of my jabs are in jest, but you've gotta admit, the track record for corporate ownership of MI is pretty dismal.

So true even for horns etc.