Not sure what the impact of this will be - Fender shares to be released

[gordiji]

apparently they need to do an ipo (share offering) to raise money to pay off debt! i mean wtf. if you can't, with an icon of a brand like fender, during one of the most 'consumerist' periods ever, run a company without a profit there's no hope.(they have $200 000 000 in debt)
when they have shareholders they will need to 'benefit' the shareholders so i can't see it benifitting the guitars as well.
like many things nowadays it will be all about 'brandname' whilst forgetting what made the brandname important in the first place.rip fender. :(

[Elliot]

I think the fact that 40% of Fender has been owned by a private equity firm and 14% by a Japanese conglomeration  for some time would have turned them into a 'brandname only' already but that has not happened - they have a relatively good business model in the form of a sold 'core lines', product at all price point and interesting quirky lines that last a year or two.  And most people agree that Fender are making some of the best guitars that they have ever made.   

Fender's problem seems to have been that they have bought too many subsidiary companies, made a huge loss when the global downturn first hit a couple of years ago and raw material prices rose.

I personally don't think the IPO will do very much.  At least I hope not.

[Twinfan]

Good points Elliot.  Buying Gretsch, Charvel, Jackson etc must have cost big.

[Copperhead]

US Music Corp, Guild, Kaman......

[Copperhead]

....um, Tacoma Guitars.....

[Copperhead]

Kaman in 2007 was the big, bitter pill... "The deal came with distribution rights of more than 100 brands, including the Ovation, Latin Percussion, Toca, Gibraltar, Genz Benz and Hamer."