An investment firm owns Gibson and with it Mesa boogie.
Here’s their portfolio:
https://www.kkr.com/businesses/private-equity/kkr-portfolio
Before Gibson filed for bankruptcy they did purchase and run a lot of businesses into the ground. They marketed the name of Gibson and not the guitar quality that built the reputation. These days things are much better post bankruptcy and quality has never been better.
I’m glad Mesa is doing great but Metropoulos is struggling because he doesn’t have the demand Mesa does and caters to a much smaller audience. He’s extremely talented at designing amps but awful at running a business, expansion, and diversification. I wish he could pull out of this but many small businesses that didn’t have enough in savings or a way to diversify couldn’t survive COVID. Now you have a shortage of goods and high demand which drives prices higher, combined with shipping container shortages, making the problem worse. You’re either doing extremely well or you’re barely surviving - there is no in between.
I bet in the next year or so, Marshall, Mesa, Fender start making the amps we've really wanted from them.
A legit Marshall EVH ,Road King with whatever you want etc, and do what most of the "boutique" designers/builders did but take it to the next level and make it accessible to the players with $$$.
I bet Marshall, Mesa, Fender, etc stocked up bigtime on components/supplies and are acting like they're dried up.
BUT!, that's how they'll bleed the small guys out because they're hands are tied.
Wait & Bleed.
Similiar to what Bayer and Walgreens did with
the cannabis fields in California, they own nearly all the large parcels of growing fields.
This move happened right as you started seeing
cbd at smokeshops etc, not stores.
They let us humans do all the testing and murdering each other over the crops (russians).
So by the time you seen it at a health food or grocery store, they owned it all.(CBD)
Seriously about the Russians, they were kidnapping people, burning them alive etc,
and many pot farmers came up missing.
There's TRILLIONS of dollars growing in those parcels.
SKETCHY!