read all about it http://www.focal.com/

From Focal - "For future success, the key point is that there is no future for a speaker or electronic company alone"....

WTF?

Is this a thinly disguised take over by Focal? just look at the name, no pun intended, it's not naim and co but Focal and co.

I wonder what will happen to Naims own Ovatar range of speakers, also what about their typical partnering at shows such as Neat and Kudos speakers, not that Naim care, I do wonder which way the future lies.

Another nail in the British audio manufactures coffin.

I believe today if your are a manufacture of hifi gear you have two choices, you stay very small and cottage industry, such as a single individual or just two or three people, or you go to other other extreme and become multi national and huge, I can't see how you can survive as a medium sized company like Naim, the over heads must be huge, hence I feel you stay small and keep your over heads to a bare minimum to survive or the other end where you have have huge buying power, but this market is controlled by the Japanese majors and the south Koreans like Samsung, I really think it will be middle sized companies that will suffer during these impossible times, my choice would be stay cottage industry and keep your running costs to a bare minimum.

I also feel Naims portfolio was far to large, I would have kept it far more stream lined, even more so in these times of low demand.

I agree with Adam.

Naim was the one in a precarious position here, being too big to be cottage industry, and too small to go global all by itself. It is very likely they couldn't move forward without a significant cash inflow, which Focal could provide. As I read it, it seems to me that despite kind phrases and lip service about "merging", the point is that Naim was bought out by Focal.

Whether this is good or bad news, we have to wait and see. England has lost another sturdy player, one which I happen to respect a lot, but if it's any consolation, Focal is a wholly audio committed company. It could have been worse, like a Chinese manufacturer of washing machines wanting to break into audio, or some such (the sad, sad fate of the Sansui brand).

Not to raise any false hopes, but when the TAG Group bought out McLaren audio, some very new models surfaced rather quickly, and I doubt McLaren could have done it on their own. Unfortunately, that was the beginning of the end of the purely audio era, so the TAG group, headed by Dr Udo Zuker, a Switzerland based purely investment group looking for large and quick profits, pulled out. Don't know who owns McLaren now, but I do know I don't see their ads any more - anywhere.

Like it or not, but our economic reality will dictate the same fate for the remaining small UK companies, such as Rega et al. Too big to be cottage, too small to go global on their own.

What most people don't understand is that the costs of development are very large. My colleague and I spend the last year researching into discrete Darlington power devices, and even a brief overlook of real costs comes out at over 16,000 euros on that alone. Obviously, we feel it shows great promise, because this type of work will drain your coffers in no time, and results are NOT guaranteed. A company like Naim would have done it in half the time, but using three times as many people and incurring at least three times the price, and probably more. True, it would have provided better quality, and the Naimistas of this world would have cared, but they don't seem to be enough of a customer base to support the likes of and Naim any more.

The general census seems to be that this is the beginning of the end for Naim

It didn't work though did it this great marketing strategy, buyers were not prepared to pay these prices, only a very few, other moved to better vaalue brands, just look at how Linn nearly went to the wall, and now how this merger, a thinly disguised take over, clearly it didn't work.

Hg has a point.

In my view, both companies, and of the two, Naim more than Linn, appear as very old fashoned to the modern public. For this, I blame their stodgy marketing and (exterior) design, they simply never noticed time was first passing, and bypassing them.

Nevertheless, I am hoping hard Naim will survive alongside Focal, and I agree with Hg, they are more complementary than competitive.

Not a clue, give buyers what they want at the price they want to pay.