Bowers & Wilkins, an audio gear brand that has been familiar to millions for decades, has been bought out by EVA Automation, a two-year-old company that has never released a product. Yet the old company’s name and CEO will remain. You’re not going to hear about a weirder deal today.
EVA Automation is the company founded by Gideon Yu, currently an advisor at Formation 8 (formerly, but not currently at Khosla Ventures, as I wrote mistakenly earlier), but well known from his involvement in various top-tier funding rounds at major tech companies, from Square to Facebook. The mission at EVA is to “reimagining the audio/video experience by making products that will change how people interact and think about the home.”
That’s proving difficult, it seems: EVA has no products to speak of. Solution: buy a company that does!
Actually, strange as it may sound, the deal seems to suit several parties. Bowers & Wilkins is an old-school manufacturer, and a partnership with a bleeding-edge automation company could make for, as they say, powerful market synergy. And as mentioned, EVA needs a product.
“We will have much, much more to announce when the time is right about our vision and our products,” Yu wrote in a post on the EVA website. “In the meantime, we will continue to work hard on developing a truly special, highly integrated, and easy to use home A/V experience that I know you’ll love.”
Not only that, but it sounds like Caledonia Investments was ready to jump ship; it sold its 20 percent stake for $24M and change as part of the deal.
As it would probably result in a mutiny if a baby company that’s never shipped anything took over management of a decades-old industry mainstay, Bowers & Wilkins CEO Joe Atkins will keep his role, though he’ll by necessity be parting with a considerable amount of his 60 percent share in the old company. Yu will be Executive Chairman.
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It’s an odd deal but perhaps one that will lead to prosperity for all involved. Though it may be a while before you see the results of this partnership.
