Just to re-iterate that point
This is regarding the Sonova deal in purchasing Sennheiser consumer division. (On a seperate point, even though the buyout price was about 240 million, the ongoing royalty could well be worth anything... Most likely significantly more than the upfront figure)
https://www.sonova.com/en/expanding-our-offering-and-entering-new-growth-markets-sonova-acquire-sennheiser-consumer-divisionThis acquisition supports an important element of Sonova’s strategy – to reach ever more consumers, wherever their journey towards better hearing begins. Personal audio devices have become an integral part of everyday life as people interact with their digital devices increasingly through sound. As hearing loss occurs in most cases as a normal part of ageing, first remedial steps may include non-medical solutions to enhance hearing in specific situations. Sonova believes that such complementary solutions will ultimately expand the traditional hearing aid market by increasing adoption rates. The acquisition significantly accelerates Sonova’s own efforts in this area.
Lets look at this, in terms of a big 5 interested in Nuheara....
"to reach ever more consumers, wherever their journey towards better hearing begins"Does Nuheara reach a consumer where their journey towards better hearing begins? We literally have a co-branded product with one of the biggest computer producers in the world... Is there any way better than reaching a consumer than with a co-branded product given to them when they buy their laptop?
As hearing loss occurs in most cases as a normal part of ageing, first remedial steps may include non-medical solutions to enhance hearing in specific situations
Nuheara.. Via Hp literally provides a stripped down hearing aid for mild to moderate hearing loss that is moonlighting as a video conferencing device... Is there any better way to introduce someone to a hearing remedy than via their day to day ear bud? Nuheara then provide multi level products, already in existence, already being mass produce and in the case of the PRO, already FDA approved.
such complementary solutions will ultimately expand the traditional hearing aid market by increasing adoption rates
Basically, the strategy of the big 5 will be, prove what you can do with hearing loss on the mild setting, to provide a pathway to adoption of the large scale, higher marging hearing aid later in life...
So, what we can see, from this and my previous post...
1. The big 5 know of everything on the market.
2. The big 5 are willing to throw money around if something is de-risked and strategic
3. Nuheara's co-branding with HP (assuming it's as successful as we speculate) provides the exact strategic advantage that Sonova has directly quoted as being the Modus Operandi of a big 5 hearing aid company.
I guarantee, if one the the hearing aid companies is acquiring to move into the consumer product and early stage hearing loss market... The other 4 aren't far behind.
Personally, I feel the only 'speculative' aspect of this entire investment thesis is simply "is the HP product and sales pathway as good as we think it will be?". If it is, I believe the price will take care of itself signficantly more spectacularly than most of us probably think is possible....
Anyway, enough of my late night musings... I had my second Pfizer vaccine a couple of days ago and I think I'm feverish rambling on this post.. So if the editing is a bit off I apologise!
(20min delay)