Music Group has announced its plan to acquire Denmark-based TC Group, bringing to an end two weeks of speculation and rumour which began in Frankfurt at Musikmesse/PL+S.

TC, which owns Tannoy, TC Electronic, TC-Helicon, Lab.gruppen, Lake, TC Applied Technologies and White Acoustics, was put up for sale in September 2014 (see TC Group on the market, confirms CEO).

Following an early announcement from Behringer this morning regarding the acquisition, TC Group has since posted a clarification: “A contract has been signed with Music Group, one of the largest group of companies in the professional audio industry. The final details are expected to be closed next week at which point the acquisition will be complete,” says a statement on TC’s website.

Music Group, owned by Uli Behringer, is home to iconic British pro-audio brands Midas, Turbosound and Klark Teknik and the eponymous “prosumer” Behringer line, among others.

The current TC Group was formed in 2002 when it acquired TGI plc, a holding company comprising Tannoy, Martin Audio, Lab.gruppen and Goodmans Loudspeakers Ltd (GLL). TC Electronic was founded by brothers Kim and John Rishøj in 1976 as a manufacturer of guitar effects pedals – the name is an anagram of ‘Eccentric Lot’.

“The addition of Tannoy, Lab.gruppen and Lake allows Music Group to round out their professional install and touring sound offerings alongside Midas, Klark Teknik and Turbosound, while TC Electronic and TC-Helicon represent the industry’s leading brands in the guitar effects and voice processing sector and perfectly complement Music Group’s Bugera guitar tube amplifier brand and highly successful Behringer prosumer division,” said a statement early this morning from the Manila-based holding company. There is no mention of the White Acoustics brand.

Founder Uli Behringer commented further: “Music Group stands for relentless focus on innovation, business transformation and overall IP creation. Since the acquisition of Midas, Klark Teknik and Turbosound, we have been continuously pursuing brands that complement the mixing console, processing and loudspeaker excellence offered by these historic brands. Throughout our search, TC Group has clearly stood out as the ideal match because of their world-class brands, impressive intellectual property, sterling reputation and first-class team of people. I am very proud to welcome the TC Group team into our family.”

Uli Behringer continued, “We will invest heavily in positioning TC Group’s brands at the very pinnacle of the industry, as we have done with Midas, Klark Teknik and Turbosound, where we have invested over $100 million in highly automated and integrated manufacturing facilities, quality control systems and engineering resources, including a new Centre of Engineering Excellence in Manchester, UK. TC Group will now equally have full access to Music Group’s extensive resources and advanced automated system platforms in such areas as product development and lifecycle management, engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and finance.”

TC Group’s CEO Anders Fauerskov responded, “We are very honoured that during the acquisition process, some of the largest industry players were bidding for TC Group; however we have selected Music Group as they represent the perfect fit in terms of strategic direction, overall synergies and company culture.” He added that his team were “thrilled” to join Music Group and “excited to enter a new era of unprecedented innovation and growth”.

German businessman and musician Behringer began his ambitious expansion plans in December 2009 when he bought Midas Klark Teknik, comprising console-maker Midas and signal-processing specialist Klark Teknik (see Will everything Behringer touches turn to gold?) and consequently formed the parent Music Group company. He announced the acquisition of loudspeaker manufacturer Turbosound at InfoComm 2012 (see InfoComm double for Music Group: Turbo bought, Midas PRO 1 revealed).

During the Frankfurt show, Music Group is believed to have ended relationships with a significant number of distribution partners worldwide, as part of ongoing changes to its distribution strategy.

www.music-group.com
www.tcgroup.tc

 

@ TheDingus,

Thanks for that info !

It could be a great deal if when this acquisition will be done, 'Behringer's Music Group' would have the great idea to relaunch the production of some of the 'TC Electronic' discontinued products (even under another form) as can be the 'TC PowerCore' Products Line, as well as all (or some of) the Plugin Bundles available for these Products. *yes*
Even if these may not be identical to the former ones, if the main idea and features found behind these 'TC PowerCore' Products could be almost in the same spirit, some (new) Users will certainly be on Heaven !
And I know of what I'm talking about as a proud owner of some of these 'TC PowerCore' Products ('PCI Card' and 'Rack Unit 19"'). *yes*

 

Yeah Behringer has bought up a lot of companies lately!

It´s hard to say if this really has any impact on anything .... if it should improve anything or not regarding the futher development of software etc. Myself: I own several Powercores and was pretty sad when TC Electronic gave up this platform! Could be nice if poco plugs could be transformed into ordinary vst without powercore, but I guess that´s just a dream?!?

TC Electronic has always been one of the greatest developers in music industry, and a lot of their soft and hardware is considered being The State Of Art/Industrial standard! I guess it´s hard to be a small company these days and thats the reason TC Electronic sell out!

Hopefully products by TC Electronic and their sister companies will have a long and interesting development ahead - even they were bought out!!

Cheers

 

When Behringer announced plans to build `Polyphonic Analog Synths` I suspected some promotion strategy in the first. Looks like Uli really wants to know it ... needs some serious guts to gamble on this oversaturated market.
However, exciting how developers keep pushing forward, good luck for these projects I wish.

 

Uli Behringer always did a great job in providing quality for a rather low price. I really believe, he does it rather out of passion than lust for money. The 19 inch V-amp can sound more usable than POD and his Ultrafex exciters are topnotch also. Try them on Vocals n you see, what I mean.
I think, he will take the good Tc stuff (M3000, M6000, Powercore, etc.) and pump it out again as hardware or/and software.
He is a man of taste! You can tell by his plans for synth development. He'S not gonna make money with it in the first years. Admirable!

 

Hope you´re right Sakurahime!

My concerns is stories like Garritan taking over Tascam Giga stuff years back! No develop of GigaStudio, GVI etc .... Garritan simply fucked it up all over!! I fear Something similar!

Cheers

 

Yeah, but Garritan and Giga were in the same ball park. And probably Garritan just threw a competitor out of the race. Behringer and TC are no competitors. Tc is as big a name as Lexicon and Neve, SSl, etc. Uli will not destroy this.
Behringer already released a more expensive 19 inch fx a few years ago, where it is said, that Uli bought Lexicon algorithms and put it in. Perhaps he now just wants to make it right and he is seeing the opportunity.
Back then I was a big fan of Tc and owned the M2000 and D-Two myself, when it was new, but in the last years they mostly put out uninteresting shit only, at least for people like me. And perhaps this is why they got sold. Bad leadership…
Uli will give Tc back to the Gearslutz. It just belongs with them.
And perhaps he is even an educated man enough, to know about the mechanics of good plugins, warez and sales… He definitely knows about the quality of the Tc plugs.

 

Behringer moved from so-so general productions (with some gems, like FCB1010) to a more conventional business.
I think now Behringer haters will laugh less