Røde Acquires Mackie in $120 Million US Deal

Røde Microphones has announced the acquisition of iconic American pro audio company Mackie from Transom Capital, the Los Angeles-based private equity firm. For Peter Freedman, the founder of Røde, this acquisition represents an opportunity to expand its strategy to the complete audio production ecosystem and get hold of another (still) valuable brand. With the acquisition, Røde also gets Danny Olesh, Mackie's CTO and former founder of SM Pro Audio, based in Australia.

With people getting used to store their personal profiles on smartphones and wearable devices, getting connected to the cloud and having smart systems at home and the office automatically adjusting to their preferences, why not enable the same level of connectivity to the tools musicians need to do their daily work? That’s the concept Harman pioneered with a first step on the Connected PA, demonstrated at NAMM 2017.

Harman confirmed the acquisition of SM Pro Audio, based in Melbourne, Australia. The company was incorporated into the Harman Professional Division as a developer of pro audio and musical instruments (MI). At the 2015 NAMM Show, Harman launched the new Soundcraft Ui Series of remote-controlled digital mixers, featuring an integrated, onboard Wi-Fi router, as previously introduced by SM Pro Audio in April 2014.