Denon and Marantz bought by US private equity firm

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The new owner is 'Sound United', a division of DEI Holdings, a US private equity firm.

Big changes for two AV stalwarts today, with the news that D+M Group, the company formed by the merger of Denon and Marantz, has been sold to a US private equity firm.

The new owner is Sound United, with Boston Acoustics, Denon, HEOS by Denon and Marantz joining Definitive Technology and Polk Audio on the company's consumer electronics roster. Sound United is a division of DEI Holdings, a portfolio company of Boston-based private equity firm Charlesbank Capital Partners. Charlesbank acquired DEI Holdings in 2011.

As expected, the talk is of expanding product portfolios and extending the reach of the brands, with the new owners eager to stress Denon and Marantz will keep their own identities.

Kevin Duffy, CEO of Sound United, said: "We welcome the addition of the D+M team and are excited to work together to ensure that this strategic combination capitalizes on its global leadership position, while also ensuring that each of our individual brands continues to be highly differentiated in the marketplace. Our existing customers and channel partners will benefit from the enhanced breadth and depth of the combined product portfolio, while our strategic suppliers should be well-positioned to expand with us as we grow.”

However, with plenty of product crossover between Denon and Marantz - notably in the world of AV receivers - it will be interesting to see how the two companies progress following this news.

While Marantz is a more specialist brand, popular in territories such as the UK and Japan, with its headphone and wireless speaker ranges, as well as hi-fi and home cinema products, Denon arguably has the wider appeal.

Marantz picked-up a What Hi-Fi? Award for its CD6006 CD player, while Denon's AVR-X2300W was our favourite home cinema amplifier of last year.

See all our Denon reviews

See all our Marantz reviews

Joe Cox
Joe Cox
Content Director

Joe is the Content Director for What Hi-Fi? and Future’s Product Testing, having previously been the Global Editor-in-Chief of What Hi-Fi?. He has worked on What Hi-Fi? across the print magazine and website for almost 20 years, writing news, reviews and features on everything from turntables to TVs, headphones to hi-fi separates. He has covered product launch events across the world, from Apple to Technics, Sony and Samsung; reported from CES, the Bristol Show, and Munich High End for many years; and written for sites such as the BBC, Stuff, and the Guardian. In his spare time, he enjoys expanding his vinyl collection and cycling (not at the same time).