Published
Mon, May 6, 2019, 11:30
- The Japanese electronics giant currently holds a 15 percent stake in the separate DJ equipment company.
Japanese financial websites are reporting Pioneer Corporation is considering getting out of the DJ business by selling its remaining stake in Pioneer DJ.
Pioneer Corporation owns a 15 percent stake in Pioneer DJ, a separate company created in 2015 during a deal with investment firm KKR & Co (which owns the other 85 percent). Both parties—Pioneer Operation and KKR & Co—are now considering offloading the entire Pioneer DJ stock to new buyers, reports Nikkei Business. The report goes on to say bidding has already begun with an expected price to land between 60 billion and 70 billion yen, which is upwards of 500 million in US dollars.
Pioneer DJ had sales of over $200 million in 2018. They recently dropped both the SQUID 16-track hardware sequencer and DDJ-800 controller in April alone. Its CDJ media player remains an industry standard of DJ booths worldwide, and according to Nikkei Asian Review, Pioneer DJ controls between 60 and 70 percent of the global share in DJ mixers, turntables and other products.
The separate Pioneer Corporation, meanwhile, is currently restructuring and was recently bailed out by Baring Private Equity Asia, a Hong Kong buyout firm, to the tune of $930 million. Japan Times reports that the deal involved laying off 3000 employees, which amounts to some 15 percent of Pioneer Corporation's total workforce.
This article was amended on May 6th to better reflect that Pioneer DJ is a separate company from Pioneer Corporation and not a subsidiary as originally stated.