Double edged swords.
I have zero investment experience and therefore can not comment on the value.
But here’s a condensed story I know well.
Bob Alkema started Malibu Boats in 1982, like any company, with guts and a passion by a guy with a dream.
They broke into a market owned by Mastercraft and Correct Craft, and not only became a competitor, but by late 90’s, early 2000’s they were the number one selling tournament ski boat mfg.
At some point mid 2000’s Bob Alkema’s advisors suggested he sell off some of company so he didn’t have 100% of his eggs all in one basket.
So quietly he looked around and the word got out that he was looking for an investor or two to take over less than 50% of the company.
Enter Black Canyon holdings or some investment company that was supposedly owned and run by two enthusiast waterskiers, that loved the idea of being part of Malibu. So they were allowed to buy in.
Long story condensed even more, they were apparently the front men for a much larger investment firm looking to build the next Brunswick.
Within a year Bob Alkema and the three top positions were eliminated from the company.
Within 2 years nearly everyone with a 20 year jacket was shown the door. Then floor managers and money managers from places like Sea Ray, and other volume builders with little interest in retaining quality were brought in. Warranty was declined and dealers became problems. The “Malibu” Implied warranty to take care of customers ceased to exist. Dealers now fought with the customer and the mfg. just to stay in business.
At the same time, Entrepreneurs and inventors are excellent at starting something and often bad at daily business and building a company to new levels. In this regard the “new Malibu” reorganised the work space and henry ford would have been proud.
But the personal touch, the proud employees, it was all gone.
Instead of going to work to build a great boat, they went to work hoping to not get fired. From a love to hate job.
Malibu then went public, started a trailer company for no other reason than investing 1 million in a facility and tooling now shows 5 million better to the shareholders.
Then they bought Cobalt, and announced their volume doubled last year. Hahahaha. If you buy a company producing the same volume then of course your production doubled.
And on and on - bought more companies (Pursuit maybe, etc) because the bottom line is showing value added and potential to the shareholder.
And as a company and product - it’s absolutely nothing like it once was. Better in technology(like everything) and worse in quality.
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