AudioControl chairman and leader for 29 years Tom Walker has sold the audio company to current CEO Alex Camara.
Camara, who joined AudioControl in 2011, said the company has seen double digit growth since 2012 and that he will continue to run it on the same growth plan of the past few years.
“What attracted me originally to the company was the strength of the brand, the product development and engineering…” He said he has worked closely with Walker for the past few years so “it just made it a natural transition to purchase the company from Tom.”
Walker also wanted to ensure that the company was not taken over by a large corporation that would “move it to China,” said Camara. AudioControl assembly is done in Seattle and Spokane, WA.
AudioControl, which sells car audio processors on the car audio side, has about a 50/50 split between car and home audio revenues and says that OEM integration on the car side is a high growth area.
Camara believes AudioControl is in a good position in the industry as aftermarket head unit sales decline but consumers look to other ways to improve sound. ‘Our industry is about to go through a significant technological shift in the car in many ways and at AudioControl, we are poised to be part of the changes ahead with a resilient focus on ‘making good sound great’ which we work daily and are proud to deliver here in Seattle…”
A number of new car audio projects are in development and several new products will launch later this year and into next year, he said.
AudioControl spends a double digit percentage of its revenue in research and development and in November it hired a new engineering manager, Robert Riggs, previously at Loud Technologies.
It also recently promoted Chris Kane to VP Sales and hired in August Sean Reid as National Sales Manager for Car Audio.
It also recently became a vendor to the MESA, the Mobile Electronics Specialists of America car audio buying/marketing group.
The company introduced a new car audio processor at CES, the DQDX, which offers signal delay along with sound equalization and is the first car audio device from AudioControl with a user-selectable crossover. It ships this quarter at $399.
Source: CEoutlook
I met Tom back in the MES Show / IASCA days, a really great guy, with dynamite equipment. Best wishes on your next hobby Tom!