Yurbuds LLC, which carved out a business by designing slip-resistant ear buds for runners and other endurance athletes, was acquired last week by Harman International Industries. While Harman is a major supplier of personal entertainment systems for the auto, home and professional markets, Yurbuds appears to be the company's first acquisition in the active lifestyle space.
“The talented and athletic management team at Yurbuds has helped drive the acceleration of the fast-growing niche of sports headphones and wearables, with best in class design and a rich pipeline of future innovations to enhance the athlete experience,” said Dinesh C. Paliwal, Harman chairman, president and CEO. “We see exciting opportunities to leverage the technologies, brands and distribution systems from our organizations to develop the next generation of headphones designed specifically for athletes.”
Yurbuds owns more than 60 patents and 70 trademarks for design and technology, encompassing headphones, wearables and more.
Harman, which is publicly traded and reported sales of $5.1 billion in the 12 months ended March 31, did not disclose terms the deal or Yurbuds’ annual sales.
Yurbuds co-founders Seth Burgett and Richard Daniels and their 40 employees in St. Louis will be folded into Harman’s Lifestyle Division, alongside such brands as JBL, AKG, Harman/Kardon, Infinity, Mark Levinson, Revel, Logic 7, Lexicon and Selenium. The division is a major OEM for the auto industry and offers a wide range of mid-to high-end loudspeaker and electronics for home, multimedia and mobile applications.
Consumer research from Yurbuds shows that more than 70 percent of consumers won’t work out without music but nearly 90 percent say their headphones hurt or fall out.
“When it comes to providing a premium audio experience, there’s no better name in the industry than Harman, and we are incredibly excited to join forces to enhance the Yurbuds product line, expand our scale and grow the brand around the world,” said Burgett.
Burgett developed the idea for Yurbuds while training for his first Ironman triathlon. An avid cyclist and triathlete, he found that his earphones were painful and fell out of his ears during training. He partnered with Richard Daniels, a 25-time marathoner, to develop a solution and in 2008 the duo founded Yurbuds.
Like Skullcandy, Yurbuds got its start by selling to specialty retailers and has since gone on to expand distribution. Today, Yurbuds products are available at more than 19,000 doors, including big box general merchandise stores, sporting goods retailers and more than 750 active lifestyle specialty retailers.
