the coverage of this is pretty one-sided. i'm a customer of both specialized and mike's bikes (although not together) and IMO they're both relatively responsible and fair companies from a customer standpoint, with the caveat that like all companies, their primary motivation, as required for self-preservation, is profit.
as i understand it mike's was also in discussions to sell themselves to specialized - and likely several other suitors. obviously that didn't come to pass, and they sold themselves to PON, the parent company of several other bike brands. mike's is pitching this as a surprise that specialized responded the way they did, but there are two sides to every story, and in business most of us will never know the confidential details. they (mike's) HAD to know specialized would respond when they were acquired by a competitor.
i'm not sure how i feel about specialized dabbling in direct to consumer. probably necessary to compete with canyon and vanmoof and so on, but hopefully this doesn't hurt the true LBS too much. secretly, i'm semi-pleased that perhaps the aethos i have on order at my LBS will arrive sooner, since Mike's has always gotten a disproportionate share of specialized bikes based on their long relationship.
