2Rodies

From cyclingnews.com

Bell and Easton join forces
Helmet maker Bell, which also owns the Giro line and tubing and component manufacturer Easton are to merge, the two companies announced Tuesday.

The merger will create a new company, Easton-Bell Sports, out of the two existing entities, Easton Sports, Inc and Riddell Bell Holdings, with annual revenues of US$600 million from cycling, baseball, softball, football, hockey, auto racing, and snow and motorcycling. Easton's chairman, Jim Easton, will be chairman of the new company's board.


This should pump even more cash into Eastons R&D. Also I had no idea that Bell owned Giro!

Bob S.

Wow! Prices up?

billallbritten

Wal-Mart sells Bell (at least it says Bell on it), does that mean we can expect to see nice carbon blingies at Wallyworld now?

GuitarWizard

Ah, I love monopolies....I'm waiting for Pfizer to buy the rest of the drug companies in the world (they only own about half now), and then jack prices way the hell up.

Patriot

Yeah, then the government can come in, nationalize the system, and screw anybody who needs there drugs this week. "Oh, sorry, you have to wait six months for your heart medication, and the MRI to go with."

I hope some little guys come along, undercuts them all, and darn near puts them all out of business.

cydewaze

That's a deliberate misconception of nationalized systems, pushed by their opponents. I used to think the same way until I married someone from Canada. I've had to wait longer for things than she ever did.

Anyway, I don't think anyone was advocating a nationalized system in this case. Some type of regulation to make it harder for big companies to gobble up all the competition is all that's needed. As far as some little guy coming along and undercutting them, I don't think that's likely, as they'd just be gobbled up and dissolved too. Plus, I can't imagine it would be easy to just go out and start your own pharmaceutical company.

GuitarWizard

They spend $100 million a week on R&D.....you think some little company would just come in and buy 'em out? Heh.....

-TBT-

you think the little guy is going to pose a problem for large multi-billion dollar corporations? one of the benefits of merging is economies of mass production and scale. so being small is a bad thing.

on the topic thought, i doubt if this will influence prices much. Likely it will cut both companies ad budgets, which should increase their bottom line. perhaps a small increase in price but i doubt more then a few points. as complacent as US antitrust authorities are, rousing the ire of the EU could hurt business.

mpearson76

These two companies were not competitors! There is no reason to expect a price change. It does not affect the concentration of firms with large market share for any particular product, so the prices of those products should remain unchanged, because the market for each product, and hence the corresponding market price, is unchanged by the merger. We should expect to see profit increase if the new company is more efficient than the two old companies, but prices are determined by the market, not by what the company would like to charge, so you should not expect a change in the price of any of their products. (sorry, the economist in me had to vent for a sec)

cydewaze

As long as Bell doesn't start making all their helmets in Giro shape, and vice-versa. The two helmets have completely different fits.

Patriot

My fault for politicizing the topic. Apologies.

I think competition is a good thing. My remark about the little guys, is that if they are innovative, and make a good product, they can compete with the big boys, and one day become strong enough to put strain on the existing monopoly.

Look what is happening to Ford and GM rght now. The foreign companies are competing, and they just can't keep up. So, they are cutting their size down dramatically. Japanese companies are winning the quality battle. Koreans are winning the budget car battle. The big three have no place in between to dominate anymore, so they are being eaten alive.

My whole remark was really just a tongue and cheek remark about nationalized systems, like health. A cheap humorous stab at it, nothing else. My wife is from Canada, and she both was and was not satisfied with her health care up there. She liked the convience of it, but was not satisfied with the service on many ocassions. It all just depends on what you prefer. Some people like it, some don't.

As for the merger of the two companies, the reality is...

I really don't care.

thebankman

It's hard to compete with conglomerates that own the engineering department, the factory that makes the product, the company that markets the product, and the stores that ultimately sell the product.