SOLD! 판매 – Titleist Goes For $1.2 Billion
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SOLD! 판매 – Titleist Goes For $1.2 Billion

SOLD! 판매 – Titleist Goes For $1.2 Billion

FILA Korea Now Owns Titleist!

Yes it is true…after 6-months of rumors, some pretty heavy bidding and navigating through some antitrust issues…the iconic brand Titleist has been sold for $1.225 Billion dollars.  Some of you might remember the name of the new owner….FILA….yes FILA Korea Ltd. now owns (well officially in the summer) Titleist.

Don’t Break Out In To A Cold Sweat Yet

Remember FILA golf clubs from early 90’s?  Well for those that do…the somewhat shocking news today of the Titleist sale to FILA might have you breaking out in a cold sweat.  Well good news…you can relax. The FILA name won’t be replacing the Titleist engraving in the cavity of their clubs any time soon.  And FILA jumpsuit raingear won’t be replacing the FootJoy line either.  Collaborations are often a good thing but we all know that some can lead to disaster.  When you try mixing the likes of a Tupac & Neil Diamond together rarely do you have a #1 hit on your hands.  FILA focuses on a younger audience then Titleist….typically 18- to 34-year-old consumers for FILA and closer to 40- to 65 for Titleist.  So this is not that type of collaboration.  This I feel will be a strictly cash collaboration…and they will pretty much stay out of Wally Uihlein and Titleist’s way.  This is one case where the cliche, “Don’t Fix What Ain’t Broke” applies.

And for those not happy hearing this news….think for a second….it could have been worse…those rumors about Dick’s buying Titleist could have been true ;)  That would have been a catastrophe for the Titleist brand in my opinion.

And when you think of Titleist while Fortune Brands owned them…did you think of Liquor?  Yes the name will change to FILA…but everything else will most likley stay the same.  They would be fool’s to change much about the already most profitable golf company in the world.  They’ve got the #1 Golf Ball, #1 Golf Shoe, #1 Golf Glove and oh yeah there clubs do alright as well.  Titleist will remain a standalone company.

OBLIGATORY LETTER FROM TITLEIST CEO

Wally Uihlein Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

May 20, 2011
To all Acushnet Company Trade Partners:

In December, 2010, we shared an announcement that our parent company, Fortune Brands, had approved a plan for the sale or tax-free spin-off of the Acushnet Company. Today, Fortune Brands announced that it has signed an agreement for the sale of Acushnet Company to a consortium led by Fila Korea Ltd., the owner of the Fila brand globally, and Mirae Asset Private Equity, the largest private equity firm in Korea, as described in the attached news releases.

As one of the largest golf equipment companies in the world, this begins a new chapter for the Acushnet Company and an opportunity to build upon the game’s longest running records of golf equipment success. Titleist and FootJoy are two of golf’s most revered and iconic golf brands delivering superior performance and quality excellence in their respective product categories.

The Fila Korea and Mirae group understand and appreciate our golf industry leadership, passionate associates and our unique and enduring culture. Acushnet’s worldwide headquarters will remain in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and Fila Korea and Mirae have expressed their intent to keep Acushnet a standalone operation and keep the Acushnet management team in place. Together, with our new owners, we share a collective desire to continue to provide you and golfers with the best-in-class products and service that you’ve come to expect from Titleist and FootJoy.

Transition is nothing new for Acushnet Company. The Golf Division was founded in 1932. In 1935, the first Titleist golf ball was brought to market. Fortune Brands acquired Acushnet Company in 1976, and Acushnet acquired FootJoy in 1985. Titleist has been the #1 ball in golf for over 60 years and counting, and a leader in high performance clubs. FootJoy claims the #1 position in golf shoes, golf gloves and outerwear.

The Acushnet Company has long been the trusted steward of the Titleist and FootJoy brands and we remain steadfast in our mission to provide you and golfers around the globe with the highest performance and quality equipment in the game.

We greatly appreciate your loyal support of our brands, products and people, and we look forward to strengthening our partnership with you as we move forward.

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      Joseph Dreitler

      9 years ago

      As a lawyer for 36, many inside Fortune 50 companies and outside in very large law firms, working on deals, it is very clear what happens. Fila paid a large premium for Acushnet and Acushnet sold it to get rid of raider Pershing capital. to pay down that debt Fila will do what all such companies do when making such purchases. They will look to cut costs. That means employees will get whacked, R&D will go down, they will shut down any US factories and move production to China of whatever they can and the quality will go down. Am I just blowing smoke? Take a look at what happens to any company sold in similar situations over the last 30 years. Not just sporting goods companies, everything from department stores to airlines to breweries, the business model is identical. Enjoy your last good Titleist clubs. I will my 714 AP’s but next set will be something else for sure. I am saddened by this. Nothing but paper shuffle to make a few multi millionaires another few hundred million.

      Reply

      nate Tatem

      12 years ago

      My concern is what balls or new product will they put on the market in the near future?

      Reply

      Bruce

      13 years ago

      I have read all the above comments about the good or bad of FILA acquiring acushnet. Nowhere have I read why acushnet had to sell to anyone in the first lplace instead of standing alone with their own directors, staff and workers in Fairhaven, MA. Why didn’t Wally seek a loan and re-incorporate as Acushnet, Inc. period. Someone smarter than I will have to explain that one to me. My guess is that somebody wanted to cash in on the value of this wonderful company. I tried to find the history of the sale to Fortune Brands back in the 70’s and their is very little information available. Acushnet must have been cash short at the time and needed a financial infusion is my guess. The same is now true for Fortune Brands. These conglomerates always seem to have troubles. I am glad Acushnet is out from under its former owner but whether or not FILA will keep its hands off is hard to believe. I don’t buy the argument that non-American firms are not as short term minded as American investors although I agree that capital investors in this country get too overworked-up over the returns for each and every quarter. Not much incentive for R & D with that mentality. Thus this country has lost great chunks of its manufacturing base.

      Reply

      chris

      13 years ago

      you know I have been thinking quite a bit about this and what I may have come up with is that this maybe very good not just for Titleist but for all of Golf, meaning the other golf companies and all the companies players. Let me explain I have been dealing in counterfeit golf equipment for few years now and Titleist is also the leader of trying to keep counterfeit equipment out of the publics hand which is probably impossible. The war on counterfeit golf equipment is as bad as the war on drugs a multi billion or trillion dollar industry. But being Fila is in the korea that gives a lot of power to fighting the counterfeit industry being that the majority of the fakes or counterfeit equipment is produced in the different Asian countries and in China all countries that I believe korea may have close ties to. anyways I was just thinking out loud and I better get to bed have to wake up to hit my Titleist.

      Reply

      Paul Stevens

      13 years ago

      Guys,
      The polarisation of this debate is amazing – you americans seem to care more about “whom” owns the company than the product. (I’m British, living in Australia)
      Chris and Kyle make wide assumptions about whose morals are going to make a better Titliist?
      Its a company, that needs to make profits to survive, develop, and evolve – this move is positive short, medium and long term!
      I play off 15, buy 2nd hand ProV1x’s because I cannot afford to lose 2-3 $7 (Australian) pills in each round. I’m not good enough to hit Titliest irons / clubs, but would not if I was – I’d buy Mizuno! Fila will try to address this “old mans image” at one end of the brand, whilst helping the other get better.
      I’ll keep playing them cut/grazed/off white hard to see tit-lists until they are surpassed, which if you believe the mood in the golf media at the minute, they are being by “asian” ball makers.

      NB I own two putters – a PING “heel-toe” weighted blade, and a Scotty mallet – the PING Anser ‘cos its the best of its type, the RED x just bacause its a “Scotty” for the mojo – one with my head, the other with my heart. Scotty is not mass produced, and will not be!
      Thats golf, and theirs room for both areas of thought with this merger.

      Enjoy

      Paul

      Reply

      Kyle

      13 years ago

      This is just plain sad, call me a xenophobe if you wish, but I don’t like such an iconic American brand in foreign hands, and especially Asian hands. The Titleist I grew up with not be the same brand in the coming years, and I fear that the quality will be tinkered with and ‘perverted’ if you’ll pardon the parlance.

      I will be glad when things aren’t purely motivated by money and profit.

      Reply

      Chris Dzierwa

      13 years ago

      I think Fila Korea LTD purchasing Titleist is a good thing. Koreans love golf and are very nice people. I do hope they come in and shake up Wally Uhelin’s little fiefdom however, maybe even get rid of old Wally and replace him with an Afro-American, Hispanic, Native American, or Asian or Arab. White people, or caucasians, are for the most part passe, and have shown time after time that they have no regards for people, but the utmost respect for the bottom line. They think when they die that they are going to take it with them. What they do on earth to get as much as they can is deplorable and they are idolized. Genocidist Christopher Columbus has a national holiday still! Neutron Jack Welch is a best seller hero, and I could go on and on. I’ve been around the game a long time, and during a recession, I was talking to a titleist salesman at a golf course one day and I said, “Man you got the job! Those Titleists sell themselves!”, and he looked at me forlornly and said, “You’ve got no idea how much pressure I’m under to make a sales quota even though we are in a recession and all my customers are cutting back on their orders.” And I’m like, “Well how can that be? You can’t make honey out of shit!” And he says, “They don’t care, make the numbers or you’re fired.” And I find out that this is regardless of your past success or years of service. That poor salesman was showing physical symptoms of extreme stress. He probably had a family to support and there he was trying his hardest and due to circumstances beyond his control, the numbers weren’t going to happen. Now old Wally could give two shits. In fact, his strategy was probably to fire all his salespeople and replace them with young, attractive, nubile women, that he could then sexually molest. White people are devils! It is time that they are thrown away as chaff. I do hope the Koreans read this and take heart. The world can be changed for the better.

      Reply

      Larry Knotts

      13 years ago

      Still wish Wally had put something together to have kept ownership in the states!

      Reply

      rlogolf1

      13 years ago

      So what do we have left? Adams and Taylormade?

      Reply

      mygolfspy

      13 years ago

      You referring to not being sold?

      Reply

      Greg

      13 years ago

      Adiddas owns TaylorMade. Callaway, Adams, Wilson, and Tour Edge are the only companies of any consequence left with US ownership.

      Reply

      Golfer Burnz

      13 years ago

      Correct me if I am wrong. Ping belongs in this group.

      Larry Knotts

      13 years ago

      Taylor Made is NOT US owned either. Ping is though.

      Reply

      Blu

      13 years ago

      Fila is only half owner. There also is the biggest Korean Headge Fund as the other owner. Yuo show me one hedge fund that doesn’t stick their nose in companies they buy and flip. I am wondering what part is going to be parted out. The ball patents is the JEWEL.. the prize possession.. Fottjoy will survive.. the question is.. Will the Titleist golf clubs survive. They club division is the odd man out. No money in clubs. It is all about the BALL

      Reply

      mygolfspy

      13 years ago

      This is simply an assumption most likely persuaded by the way similar company acquisitions happen in the states. It is much different in Korea however. I have been following this for a few years (Titleist has been thinking about this day for a lot longer then just the past 6 months. There have many times that foreign and domestic talks have started about a possible sell-off of the brand. And one of the main conflicts was how the company would be handled after the sale. They had over 200 initial inquiries this time around, 50 made it to he next level, 24 the level after that, it was then crunched down to 9 and eventually 4. And this number crunching was not about who would make the largest bid. It had just as much or more to do with the plan after the purchase. There will be some changes to distribution and money allocated for growth overseas…although I feel your assumptions are far from what will actually happen in regards to the flip, parting out, patents, etc.

      Reply

      Blu

      13 years ago

      The culture at Titleist WILL CHANGE. Ask a frind of mine who is the head corp accountant. The Koreans micro manange. They bring over “overseer’s” who sit in special offices. They take a 1 hour nap everyday at 1PM. They do not trust round eyes running their companies. W=hen I was in the Army I was a liason with the Tiger Division of the Korean Army. They had a real problem listening to round eyes!! There will be plenty of Asian influence.. BET ON IT! Anyone who says different does not have any idea how Korean Companies run. Most are family owned businesses and they let very few outsiders inside the circle.

      MSG.. aren’t you in the SoCal area? You should know how the Koreans work.

      Reply

      Dennis Wells

      13 years ago

      Here is more profit leave and this country. And they will probably move more manufacturing offshore. I’m sure to stockholders and CEO are real happy with their profits and bonuses. That should make everybody happy.

      Reply

      Bill

      13 years ago

      I don’t care!

      Reply

      Tom

      13 years ago

      Thanks for sharing your opinion!

      Reply

      Charles

      13 years ago

      I see most of Korean players in LPGA and PGA wearing FILA gears and play with titleist clubs in near future, starting with Jiae Shin who’s sponsored by mirae asset.

      Reply

      Golfer Burnz

      13 years ago

      My earliest golf memories are swiping Acushnet and Titleist golf balls from my grandfather’s golf bag. He must have wondered where all his golf balls went?

      Reply

      Jordan

      13 years ago

      I would venture to guess that the Fila group is very heavily leveraged when they put up this 1.2billion bid. Unless they own a TON of oil, I don’t know if they have the capital to keep waiting for a long term fix from the Club side.

      If you’re going to use Srixon/Cleveland as and example, they’re in a different level. SRI has their main source of income, tires. Not to mention they’re the largest seller of golf balls outside the US. So they’ve got money to burn. But you can already see the changes to Cleveland over the last few years. PVD Black on half their Iron lineup, expanded offering of wedges and irons and even an infomercial to sell their “mashie” errr hybrid..

      So, in a nutshell, I don’t think that Fila will touch their aesthetics and style, but they will demand that Titleist offer a larger club line and different price ranges to combat the Taylor Mades and Callaways of the world. I’m pretty sure Fila’s got to pay back some of their loans they took out to acquire Titleist.

      Reply

      MyBluC4

      13 years ago

      Only a matter of time before Fila puts its stamp on Titelist. It’s the way of corporate acquisitions…leverage the quality and history of the brand to a larger consumer base. It’s called growth, market expansion and new market creation. Too bad. Hope the Titelist research and development budgets and commitment stays, at least for a while anyway.
      Don’t think Scotty will want to, or at this point necessarily needs, a larger partner, unless he gets a larger piece of the pie. But a larger piece of the pie will mean greater volume, more efficiently produced. Not his style.

      Reply

      P-Gunna

      13 years ago

      Look for Fila to make their club offerings a little bit flashier and more ornate. This is what golfers in Asia prefer, and I for one would like to see Titleist make some more exciting looking clubs.

      Reply

      Jordan

      13 years ago

      Really Fila leaving them alone?? They spent 1.2 BILLION dollars!! They’re going to want return on their investment. I would expect the Club and Footwear to be status quo for about a year to let 2012 lines that have already been in process go through. But I expect that Fila will want Titleist to expand their Club and Footwear line. Ball will be left alone, since it makes money.. A LOT of it! However expect a much larger club offering in 1.5 years.

      Reply

      mygolfspy

      13 years ago

      Believe it or not things are bought for slightly different reasons then in the west. They look for the long-term gains. Most companies who have backers like this in the states are worried about making them bottom line look better for short term sell-offs. This was not what Titleist was looking for in a buyer and one of the reasons you see FILA as the new owner.

      Reply

      JJS

      13 years ago

      I did not see Scotty Cameron mentioned… was this part of the deal or has it been sold to another company such as Nike ?

      Reply

      Justin

      13 years ago

      I look at it the same as the MacGregor/Dick’s pairing. People don’t like Dick’s (I’m not impressed, either) but that doesn’t mean what they’re selling is junk. Doc may be on to something, but I think we should give it a few years before people freak out- and that applies to both Titleist and MacGregor.

      Reply

      mark

      13 years ago

      MacGregor golf is currently a licensed name for Golfsmith(has nothing to do with Dick’s)
      I agree it doesn’t mean junk, however I agree with Golfspy catastrophe for worth/perception of brand name a few examples are Lynx, Slazenger, Tommy Armour, MacGregor etc.

      Reply

      Joseph Dreitler

      9 years ago

      And I am old enough to remember when MacGregor was a standalone company and made their baseball gloves and golf clubs at their factory in Cincinnati where I lived. Highest quality and true craftsmen. The owners sold out to AMF bowling company, they closed down everything and moved it to Chicago, all the craftsmen who had not retired began making specialty clubs under their own names and MacGregor was on the downhill slide to the junk that it now is. Sad. Think Wilson, Spalding and all the other great trademarks that were sold, milked, run through bankruptcy and then start again. Each time the company and product was worse. Titleist will be no different, they will be peddled 3 times in next 10 years and go through at least 1 bankruptcy and one private equity group before combined with some other group of bad brands. So sad.

      Doc

      13 years ago

      Although I too believe Fila will mostly leave Acushnet alone for now, in the long term there will be change. Another formerly American company will become foreign and eventually values and direction will be altered. I cannot believe this change will be for the good. One would expect a lessening of resources for Acushnet, a drive for more profit and movement toward mediocrity. Does the Kia come to mind?

      Reply

      Jérôme | Idée Golf

      13 years ago

      It reminds me your article about golf clubs becoming commodities. Is that an other proof ?

      Reply

      surewin73

      13 years ago

      GolfSpy,
      You mentioned that you were shocked when you overheard a conversation at the PGA Show about one of the potential bidders. You did not want to reveal the name of the bidder at that time. Can you know? I am interested.

      As for this deal, I believe it is a good deal for Titleist and Fila. It increases Titleist/Footjoy presence into the Asia market and Fila’s in the golf world. Win-win.

      I don’t think they will mess with success.

      Reply

      tp

      13 years ago

      Tax free? Are fs-ing me? How does giant corporation pay no tax when we pay most of it? I don’t Care who they sold it to, this is the beginning of the end for titleist. I really don’t believe that they are not dying to put the FILA DNA into it and we all know what FILA DNA looks like.

      Reply

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