View Single Post
  #4  
Old 04-06-2011, 09:36 AM
enalnitram enalnitram is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Posts: 619
Default

I do limited business research in my job. I access LexisNexis academic thru my local library and use Hoover's and D&B info.

Fender also owns Guild and Kaman.

Quote:
Leo Fender and Doc Kauffman formed K&F Manufacturing in 1943 and made transducers (or pickups) for electric guitars. Soon thereafter, Fender bought out Kauffman and renamed the business Fender Electric Instruments Company. In 1951 the company introduced the Broadcaster, a simple, two-pickup instrument that is widely regarded as the first successful solid-body electric guitar. Three years later Fender added the now legendary Stratocaster electric guitar to its lineup. A perennial favorite, the guitar found its way into the hands of pop music luminaries such as Buddy Holly.

In 1965 Fender sold the company to CBS for $13 million. Though the company suffered complaints about quality, CBS boosted sales to almost $60 million by 1981.

Facing stiff competition from Japan, Fender began losing money, forcing CBS to sell the company to then Fender division president William Schultz and a group of investors for $12.5 million in 1985. Schultz halted US production, laid off more than 700 employees, and changed the company's name to Fender Musical Instruments; he also managed to turn the company around. In 1995 Fender acquired the Guild guitar line from guitar maker U.S. Music.

The company opened a new $20 million production facility in Corona, California, in 1998. In 1999 Fender began selling its products through Musician's Friend, a musical equipment e-commerce site and catalog owned by Guitar Center. Also that year it began selling the guitars of Robert Benedetto, considered the world's top maker of jazz guitars. Fender introduced its American Series guitar in 2000; the guitar replaced the American Standard, the "bread and butter" of the company's products since 1987.

In a 2002 agreement with The Gretsch Company, makers of vintage, hollowbody acoustic and bass guitars, and percussion, Fender gained operational control (development, production, marketing, and distribution) of all Gretsch stringed-instrument products, effective January 2003. Also in 2002, Fender acquired the Charvel/Jackson guitar product line from Akai Musical Instruments.

In 2003 the company acquired certain assets of SWR Sound Corporation, maker of bass amplification products. In October 2004 Fender acquired Tacoma Guitar, which designs the Olympia acoustic guitar.
__________________
Martin Lane / Grand Rapids, Michigan
Reply With Quote