Thiel Audio gets bought out-- the high-end speaker maker now belongs to a Nashville-based private equity firm, with new CEO Bill Thomas taking the reigns of the company.

“We identified THIEL as a brand with an unmatched heritage in performance audio and it is our intent to invest in the company’s infrastructure, strengthening the engineering department first and foremost,” Thomas says. “We can improve efficiencies here at THIEL in the product development and manufacturing stages, shortening the time to delivery for new products with zero compromise in product quality.”

Established in 1978, Thiel works on phase coherent speaker designs based on the work of late co-founder and product design engineer Jim Thiel. No reason is given for the sale, but probably the small company was in need of capital to remain competitive in the current market.

The new owners will be keeping the entire Thiel factory staff, as well as a number of long time employees. However co-founder and president Kathy Gornick (a former CEA chairperson) is out, together with international sales director Dawn Cloyd.

What next for Thiel? Apparently "an expansion of the architectural series an immediate priority serving to further establish the brand as a leading supplier of premium distributed audio solutions," as well as further investment in the global channel.

Go Thiel Audio