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Bang & Olufsen Names Henrik Clausen CEO

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Bang & Olufsen replaces CEO Tue Mantoni with Henrik Clausen, the result of "a dialog with the board of directors about [Mantoni's] long-term commitment as CEO once certain important projects had been completed.”

B&O Clausen is the former CEO of the largest telco in the Nordics, Telenor ASA. He takes over the luxury audio maker from 1 July. In turn, Mantoni has been B&O CEO since 2011.

"B&O is an iconic brand, with state-of-the-art quality products and a unique heritage," Clausen says. "I look very much forward to joining the organisation and working with the team to further exploit the global potential."

The CEO change comes as B&O terminates talks with potential buyer Qi Jianhong. The Chinese investor (and owner of luxury goods distributor Sparkle Roll) was the only result of a months-long quest for a potential buyer, and negotiations were dropped after Qi missed several deadlines to make a full offer for the company.

B&O is currently in financial dire straits, having failed to post a full-year profit for the past 3 years. It recently held a number of cost-cutting issues, such as selling its automotive unit and the right to use the B&O name on OEM sound systems to Harman, sourcing OLED TV panels from LG to achieve economy of scale and divesting the ICEpower OEM audio-amplifier business.

Go Henrik Clausen Replaces Tue Mantoni as CEO of B&O

Go B&O Names New CEO Days After Scuttling Sale Plans (Bloomberg)