CORSAIR Confirms Drop's Audio Assets Acquired too, Future Unclear

[VSG]

You may have noticed CORSAIR's press release yesterday concerning its acquisition of Drop, a popular enthusiast peripherals website that made its name for running group buys before focusing on keyboards. DIY keyboard components, and audio products. The press release was careful in talking primarily about the keyboard side of things and we noticed an omission of anything non-keyboard related, thus necessitating a follow-up from CORSAIR on behalf of audiophiles who are fans of highly popular Drop products such as the Drop x Sennheiser HD 6XX, its gaming headsets with EPOS, multiple other headphone collaborations with manufacturers including Dan Clark Audio, HIFIMAN, Focal, as well as various amplifiers/DACs/streamers. There was speculation about whether CORSAIR had only purchased the keyboard assets and that the audio aspects might not continue, but CORSAIR was quick to confirm otherwise.

In a quote provided to TechPowerUp, CORSAIR mentioned the following:

I can confirm that CORSAIR has acquired the Drop.com website, brand, business, community, and all its staff. Drop.com will continue to operate via its own website. While we expect to explore wider opportunities for selling Drop products via the Corsair global sales channel, the drop.com website will remain distinct from Corsair, in a similar fashion to SCUF, Elgato and Origin PC. We'll be evaluating the non-keyboard aspects of the business as time goes on but will be making no changes immediately.

This indicates that CORSAIR is still considering what is best for the audio assets, however what is best for CORSAIR may not necessarily be what everyone would want. We also have word from other sources that there are multiple 3rd-parties interested in acquiring these non-keyboard assets from CORSAIR, so the future is still unclear at this time. If you had your eye on something from Drop, perhaps now is as good a time as any to get it. A longer quote from Drop is seen below.

As many of you know, we celebrated our 10th anniversary last year. It has been quite a journey. From Massdrop to Drop, and from a unique group-buy site to today's hybrid model that finds cool stuff other people make, while designing and manufacturing stuff ourselves, and at the same time moving more and more to an in-stock model.

Today, I have the honor of sharing with you yet another step in our evolution. Drop has been acquired by Corsair.

I am sure front-of-mind for you is what this will mean for Drop and our focus on our discerning, engaged enthusiast community - especially at a time when we've been watching other players in the community struggle or outright fold. Obviously, we are convinced this move is good for us, for you and for the hobby, and I'll give you a sense of why here.

I know within the community Drop is sometimes seen as a "big" company, but you would be surprised how few-but-mighty our team is given the extraordinary range of products we have designed and/or discovered. I am incredibly proud of and grateful to our crew, who love what they do so genuinely. That said, from the response to our launch of Battlestations as a new community and collection of products, it's clear you want us to do more. And, we do too. As part of Corsair, we will.

So first and foremost, Drop will continue as a brand, team and community within Corsair. You may already know that Corsair also owns Elgato, Origin and SCUF brands, which continue to operate independently. Being a part of Corsair will help our team deliver more of what you love. You'll see new products from us soon that Corsair is just as excited about as we were in creating them. You'll see new collabs with community favorites. Access to a world class supply chain will make getting you those products more reliable. With a global logistics capability behind us, we'll also be able to do a fundamentally better job serving all of you outside the US who just want an easier, more affordable way to get the products you covet.

And finally, we'll have the wherewithal to remain here for you, listen to you, continue to expand the convenience of an in-stock model, and hunt down and present to you cool stuff.

It won't all happen overnight. It will take time. But we believe you will find this latest step a very good thing… and we know you'll tell us how it's going along the way. We sincerely hope you will join us in the next chapter of this journey.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Rais]

i can't say i like this. Drop should be indipendent, but if Corsair can expand its logistic to EU more, that's a win.

 

[ZoneDymo]

i can't say i like this. Drop should be indipendent, but if Corsair can expand its logistic to EU more, that's a win.

Personally not a fan of Corsair and especially not a fan of big companies gobbling up smaller companies.

 

[bonehead123]

Like so many other pc parts mfgr's, Corsair makes some nice high-end stuff, some middle-tier stuff, and still others that are not that great...*cough*iClueless*cough*, however, if they follow thru on allowing Drop to continue to operate independently (which I doubt), while expanding it's global reach through better logistics and larger, more diverse distribution channels, then it should be a win-win-win situation.... for Drop, for Corsair, and more importantly, for us end users that buy the stuff

Hopefully, they won't use this acquisition as an excuse to start jacking up their prices of their own stuff, which we have all seen in the past with other buyouts...