HP to Acquire HyperX Gaming Peripherals Brand from Kingston, Which Retains Memory Business

[btarunr]

HP Inc. today announced a definitive agreement to acquire HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company. The acquisition supports HP's strategy to drive growth in its Personal Systems business, where gaming and peripherals are attractive segments. HyperX's award-winning product portfolio spans a range of gaming peripherals, including headsets, keyboards, mice, mouse pads, USB microphones, and console accessories.

"HyperX is a leader in peripherals whose technology is trusted by gamers around the world and we're thrilled to welcome their outstanding team to the HP family," said Enrique Lores, President and CEO, HP Inc. "We continue to advance our leadership in Personal Systems by modernizing compute experiences and expanding into valuable adjacencies. We see significant opportunities in the large and growing peripherals market, and the addition of HyperX to our portfolio will drive new sources of innovation and growth for our business."

PC gaming continues to be one of the most popular forms of video gaming, with the PC hardware industry anticipated to be worth $70 billion by 2023.1 The global peripherals market is expected to grow to $12.2 billion by 2024, with gaming peripherals representing a disproportionate share of this growth.

"HyperX products are designed to meet the most rigorous demands of all gamers - from casual to the most hardcore - giving them a winning edge and helping them stay on top of their game," said John Tu, Co-founder and CEO, Kingston. "Both of our companies thrive because we focus on our employees and share the same core values and culture. David Sun (Co-founder and COO) and I saw the possibilities for the HyperX business and its employees and we both realized that this change brings a brighter future for HyperX."

HP has built a large and growing global gaming portfolio in recent years, led by its OMEN brand and a world-class ecosystem of hardware, software, content, and services. The company continues to push progression in gaming with powerful devices like the OMEN 15 gaming laptop and the HP Pavilion Gaming 16 laptop. Beyond devices, HP is driving software innovation with OMEN Gaming Hub, a destination for players to connect, customize, and explore their gear and games. Adding HyperX to HP's broader gaming ecosystem will deliver innovative new experiences across everything gamers see, hear, and touch.

Under the terms of the agreement, HP will pay $425 million, subject to customary working capital and other adjustments, to acquire HyperX's gaming peripherals portfolio. Kingston will retain the DRAM, flash, and SSD products for gamers and enthusiasts. The acquisition is expected to be accretive on a non-GAAP basis to HP in the first full year following closing. The transaction is expected to close in calendar Q2 2021, pending regulatory review and other customary closing conditions.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[bonehead123]

Make me mOaR money HP, go ahead, I dare ya, hehehe

So he says as he watches his stock price rising......

 

[dj-electric]

No...

no no nono..... this is not good....

 

[ZoneDymo]

HP Voodoo Hyper X!

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Moves like this confuse me. HP obviously feels the HyperX brand has value; so why does Kingston feel it's in their interest to ditch it? My suspicion is that there's a plan in the works to offer the entire operation for sale, and there wouldn't be a buyer willing to grab both divisions.

 

[Vayra86]

Well, that was that then.

 

[bug]

Not much of a business if it's sold for less than $500mn. I mean, it's only a sliver of the peripheral business as a whole.

 

[Caring1]

It's an Omen.

 

[randomUser]

They are only selling the Brand, because there are no products to sell. We all know that products are generic coming from same factory in china with custom logo on them. Just like million other companies do.

 

[sam_86314]

EDIT: My previous post here was about memory, though this clearly states that Kingston is keeping that. I really need to learn how to read.

Maybe HP will get better quality peripherals now?

 

[Anvirol]

This deal is hard to understand.
HP already has Omen gaming peripherals and HyperX isn't exactly top-dog in this product category.

If you put HyperX and Omen products next to each other, it would be hard to find any differences other than brand logo. HP could already manufacture similar products, so only justification I can find is to start using the HyperX brand of products.

I doubt both Kingston and HP will be making products under same HyperX brand, so will HP have to rename HyperX? Did they just throw away $500 million for nothing?

 

[Kn0xxPT]

HyperX has much more "gaming" expression than Omen ... HP is doing a smartmove here, there is no need to sustain "Omen" brand if they can use HyperX.
HyperX might no have the best of best products, but are far more unique and inspired for gamers IMHO.

 

[Deleted member 205776]

Time to throw away my Cloud Stinger. Fuck HP.

 

[xrror]

Alright, now I can buy Hyper X accessories w/o supporting Kingston, that's a win in my book.

Kingston - the pioneer of SSD specification bait and switch - release a limited introductory run of a fast version for reviews (firmware 505), then immediately switch to slow NAND (firmware 506) for the mass produced model with the SSDNow V300.

When called out by AnandTech, Kingston basically flipped them the bird and hid behind the "up to XXX performance" marketing.

 

[chstamos]

HyperX has much more "gaming" expression than Omen ... HP is doing a smartmove here, there is no need to sustain "Omen" brand if they can use HyperX.
HyperX might no have the best of best products, but are far more unique and inspired for gamers IMHO.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Omen much higher profile when HP acquired them? If they're interested in gaming peripherals they could have invested time and money in developing the Omen brand, instead of marginalizing it, as they did. HyperX had a good run under Kingston, Omen did not under HP. Perhaps HP intends to take gaming peripherals seriously, this time around. But given the choice, I'd much rather see HyperX spun off into an autonomous entity or kept under Kingston.

Alright, now I can buy Hyper X accessories w/o supporting Kingston, that's a win in my book.

Kingston - the pioneer of SSD specification bait and switch - release a limited introductory run of a fast version for reviews (firmware 505), then immediately switch to slow NAND (firmware 506) for the mass produced model with the SSDNow V300.

When called out by AnandTech, Kingston basically flipped them the bird and hid behind the "up to XXX performance" marketing.

I certainly understand your sentiment, but I'd still rather see HyperX under a company other than HP...

 

[silentbogo]

That's good news. Ditched Kingston as a brand many years ago. If HP manages to turn things around quality-wise, it might be on the table again.
I really hope it's not going the other way around.

HP already has Omen gaming peripherals and HyperX isn't exactly top-dog in this product category.

Omen has a reputation of "relatively expensive" and HyperX has a reputation of "relatively cheap".
HP already has a decent lineup of cheap Omen-branded gear, but I assume it doesn't sell that well. At the same time Kingston lost their ground after years of dumping low-quality generic stuff as re-branded gaming parts/accessories/peripherals, and regardless of their constant obnoxious claims of "#1 in the world", they've already lost their footing to smaller and more flexible brands (who sells the exact same generic re-branded crap, but with higher QA standards, better support, and at lower margins). Just like w/ Razer and Steelseries, quality issues will eventually bite you in the ass.

 

[katzi]

Oh dear...

Rest in peace HyperX.

Watch the quality of the hardware and software PLUMMET.

 

[thegnome]

Time to throw away my Cloud Stinger. Fuck HP.

Why would you throw away your still good (hopefully) headset when suddenly the owner of the brand changes? It's not the headset suddenly gets lower quality?

 

[Totally]

Hp, where brands go to die.

 

[Deleted member 205776]

Why would you throw away your still good (hopefully) headset when suddenly the owner of the brand changes? It's not the headset suddenly gets lower quality?

Eh, haven't purchased it for long and it's already on its way out.

 

[evernessince]

Oh dear...

Rest in peace HyperX.

Watch the quality of the hardware and software PLUMMET.

Maybe? HP hardware products, as in the PC part space, have been pretty decent recently.

 

[Kn0xxPT]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Omen much higher profile when HP acquired them? If they're interested in gaming peripherals they could have invested time and money in developing the Omen brand, instead of marginalizing it, as they did. HyperX had a good run under Kingston, Omen did not under HP. Perhaps HP intends to take gaming peripherals seriously, this time around. But given the choice, I'd much rather see HyperX spun off into an autonomous entity or kept under Kingston.

Omen, started with big showoff Marketing trick, and IMO, Omen was target to less "experienced" PC enthusiasts... For example, using SteelSeries APEX keyboards, with Omen logo and charge more for it, is not the best move when you want to make a distinguished brand in the overflooded market of "gaming" brands ...
Omen was never higher profile, unless those overpriced Cubes PC's. Using marketing "tricks" doesn't make brands stand for so long( well Apple can). HyperX used other manufacters for their products, but where products with an identity and a distinguished appeal to gamers.
HP since the facelift, and with the end of Toshiba laptops market got the opportunity to make HP relevant again, and their recent hardware is solid, not perfect, but got alot better than overpriced Asus for example.
If they pull this acquisition right, they can reach to Asus ROG status quo .
The problem with some brands buying some minor brands, is the greed for profit, and other like Asus got much more greedy since it had not real competition to domestic market( in my country at least).

 

[W1zzard]

Isn't this like the worst deal in the history of computers? They could build their own huge brand with that money? Hell give everyone a free mouse and keyboard to play with and you'd still have 300M+ left but made a huge splash

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Isn't this like the worst deal in the history of computers? They could build their own huge brand with that money? Hell give everyone a free mouse and keyboard to play with and you'd still have 300M+ left but made a huge splash

Maybe HP wanted HyperX's existing distribution and manufacturing contracts? Half a billion sounds like a lot, but building a brand is HARD. My employer recently retired a brand they'd spent the last quarter-century trying to build. You'd tell someone who you worked for, and they'd look at you blankly until you name-dropped the parent company.

 

[Mussels]

But... i like the few hyperX products i own


This is weird