CORSAIR to Acquire Drop Assets; Further Expanding Peripherals Business

[VSG]

CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gear for gamers and content creators, today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire certain assets from Drop, a leading privately held peripheral developer best known for its customizable mechanical keyboards and switches, and its millions-member strong enthusiast community. Financial terms of the non-material, all-cash transactions were not disclosed.

Founded in 2011, Drop (formerly known as Massdrop) develops and sells a portfolio of peripherals and enthusiast products, with the majority of its business coming from customized "DIY" keyboards, aftermarket designer keycaps, and desktop accessories. Drop leveraged the insights of its members to develop its current collection of over 120 colorful, classic, and iconic sets offering an incredible degree of personalization to mechanical keyboard users from all walks of life. It recently expanded its portfolio to include a range of so-called Battlestation products to offer an even wider assortment of designer products for the desk and workspace.



Past Drop partnerships have included officially licensed The Lord of The Rings and Marvel Infinity Saga keycaps, with the Drop community voting on new color schemes and concepts to continuously deliver fresh and in-demand styles.

"Personalized Keyboards that can be modified by the consumer is one of the fastest growing trends in the gaming peripheral space. Drop has proven to be one of the leaders in this space and with Corsair's global footprint, we expect to significantly grow the Drop brand worldwide. We are also excited to be able to offer specialized Corsair and Elgato products to the enthusiast community that Drop is engaged with." said Andy Paul, Founder and CEO of CORSAIR.

"CORSAIR is the ideal partner to help Drop grow and continue to fulfill its purpose of creating amazing community-driven products," said Jef Holove, CEO of Drop. "With a worldwide sales and logistics footprint, we'll be able to make Drop products more widely available, faster, while retaining the enthusiast-led product development that has seen millions of fans trust Drop for their setup and hardware."

Drop will remain a separate brand within CORSAIR and all existing warranties, purchases and customer support requests will continue to be handled directly by the team at Drop.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[AsRock]

Would of loved to have some LOTR key caps but not these days.

Amazon screwed that.

 

[Space Lynx]

I did not see this coming. lol

I used to get stuff off Massdrop a long long time ago, they had some interesting stuff. None of it really interests me anymore though,

 

[agatong55]

This what out of nowhere, just bought a few things off drop and always looking at the site.

I wonder what Corsair will get out of Drop, should help out with Corsair keyboards that's for sure with switches and keycaps.

 

[ixi]

What is Drop? Never heard of them on my end.

 

[VSG]

What is Drop? Never heard of them on my end.

https://drop.com, was previously called Massdrop.

 

[Sp33d Junki3]

got a few custom headphones and DAC when they were massdrop

 

[Chaitanya]

its a shame more and more of niche sites are being consolidated.

 

[bonehead123]

I wonder what Corsair will get out of Drop

Hopefully, some REAL software for their periphs, so they can KILL & permanently bury that gawd-awful, crashpuppy iClueLess garbaggio, hehehe

 

[VSG]

Hopefully, some REAL software for their periphs, so they can KILL & permanently bury that gawd-awful, crashpuppy iClueLess garbaggio, hehehe

You haven't used Drop keyboards, have you? Most keyboard drivers are worse than iCUE, be it in terms of user experience or features. My main issue with iCUE was how bloated it was lately but they seem to have addressed it by going the modular route so you only install the things you want.

 

[katzi]

LOL does this mean they'll learn about switch and stabilizer lubing and sound dampening in keyboards?

 

[bonehead123]

You haven't used Drop keyboards, have you? Most keyboard drivers are worse than iCUE, be it in terms of user experience or features. My main issue with iCUE was how bloated it was lately but they seem to have addressed it by going the modular route so you only install the things you want.

No I haven't, and I did not know that their sw was as bad or worse than iClueless....that doesn't exactly give me any hope then does it

 

[Lew Zealand]

got a few custom headphones and DAC when they were massdrop

Yep, got 3x cans plus replacement HiFiMan earcups hanging up next to me from the Massdrop days. But it's been a few years since I bought anything.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I remember buying an Antlion modmic from Massdrop many moons back before Antlion had good distribution. Unfortunately that was the last time I ever participated in any drops as I got absolutely boned by import duty which I hadnt accounted for.

At that time there were very few retailers that stocked the modmic and those that did had really marked up prices. I would have saved money by buying it from them instead of going a MassDrop. I dont remember MassDrop saying anything about import duties at the time I bought the modmic but you live and learn. I think they did eventually try to fix the import duty issue by having a warehouse based in europe somewhere so that non-Americans could get in on some deals and not get boned.


In any case, Im wondering if this acquisition has more to do with padding the value of the company to make it look more like a tasty snack for potential buyers (Buyers which they havent been able to secure probably as far back as 2015) more than anything else. Company value on the stockmarket is below half of what it used to be 5 years ago and even though they did fairly well many years ago. They have struggled.

 

[claes]

its a shame more and more of niche sites are being consolidated.

I wouldn’t really call them niche, if anything they’re too big for their britches. I used to buy knives from them, and every now and again they have a good deal on key caps and switches, but most products (especially audiophile) are cheaper from other outlets.

Their collabs are pretty good though (still enjoying my HD 6xx), but not sure why they’re still committed to the group buy model.