Turtle Beach to Acquire Roccat

[btarunr]

Turtle Beach, the global leader in gaming headsets and audio accessories, today announced the entry into an agreement to acquire ROCCAT - a top German PC peripherals company with a history of producing innovative, award-winning gaming mice, keyboards and other accessories.

With ROCCAT's powerful product lineup added to Turtle Beach's broad market position and leading headset brand, the acquisition significantly accelerates Turtle Beach's planned expansion into the $2.9 billion market for PC gaming headsets, mice and keyboards. By acquiring ROCCAT, Turtle Beach further strengthens its market position in key PC-centric European territories, including Germany where ROCCAT is already a well-respected leading brand. Additionally, ROCCAT will see the benefits of Turtle Beach's strong sales and distribution in North America and across Europe, while Turtle Beach will gain distribution into new Asian markets through ROCCAT's presence in those markets.



Turtle Beach is acquiring ROCCAT for $14.8 million in cash, net of a working capital adjustment, $1 million in cash or stock (company option), plus up to approximately $3.4 million in earnout payments. Following the completion of the transaction, which is expected in the second quarter, ROCCAT's partial year contribution to Turtle Beach's 2019 net revenue is expected to be approximately $20-$24 million. The Company expects revenues from ROCCAT products to be over $30 million in 2020, and that the acquisition will be accretive to net income and EPS in 2020.

"This is a dynamic and strategically important deal for Turtle Beach," said Juergen Stark, CEO of Turtle Beach. "We are adding a complementary portfolio of PC gaming mice and keyboards, a skilled PC accessories team, and a highly synergistic distribution footprint.

"The acquisition is also a key step in achieving our goal of building a $100 million PC gaming accessories business in the coming years. ROCCAT accelerates our expansion into the roughly $1.6 billion1 PC gaming headset market, as well as directly enables us to address the roughly $1.3 billion1 PC gaming keyboard and mice market. We believe our combined product portfolio is one of the strongest in the industry, covering gaming headsets for consoles and PC's, gaming keyboards and mice. Together we will have 48 core product models to pursue the total addressable market of over $4.7 billion in North America, Europe and Asia."

Stark continued, "We are thrilled to welcome René Korte and the ROCCAT team to the Turtle Beach family, as they are a highly talented group with deep experience in PC accessories and have a similar focus on providing high quality, innovative products to gamers worldwide."

René Korte, CEO of ROCCAT, added, "We've long admired how Turtle Beach's pioneering headsets have elevated gaming and it is an honor to join forces and bring our great products to more gamers. I have no doubt that combining ROCCAT's strength in the PC peripherals market with Turtle Beach's 45 years of experience, impressive technology, console dominance, and strong brand will bring even more victories to gamers around the world."

ROCCAT has been ranked as one of the top 10 best-selling gaming peripheral brands in Europe, and per recent Newzoo consumer survey data3, is one of the top four brands for awareness, purchase consideration, and preference for gaming keyboards and mice in the German PC gaming peripheral market.

ROCCAT recently launched its new Vulcan Mechanical Gaming Keyboard and latest Kone AIMO RGBA Smart Customization Gaming Mouse to high editorial and fan praise. The original Kone mouse has been acclaimed as one of the most ergonomic gaming mouse shapes on the market and was the first mouse to incorporate RGB lighting into its design. The new Kone AIMO mouse was the best-selling PC gaming mouse in Germany in the fourth quarter of 2018.

The Vulcan keyboard introduced ROCCAT's proprietary Titan mechanical switch and has become one of the top three best-selling gaming keyboards in Germany, as well as a best-selling product in its price tier. The Vulcan's design was also recognized by winning the 2019 iF Design Award for its product category.

Turtle Beach is the global leader in gaming headsets and audio accessories, having held over 40% share of the console gaming headset market for the past nine consecutive years. In 2018, Turtle Beach extended its reach beyond the console space, launching a new lineup of Atlas PC headsets that drew high praise from leading PC writers and gamers alike.

Wedbush Securities acted as exclusive financial advisor and Morgan Lewis acted as legal advisor to Turtle Beach on the transaction. CatCap GmbH acted as the exclusive financial advisor and Lutz Abel acted as legal advisor to ROCCAT.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Solaris17]

noooooooo

 

[VSG]

Well this was a surprise!

 

[CoolZone]

Not great, since we will have less competition in this segment (big players that is).

 

[dj-electric]

To me, this is one shitty brand acquiring another. Less shitty brands to hang around. Fight me.

 

[Animalpak]

Roccat is attractive but turtle beach is less known. If anything i expected the opposite with Roccat who acquired Turtle beach.

 

[Caring1]

I only know of Turtle Beach because of their shitty cheap plastic headphones that break all the time.

 

[Cr4zy]

Here's hoping they don't interfere with roccat quality

 

[Fx]

To me, this is one shitty brand acquiring another. Less shitty brands to hang around. Fight me.

Pretty much. I've never been close to purchasing either of their products. With that said, I always placed greater prestige on Roccat.

 

[Deleted member 158293]

Both brands belong in the Dollar Stores anyways IMO.

 

[turbogear]

I own products from both companies.

ROCCAT Ryos MK Pro mechanic keyboard with Cherry red switches and Turtle Beach Elite Pro Headset + Elite Pro TAC external sound card.

I am satisfied by both products.

 

[SN2716057]

the global leader in gaming headsets and audio accessories

Ha, don't all gaming companies write this?

 

[gamebynight]

Roccat is attractive but turtle beach is less known. If anything i expected the opposite with Roccat who acquired Turtle beach.

Maybe outside of the U.S. but stateside Turtle Beach is on display in a bunch of major department stores, so it's very well known.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Everyone has forgotten the thing Turtle Beach is actually known for... ie sound cards.

I guess some of us are way too old.

 

[PLAfiller]

Everyone has forgotten the thing Turtle Beach is actually known for... ie sound cards.

I guess some of us are way too old.

In my mind I only think of them as Xbox headphones....seriously I've no idea what else they do.

 

[INSTG8R]

Everyone has forgotten the thing Turtle Beach is actually known for... ie sound cards.

I guess some of us are way too old.

Had one back in the day. Also had one of their early 5.1 headsets with the individual drivers, it was not so great.

 

[Litzner]

Roccat stuff isn't bad, I owned one of their mice and it was quite good, but the software to configure it was absolute laggy dog shit. It was terrible.

 

[VSG]

Roccat stuff isn't bad, I owned one of their mice and it was quite good, but the software to configure it was absolute laggy dog shit. It was terrible.

Was this a recent experience? They had changed their software driver in the last couple of years, and it is pretty good now.

 

[Solaris17]

Was this a recent experience? They had changed their software driver in the last couple of years, and it is pretty good now.

I get roccat mice almost exclusivly and my only real complaint is the crazy trophy shit that was built in to the CP that screams at you for clicking or scrolling alot.

Though, I havent heard it in sometime. Dont remember if I disabled it or it was finally removed.

CONGRATULATIONS YOU'VE WON A TROPHY = VOLUME: 100,000

 

[ixi]

Both brands belong in the Dollar Stores anyways IMO.

Same as Razer, Steelseries, BENQ.

 

[Deleted member 158293]

Same as Razer, Steelseries, BENQ.

I always say; with enough Marketing, people will buy anything.

 

[youngSpawn89]

Sorry, but I am not using Turtle Beach since few years ago, I dont remember the year, but They made Crap and low quality Headset, and I had stayed away from them.
In the other hand, I had used Roccat keyboards and mmo mouses / Naga from Razer, and it have been stable products, with Okay drivers.

But one thing I have always been noticed: Crap products will fall in price, with a good amount of price. Beside if the retail want to sell of the stocks they have.
Some products will fall in price, but not by much, maybe it's a indication of good quality and good products. I just started to use Corsair keyboards, and I have been using Sennheiser for some years now, have the newest GSP 600 with GSX 1200pro, but I also have the old model of PC Model headset, and some stuff just dont fall in price.

Some companies make Fancy toy for kids that fall in price really fast. And anything is fine if you suit you right, but I want stable products when I pay some Crash for it, what ever brand it's. I will wait and see, how the products going to be. Roccat, may end up being Roccrap.

 

[Litzner]

Was this a recent experience? They had changed their software driver in the last couple of years, and it is pretty good now.

I would say it was probably less then 4 years ago, but more then 2.

 

[R-T-B]

Same as Razer, Steelseries, BENQ.

Maybe, but Razer belongs in a dumpster rather than a dollar store, going with this.

And BenQ actually has made good products in the past... as did Roccat, at least once (and ironically, in the very distant past, Razer).