interesting. Might be fun to look into getting a slice of this action...

BTW:

Well; Fender are a giant amongst guitar makers. But they are quite small in the music business as a whole. They are tiny compared to either Yamaha or Roland, for example. Be a fascinating situation if either of them wanted to buy in, wouldn't it?

Cheers - C

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Any time major stockholders want to sell off their shares, it does not look promising for the furure of a company. That's usually a last ditch effort of avoiding a substantial loss. Selling while stocks are up before the bottom drops out.

Its funny how everyone becomes a financial planner/day trader the minute Fender goes public. I worked for a company that went public back in 08. All we did was pay some debt, sell a company, and buy another one. We didn't shut down US operations, fire a bunch of people, move to China, or change our product. We just raised some capital to give us wiggle room and expand. No shareholders moved in and started calling the shots. No management changes, no doomsday, no ENRON.
Going public can be a good thing.

I'll try to get some.



Depends on the reasons they communicate. And Fender had a good year in 2011 if you check their numbers. So far there was nothing officially said about the reasons. Could also be investment plans (good).

Cheers

David

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"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons."

It's really very sad. With the IPO, jobs will be headed west. It's difficult to operate a company in a hostile environment. I don't think I would buy stock but I imagine there will be people lining up to get a few shares of an icon.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

would you rather see a large foreign conglomerate buy them?

With publicly-traded OTC shares flooding the market, that possibility exists now.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

What I could see, Fender is currently owned by a combination of Weston Presidio (43%, they are also an investor in Guitar Center), the Schultz family/ trust and Fender's Japanese distributors, etc. Among other things, they are hoping to pay down $100 million of $240 million debt, some of which is owed to companies underwriting the offering (JP Morgan and Wells Fargo Securities). They state their hope that hip hop will not ruin their business. I don't know what it all means. The SEC site has many entertaining Fender filings, among them this agreement to pay someone named Larry $800K a year to run the joint:
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/ ... ex1019.htm

Personally, I'd like to buy a few shares just 'cause.

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I'm twanged if I do, twanged if I don't

See what I get for thinking with 6 strings instead of 242 strings...It will be interesting to see if Roland buys in since they do have a working relationship.

The Kickassocaster is rocking. I love it more than ever. Although I just bought a very nice Les Paul.....

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BigJay's Custom '69 Kickassocaster
'90 Les Paul Standard "Vintage"
'00 MIJ '62 Tele RI
'76 Fender BandMaster Reverb
'71 Acoustic Control 2x12 w/Celestion V30s
'71 Martin D18
Mesa Mark IV
'65 Deluxe Reverb RI

Does anybody know a Wall Street securities analyst or economist?

Oh, you artists and lovers....dont be so melodramatic. Going public doesn't automatically mean the company's ruin. Its just a source of working capital, just as the Company's current debt, lines of credit, and current private equity holders. If you don't believe the debt holders, banks and private equity holders are pushing for consistently higher profits, your fooling yourself. Moreover, if you believe FMIC is somehow "above" the shallow pursuit of shameless profit, you are also kidding yourself. If FMIC was not in the profit business, it would be a small artisan shop building vastly superior products to its current lineup. The Custom Shop might be the only line in FMIC if the "art" was all it was interested in. Remember, the Telecaster and Stratocaster were developed as a less expensive alternative to handcrafted guitars. They were designed for mass production, folks. Sure, many Tele's and Strats are topnotch, but they are really the "Model-T" of electric guitars.

Management teams are not accountable to shareholders. Management teams are accountable to the Board of Directors, who have a fiduciary obligation to protect the shareholders interests in the Company, whatever that means. Shareholders cannot make management teams become more profit oriented, or less quality oriented, etc. Compensating management teams on stock valuation can cause them to utilize accounting tricks and sales gimmicks that could have negative ramifications later. But the Board is supposed to prevent that from happening, unless its a strategic decision to raise the value, potentially for a sale or financing transaction.

And, why does "publicly traded" equal "lower quality" in your minds? Do you know any products that are very high quality, but that are produced by publicly traded companies? How about Apple Computer? How about IBM? GE? What about Macy's? How about Ruths Chris Steaks? There are many many publicly traded companies that provide very high quality products and services. You shouldn't assume FMIC will become garbage just because they finance their operations in the public markets.

_________________
BigJay's Custom '69 Kickassocaster
'90 Les Paul Standard "Vintage"
'00 MIJ '62 Tele RI
'76 Fender BandMaster Reverb
'71 Acoustic Control 2x12 w/Celestion V30s
'71 Martin D18
Mesa Mark IV
'65 Deluxe Reverb RI

The Forbes article lists the second and third biggest current stakeholders as Yamano (about 14%) and Kanda Shokai (about 13%). That puts 70% of the company already in the hands of a venture capital firm and the two biggest Japanese music distributors.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisbarth/ ... llion-ipo/

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Like I said, I think it would be fun to own a tiny, tiny piece of Fender. Looks like a well run company to me, and it's not like cash is doing much swilling around at the bottom of a bank account at current interest rates.

As a part owner of the Company I shall be advising them I think they have the balance of on-shore/off-shore manufacturing just right and have been doing it well for the last 30 years. I shall instruct them to keep going just as they are.

I expect them to pay my thoughts exactly zero attention, which is perfectly correct. They definitely know how to run their business better than I do!

Cheers - C

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You're right-corporate capitalists stick it to labor and degrade the product every chance they get in their greedquest. Too bad.

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Fender American Series Stratocaster
Marshall JTM612
Marshall JTMC12
Gibson Vintage Reissue strings
DiMarzio pickups
Souldier guitar strap
Spectraflex cables

As always, Ceri rings with common sense and intelligent humility. A gentleman and scholar, no doubt.

_________________
BigJay's Custom '69 Kickassocaster
'90 Les Paul Standard "Vintage"
'00 MIJ '62 Tele RI
'76 Fender BandMaster Reverb
'71 Acoustic Control 2x12 w/Celestion V30s
'71 Martin D18
Mesa Mark IV
'65 Deluxe Reverb RI