After Decades of Independence, Moog Sells Out Again

After Decades of Independence, Moog Sells Out Again

It’s the end of an era for knob-twiddling synth enthusiasts everywhere. Photo: Brandon J Hale (Shutterstock)

Correction 6/13/2023, 10:23: P.M. ET: An earlier version of this story and headline incorrectly implied that Moog Music has been an independent company for 70 years. However, the company was previously sold to parent muSonics in 1971, and later Norlin Industries. After bankruptcy, the company was returned to its original founder, Robert Moog, in 2002. The article has been corrected below. We regret the error.

Keeping tabs on U.S. business news often feels like watching an endless stream of ever-larger Pac-Man (Pac-Men?) gobble each other up. Through mergers and buyouts, the companies get bigger and the number of companies gets smaller. Yet a handful manages to avoid the proverbial noise. For a long time, Moog Music, the pioneering synthesizer company, was one of them. Moog has produced beloved (if pricey) electronic instruments (mostly) to the tune of its own analog oscillator since 1953. Now its long, if interrupted, run of independence is no more.

InMusic has acquired Moog, as announced this week. The private conglomerate also owns 17 other music production, pro audio, and consumer electronic properties including M-Audio, Akai Professional, and Alesis.

Prior to the acquisition, Moog had been a 49% worker-owned company, after the 2015 implementation of an employee stock ownership plan. Yet with inMusic’s purchase, Moog’s workers no longer maintain their minority share. “As part of the transition, Moog Music is no longer employee owned,” Moog spokesperson Jeff Touzeau told Gizmodo via email. “All past and present employees who have participated in the Moog Music Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP) since it was implemented in 2015 will receive a payout,” he added.

In a press release, Moog framed its sale as the start of a “collaboration.” Company president, Joe Richardson, penned an enthusiastic letter outlining all the ways he believes joining “the inMusic family,” will bolster the synth maker’s products and brand. “This new partnership will enable us access to inMusic’s efficient global distribution and supply chain network while providing inMusic and its affiliated brands with deep expertise in analog synthesis,” Richardson wrote. “Finding a partner that honors our values, mission, and legacy is a great boon for our company and community.”

Moog says it will continue to be headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, where it will keep “engineering, designing, and building instruments.” The overwhelming majority of Moog components and products have historically been sourced and assembled domestically. Touzeau and the company’s press statement seem to assert that will still be true. “Moog will continue to design and build its instruments at the Moog factory,” the spokesperson said. Though if that manufacturing process were to shift under new ownership, it would make some sense.

Moog had reportedly been struggling with supply chain disruption and other material shortages in the lead-up to the sale. The company raised the cost of many of its already expensive, iconic synths in the past year, attributing the changes to the aforementioned business difficulties. The Moog Grandmother sticker price shot up more than 60% in August 2022, per Synth Anatomy.

Simultaneously, the company’s employees had been working to unionize with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers—organizing for higher wages and improved employment protections. Gizmodo reached out to the fledgling union for comment on InMusic’s acquisition via email but did not immediately hear back.