Beyerdynamic sold to Cosonic, a Chinese corporate entity

According to reports both in East Asia and in Germany, Beyerdynamic, a privately owned German company, and one of the well-known headphone technology pioneers, is soon to be acquired by Cosonic Electronics Co, Ltd. Cosonic essentially is a brand name, and Cosonic Electronics is fully owned by Jiahe Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. of Dongguan, China.

Jiahe Intelligent Technology Ltd was established in 2013 and went public (Shenzhen Stock Exchange) in 2019. It is an important ODM (original design manufacturer) and parts manufacturer for wearables industry, including all sorts of headphones and earphones, wireless speakers, smart watches, wristbands, glasses etc. It has factories in Guangdong province in China, and in Vietnam.

By acquring Beyerdynamic Cosonic plans to move to consumer-faced production business model. All Beyerdynamic assets will be absorbed in Cosonic structure: German production and main office, sales offices and production facilities in USA, China and India.

Founded in 1925 by Eugen Beyer, Beyerdynamic emerged under this name in late 1950s, when his son, Fred, moved the company to Heilbrunn and supervised building a new factory there. Under previous names the company started manufacturing studio headphones since 1937 and microphones since 1939.

While still privately owned, Beyerdynamic is no longer a business of Beyer family. Since 2020 the company experienced sales and production difficulties due to coronavirus restrictions and, according to CEO Andreas Rapp, shareholders meetings decided that existing finance sources are not allowing the company to grow.

While well recognised around the world, Beyerdynamic is not a huge company in terms of volume and workforce. Most of the headphones were assembled in Germany, where production and warehousing employed around 350-400 people. According to Andreas Rapp, Cosonic wants to maintain production and personnel in Heilbrunn, Germany.

The Share and Partnership Interest Purchase Agreement between the parties was announced in early June and the deal, after regulatory approval, will conclude in 5-8 months.