Sonova Holding AG, a leading global medical hearables producer with headquarters in Switzerland, has announced intention to divest its consumer hearing business which operates under the Sennheiser brand.
The division has around 600 employees working in Germany (Wedemark) and Ireland (Tullamore).
Sonova Holding finalised purchase of Consumer Division from Sennheiser Electronic GmbH & Co. KG for €200 million in March 2022. Sennheiser Group remains dedicated to professional audio and includes Sennheiser Electronic GmbH & Co. KG, Georg Neumann GmbH, Merging Technologies SA, Sennheiser Entwicklungs GmbH and other entities involved in pro headphones and microphones, streaming technologies and research centres for professional audio tech. As part of the acquisition, Sonova has secured a perpetual license for the Sennheiser brand, under which both existing and new consumer hearing devices will be marketed. The license is for consumer products only and Sennheiser branding is still applicable for professional products made by Sennheiser Group.
The Sennheiser Group is not affected by Sonova’s strategic plans to sell its Consumer Division but was informed in advance. Arguably Sonova wants to concentrate on its core hearing aid and cochlear implants business. No further details upon the schedule or prospective buyers is available from Sonova Group at this time.
In this press-release (in German) the company noted that the premium audio segment and its distribution channels demand dynamics and development cycles different from those of the hearing aids and cochlear implants. As of the 2025/26 financial statements Consumer Division will be listed as for the sale of a specific business unit.
In the financial year 2024/25 Sonova achieved a turnover of almost 3.9 billion Swiss francs. On May 30, 2025 German Bundeskartellamt (Federal Fair Competition Authority) and Sennheiser Consumer Division consentually agreed that in order to stop anti-trust investigation for price fixing, Sennheiser will pay a fine of 6 million euros.
Written by Sergei Taranov
Did you know? Headphone amplifiers from the German brand Lehmannaudio are used by Sennheiser for testing and tuning their headphones.
