Hearing aid company Sonova has put its Sennheiser consumer audio division on the auction block less than five years after acquiring it, the company announced on Reddit. “Today Sonova announced they intend to divest the business and will focus on Hearing Care,” Sonova wrote, adding it intends to find “the right new owner.”
Sennheiser’s consumer audio division mainly manufactures high-end headphones like the HD 400, HD 500, HD 600 and HD 800 series and recently launched the HDB 630, $500 wireless headphones aimed at audiophiles. The company’s most (in)famous lineup is the HE series, which includes the $55,000 HE 90 and €89,990 HE 1.
Sonova originally purchased Sennheiser with the intent of expanding its demographic to younger customers. At the time, it said “even if [young people] don’t have hearing loss, most of them will gradually get hearing loss with age, and devices like Sennheiser’s allow us to have earlier consumer access to such people.” For its part, Sennheiser said it wanted to relinquish its consumer business in order to focus on its pro audio, business and Neumann (high-end microphone) divisions that it still owns.
Things apparently didn’t go to plan, though. Sonova’s Sennheiser division’s sales in the last half-year declined significantly year-over-year and the company was hit with a €6 million fine over its retail pricing practices (that occurred prior to the acquisition). However, the company’s recent products have been praised by the audiophile community as a return to previous form, with Engadget’s audio reviewer Billy Steele calling the HDB 630 “a sonic marvel.”
