dei sold

Charlesbank Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity investment firm, has reached a definitive agreement to acquire DEI Holdings, parent of multiple car electronics brands including Orion, Directed, Python, Clifford, Viper and others, and home-speaker makers Polk Audio and Definitive Technologies. This move was to ward off impending bankruptcy by DEI.

DEI will continue under existing management for the time being while other buyers are being found and the company likely split up. Existing shareholders will be bought out of all shares of stock.

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wow - buy buy buy just to end up like this. They sure did acquire a lot of good brands over the years.

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Kevin Pierson

Could we please have Clifford back with it's original designers, oops 5 years too late. They are doing a GM.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

Howie you want to partner up and put a bid on to buy the Clifford name????



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Kevin Pierson

I'm surprised the original owner didn't, he's either gone back to Israel or Northern California.
If only I had the money or backing
If only DEI had allowed them to get the software right on G5.
Apparently when DEI took over they thought they could get Cliffnet Wiz right after firing the original developers but they failed miserably.
I STILL say that the original Clifford US build quality although klunky was light years ahead of anything made now, although Prestige and Compustar are very good.
I'm using 10 year old G4 product in my own car, never fails, never falses and I can still plug the Wiz in (I keep an old Dell with Win 98SP for it).

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

DEI going bankrupt. That's really surprising. Their name is so large.

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COMMIT YOUR WAY TO JEHOVAH AND HE WILL ACT IN YOUR BEHALF. PSALMS 37:5

Over extending, too much promo, not enough pre-production development, look at the problems such as remotes, failed, internal relays etc. with the 5901.
Then the market gets smaller, coupled with the recession, back 15 years ago when Clifford was a "cult" product in the UK, I was installing to new Benz, BMW, RR, Jaguar. Now it's 90s Civics! Also back then you could charge REAL money.
2 years ago I was doing installs for 4 local shops (10 mile radius), they've all gone! Also who wants to really get involved with the latest product, DATA complications, etc.
BIG mistake, not limiting 5901/2 to QUALIFIED dealers only rather than the public. That's how Clifford did it. Kept exclusivity and profit.
The car audio market in the UK went from £300m pa ($450) to £80m pa ($120) in two years. I can only see Kenwood and JVC surviving here.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

I agree howard, i wonder if this shift will affect the product quality further.

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COMMIT YOUR WAY TO JEHOVAH AND HE WILL ACT IN YOUR BEHALF. PSALMS 37:5

Half the problem was selling the same product as a Clifford/Viper/Hornet/Avital.
They should have rationalised down to say Clifford and viper with one brand entry level, the other upmarket.
The point I was making earlier, was that the Clifford marketing policy in the UK was ONLY to sell through approved dealers with people like me going on courses with them and being tested at least once a year!
If any dealer sold product over the counter without installation, he was immediately canned.
It allowed for a decent margin. Now of course it's a bloody supermarket product rather than a boutique product with no margins.
I think I was earning more per install 15 years ago than I am now, meanwhile, for instance,gas prices etc., = $10 per gallon here have tripled.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

I remember a few years ago, DEI bought out some product lines, they offered me them dealer direct at a great price.......about 10 percent higher than what the distributor was charging.......suggested they recheck their pricing and get back to me.  Later, they offered a revamped model line, the pricing stayed the some but power was half, seemed like a great deal.  They did send me a great golf shirt.

Kenwood and Jvc are pretty much one company here now, Howie.  They started working to gether a couple of years back, I hope more survive.

The problems currently for every aftermarket product be it security, audio or Bluetooth kits are:
a) The recession, buying power or lack of.
b) The amount of loading of extras by the factory.
Mits Lancer over here, climate air, 7" touch screen with Nav, hard drive storage, cruise etc.
Ford Focus, pitched against the 1 Series BMW, Ford is pitching it against the Golf/Rabbit/Vento as a level above, all the above as standard plus an R/S option with keyless go, all OEM.
10 years ago all I was doing were Fords,VW/Audi and BMW, now I never see them.
what happens in 5-10 years time (think 99 Civics) when the kids get them? We will never see them for extras.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

Maybe we can start outfit Mr. Branson's new fleet of space craft.

Most of our customers were initaly impressed with all the toys in new car, but then they find out what the salesman promised, the service manger can't deliver.  I doubt OE equipment will last ten years, haven't in the pass.  We were constantly getting calls for repair on Porche/BMW factory navs go down.  When was the last time you saw a GM deck keep its number past the first month.

So true but unfortunately these days the marketing is such that the ORIGINAL owners will go back to the dealer, product mystique, extended warrantees etc.
My friend owned a then successful car audio shop, had the high end audio/nav system in a Cayenne, it failed dealer exchange, they cracked the trim surround. We hadn't earlier when we installed a BT kit.


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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

One more comment, 5 years ago, Clifford had a company owned UK site, it supplied the rest of Europe and the middle east.
There were repair people and 3 techies constantly on site.
They were the biggest selling alarm product in the UK, Germany, Holland and Israel.
Then along came DEI with product, programming and IMO quality dilution.
They are now simply a section of a UK equivalent to Scosche, 1 techie if you can ever reach him, not enough products reach here and last month for the first time ever they were advertising for dealers. What a change, 10 years ago they were turning people away after auditing the installation workshops and us having to go on courses.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.

t&t tech wrote:

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DEI going bankrupt. That's really surprising. Their name is so large.

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They are not filing bankruptcy, fyi. Simply sold to private holding company.

My bad.

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COMMIT YOUR WAY TO JEHOVAH AND HE WILL ACT IN YOUR BEHALF. PSALMS 37:5

Except I believe DEI has been in chapter 11.
By the way Ispker is so right, that Porsche PCM as they called it was always on the blink, bloody Blaupunkt rubbish.

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Amateurs assume, don't test and have problems; pros test first. I am not a free install service.
Read the installation manual, do a search here or online for your vehicle wiring before posting.