February 02, 1999
Industry: Bob Carver, Sunfire, and Carver Corp keep merger talk alive, agree to work together.

AudioWorld Online Staff

Snohomish, WA. Most everyone agrees that Bob Carver designs great audio amps and components. But he hasn't always been able to match his engineering brilliance with a similar degree of business or marketing savvy. Today, the saga continues, as Carver and the company that bears his name announced a renewed effort to get along together.

After founding Phase Linear in the late 70's, then Carver Corporation in the mid 80's, Bob Carver left Carver Corp five years ago, to found a new venture called Sunfire Corporation. Carver resumed a role with Carver last September, as titular CEO and Chairman of the Board, but was not active in day-to-day operations.

Sunfire has been selling a line of mid-to-high-end amplifiers and subwoofers designed by Carver, with modest success. Carver Corporation, on the other hand, has carved a dizzying death spiral, languishing in the absence of new products or coherent marketing strategy. Until recently, Carver Corporation was touting direct Internet sales (after the fashion of Henry Kloss's Cambridge Soundworks) as its road to salvation, but for the past couple of weeks the Carver Corp. web site has been off the net, apparently due to the company's failure to pay web site bills.

Today's announcement follows on the heels of the resignation of Carver Corp's chief operating officer Fred Grund, along with director James McCullough. It indicates that Bob Carver will assume full operational control of Carver Corp, and goes on to state that he will "direct the development, manufacturing, marketing and distribution of a new line of products for the home and car under the 'Carver' brand name [and] establish a new manufacturer's representative and independent dealer network, in order to rebuild Carver Corporation as a dominant force in the USA as a manufacturer of consumer audio electronics."

In return, Bob Carver will be given 80% ownership of Carver Corp, subject to "certain criteria and Mr. Carver's discretion." The announcement also indicates that Carver Corp and Sunfire Corp may merge within the next 18 months, with Carver shareholders retaining a 20% ownership stake in the post-merger business.

"I am very excited to have this opportunity to rebuild the Company I founded so long ago," commented Carver. "Sunfire and Carver products serve distinct segments of the market, and should complement each other extremely well."

At the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas in early January, Bob Carver introduced a number of new products which will presumably come to market under the Carver label, including a 200W per channel, five-channel Dolby Digital/DTS receiver; a high-pressure subwoofer for home theater; a 300W miniature amplifier for automobile subwoofers; and two companion car subwoofers.