Pioneer DJ is reportedly for sale, with its two owners, Pioneer Corp and KKR & Co, considering selling off their stakes in the DJ giant.
The news which was first released by Japanese financial websites, reports sales of around $200m last year and a deal expected to land around $500m when it’s eventually sold.
Pioneer Corporation owns a 15% stake in Pioneer DJ, a separate company created in 2015 during a deal with investment firm KKR & Co (which owns the other 85%). Both parties—Pioneer Operation and KKR & Co—are now considering offloading the entire Pioneer DJ stock to new buyers, reports Nikkei Business.
Pioneer’s CDJ media player remains an industry standard of DJ booths worldwide, and according to Nikkei Asian Review, Pioneer DJ controls between 60 and 70% of the global share in DJ mixers, turntables and other products.
The separate Pioneer Corporation, meanwhile, is currently restructuring and was recently bailed out by Baring Private Equity Asia, a Hong Kong buyout firm, to the tune of $930 million. Japan Times reports that the deal involved laying off 3,000 employees, which amounts to some 15% of Pioneer Corporation’s total workforce.
Pioneer itself is potentially getting out of the DJ business (it essentially already did in 2015, bar the 15% stake it retained), but Pioneer DJ will continue as normal.
