Loud Technologies to restructure R&D and marketing

News

Andy Barrett Nov 6 2008, 9:09am

US pro audio and MI giant to separate product development, but unifies communications

In a statement issued on November 5th, Loud Technologies has announced a reorganization of its corporate marketing, sales and engineering functions. The statement read as follows:

“Under the new organsation, product strategy, development and marketing for the company’s MI and pro audio businesses will be managed by separate, dedicated product management teams, while marketing communications for all Loud brands will be consolidated and managed by a shared marketing support team.

“The Company’s worldwide engineering resources will be scaled accordingly to support a more focused product development schedule. Loud will also move North American sales from its current captive sales force to a group of independent sales representation firms and consolidate portions of its international sales force.

“The restructuring is expected to generate a net reduction of approximately 90 full-time positions, and should be implemented by the end of 2008.”

The statement comes after the resignation of Jamie Engen as the company’s chairman and CEO after some eight years in the role and his replacement by Rodney Olson, and before that the resignation of the company’s chief financial officer, Gerald Ng, in May, the arrival of James Stewart as chief operating officer in July and David Olson as chief financial officer.

Ng had found his position untenable after only a year in the job, after Loud's fourth quarterly loss in a row. The company lost more than $8 million in the financial year 2007/2008. Engen stepping down was seen by many as a consequence of those losses and this latest statement would appear to be Rodney Olson’s first large scale changes as Loud’s CEO.

It is unlikely that the changes will affect Loud’s operations in the UK.