deskthority

Cherry has been acquired by GENUI, a private investment firm from Hamburg:

http://www.zf.com/corporate/en_de/press ... 26752.html

Maybe they'll actually innovate again with another firm pushing them to make profits.

Retooling... Redesigning... Bringing back dye sublimation... A guy can dream.

I'm guessing the opposite. A private equity firm would want to see less capital expenditures and less R&D spending, and instead focus on "keeping the lights on" type work that brings in contracts and guarantees a steady revenue stream.

I wouldn't be surprised if they cut their product line to focus on a few high-profit areas.

Regardless of which way this goes, this should be an interesting development. Either they rise, or they fall.

XMIT wrote: A private equity firm would want to see less capital expenditures and less R&D spending, and instead focus on "keeping the lights on" type work that brings in contracts and guarantees a steady revenue stream.

Some private equity firms will try and flip their newly purchased companies in the short term (~5 years) for a big profit, so they will actually spend more on R&D than the previous owner in order to make the company more attractive for potential buyers. This is basically what's happening to the company I work at right now.

I've seen some article recently reporting on the renaissance of mechanical keyboards. The biggest supplier in the current mass market for mechanical keyboards is still Cherry but they seemed to really have had serious issues meeting demand, further helping Chinese clones of their no-longer patented MX switches get a foothold in the market.

This could be the perfect time to invest in Cherry and try to hold on to as much market share as possible - of a fast growing market! They have developed quite a few new MX variants in the last years, don't think they've gone into "max profit" mode, rather appears like they are going into "max revenue" mode currently.

Just a personal opinion but their latest MX 8.0 keyboard is probably the best keyboard Cherry has built in a decade. Even if you don't like the design, it's a huge step forward from the previous MX boards. Really really wonder who makes the double-shot keycaps for that board though. Could it be GMK?

The problem is that their brand value is tenuous.

While the first firms that broke away from them (i. e. Razer and the Kailh switch) were seen as cheapening the product/trying to pad margins, many of the MX-alike switches (Gaterons, for example) are good enough that they no longer need apologies.

People want mechs, I agree. They generally prefer MX-mount switches, but there are a lot of vendors that can do that (and frankly, I'm pretty sure keycap swaps are only of minor interest outside a few hobbyist and special application circles). But will they continue to pay a premium for Cherry? switches? I'm not sure.

I suspect the new frontier would be if you saw some large PC OEM include a mechanical board in their product as a differentation. I know Alienware did for a while, but that's not so much 'higher-end' as 'silly expensive.' If a Dell, HP, or Lenovo ordered mechanical boards in hundreds of thousands or millions, whoever gets that contract will win big. But I'm not even sure that it would be Cherry-- didn't just doing the Logitech G710 when it came out absorb all available capacity?

It's also worth noting that Apple, through a back door, actually did launch mechanical keyboards for the MacBook and iPad Pro.

They're really short travel metal domes, but I'd argue that that counts... but they used something of their own design, really.

bhtooefr wrote: It's also worth noting that Apple, through a back door, actually did launch mechanical keyboards for the MacBook and iPad Pro.

They're really short travel metal domes, but I'd argue that that counts... but they used something of their own design, really.

Apple aren't known for their prowess in designing good keyboard switches .