Just read another story by a golf equipment industry “expert’’ on the proposed Acushnet Co. IPO.
Acushnet is the parent company of the Titleist and FootJoy brands.
Here’s his conclusion:
“With TaylorMade being put up for sale by adidas AG last month, and with this IPO seemingly on the docket for Acushnet in 2016, expect the golf industry landscape to be altered rather dramatically by the end of the current calendar year.’’
Titleist parent Acushnet Co. is shopping an IPO
The “expert’’ of course, doesn’t say how he expects the landscape to be dramatically altered.
Based on history, I have a good idea how the landscape will be dramatically altered: It WON’T be.
Some guys just don’t get it.
Given today’s economic golf climate, there is no guarantee an Acushnet IPO will happen, particularly if the IPO price isn’t enough.
But if and when the IPO occurs, history says it won’t dramatically alter the way the equipment industry does business. Acushnet and TaylorMade Golf each have been sold previously (TaylorMade more than once) without any significant impact on the dynamics of the equipment industry, which basically has operated (for better or worse) the same way for years.
To be fair, the one thing that will be different with an Acushnet IPO – if it occurs – is that the company will have to be more transparent, meaning it will have to share more than just its sales and earnings numbers, as it did under Fortune Brands, and that CEO Wally Uilhlein will have to tolerate questions from mostly clueless Wall Street analysts every three months.
