Huish Outdoors acquires LIQUIVISION

[DiveNav]

Without overgeneralizing too much, what's the general trend in developments when a 'Big Daddy' company acquires 2 competitor smaller companies?
.....

In general what is supposed to happen is "integration".
Overtime the 2 small companies will become the same company and - one way or the other - they will have to learn to work as if they were employees of the same company.

Having said that, large companies are still made by people .... and do have their own internal differences, but, a well managed company - at least in high tech - will have several cross-functional teams and will also try to leverage as much as possible core competencies.

I would not be surprised if HO puts together a "Dive Computing Center of Excellence" with representatives from the former Atomics, Liquivision and Zeagle teams".
Maybe is already happening.

 

[diverrex]

Whether Huish Outdoor becomes a successful integrator of scuba businesses remains to be seen. But I suspect that just like there are way more dive shops than needed for the size of the market there probably are more scuba manufacturers than needed for what is a relatively small market.

I've had two customer service issues with Huish Outdoor that both turned out well. I bought a Stahlsac bag when they were an independent company. A few years ago after a dive trip the telescoping handle would no longer work. Got a rep from Huish Outdoor on the phone who directed me to a service technician who tried to help walk me through repairing it myself. When that didn't work I sent it Huish Outdoor for repair under the original lifetime warranty. It was returned to me in perfecting working condition in a shorter period than they originally indicated.

I also bought an Atomic Aquatic Cobalt while it was an independent company. After Huish Outdoor bought Atomic I had a minor problem with the buttons not working. Called up Atomic and they sent me the needed replacement parts no questions asked.

PS While he is not a direct employee of Atomic RONR is probably the most helpful person I've ever come across in fixing product issues. I always hope that Atomic and Huish recognize how much help he has been to their product.

 

[Hatul]

so we now have what, pinnacle, zeagle, atomic, bare, and liquidvizon under the same umbrella? strange assorment, not a ton of obvious synergies, one's not even us-base. guy may be a detergent wiz, but what he's trying to accomplish in scuba is pretty unclear.

The obvious synergies are: Zeagle and Atomic regulators, Atomic is trying to put out a wrist computer, which Liquivision is expert on.

---------- Post added April 5th, 2014 at 10:16 AM ----------

The wrist-mount Cobalt may have just been strangled in the crib, relabel the Liquivision 'Kaon' as the 'new' Kobalt II.......hope I'm wrong on that.

Not Kaon, but Lynx. But my guess is Liquivision will jump start the Atomic wrist mount AI computer.

 

[drrich2]

I've got to wonder how smoothly this 'synergy' will work. I've got a 1st generation Cobalt; love the interface. I've read some good things about the Lynx; if I understand correctly, it's got a 'tap' interface; a different way of doing things.

Now, it'd be sweet if Atomic Aquatics would 'borrow' the capability for 2 dive computers to find each other. With the Lynx it's via transmitter, but perhaps the console form Cobalt could also acquire the feature? This backup 'hedge' against buddy separation could be sweet.

Richard.

 

[Akimbo]

Hopefully the wrist Cobalt will use the Liquivision patented long-range acoustic transmitter, which can also be a locator beacon up to 100 meters. I have a Cobalt and Lynx. The Cobalt has the edge on user interface. A lot of the menu-nesting could be made common to both.

It would also be nice if both companies get a common downloading protocol and perhaps even a high-end dive log program.

 

[drrich2]

Atomic's attitude, from what I understand, has been that private dive computer software vendors tend to produce a better product (e.g.: MacDive, Dive Log) than 'in-house proprietary' software packages (e.g.: Oceanic Worldwide's Oceanlog). So Atomic chose to cooperate with the former, helped them built on Cobalt compatibility.

Anybody know what LiquiVision's attitude is toward the private dive computer software vendors?

Richard.

 

[JFS]

after reading Dans bio....."Dan Huish prefers to live and travel modestly to avoid drawing attention to himself". I guess flying in one of your private jets is living modestly. he's done well for himself and I think its good that he buys up good companies much like the other players do in the scuba industry.

 

[stu1965]

i have set aside the day to look at all the liquidvision threads, as I was planning on buying two Lynx units for my wife and I. Full kits. Acquisitions scare me. Do I really want to dump 4k only to lose my support (and more importantly, the good people behind the product). IDK.

 

[flyingbudda]

6 months on and almost zero movement or announcments from any of the Brands involved....

 

[C Dub]

Just buy Petrels, IMO...