Meade's troubles may include sale... uhoh..

[vhuang168]

Meade Instruments Engages Robert W. Baird & Co. To Assist In Review Of Strategic Alternatives - Quick Facts



(RTTNews) - Meade Instruments Corp. (MEAD) announced that it has engaged Robert Baird & Co. to assist in its previously announced evaluation of strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value, which may include a sale of the company.

Robert Baird will serve as financial advisor to the special committee formed by the Board of Directors to conduct a review and develop recommendations for the full Board to consider.

Steve Muellner, CEO, commented, "We continue to execute on our restructuring and growth initiatives, as well as develop new plans for achieving a successful turnaround of the Company. We believe that the strength of our brands is the foundation for a growing and profitable company. Therefore, in order to unlock the inherent value of these brands for its shareholders in a timely manner, the Company is pursuing a parallel path and exploring all strategic options."

Wonder how this is going to turn out.

[Airconvent]

wow...their consultant's strategic alternative and value-adding is the sell the company. And they need to pay people to tell them this?
They should be advising on how to turn their company around or something like that. I think they could do with a low cost 8" scope like the Nexstar 8 series. The LX90 is good but too expensive to be considered their "entry level 8" scope.

[Tachyon]

I've always liked to compare these two companies - Meade and Celestron. They have different business philosophies and practices. Meade appears to me to always be in a hurry to get somewhere, even at the expense of announcing products which they do not have yet. While Celestron tends to take the more technical approach, and they are less aggressive than Meade.

Anyway, Celestron was also sold. So I think the endings may be the same for both companies!

[vhuang168]

This was posted on Astromart.

Customer Service Update from Meade Instruments

Hello. Our recent Dealer Newsletter announcing details of our continued progress on our business turnaround that we were moving our remaining U.S. manufacturing to a more cost efficient location, followed by our dealer bulletin detailing short term availability of specific high-end telescopes, seems to have raised as many questions as these announcements were meant to answer.

And so we are taking this opportunity to elaborate a bit more on our short term plans and long term strategies which were developed with the purpose of better serving you, our customers, and which we believe will ultimately return our company to profitability. I hope this Question/Answer format works for you.


Question: Is Meade staying in the High Performance Telescope business?

Absolutely! With a global market share of well over 50%, we believe there is more opportunity today than ever before for us to lead the industry with our drive toward more consumer friendly products, while delivering an ever improving user experience at fair pricing.



Question: Where will Meade be building its telescopes, if not Irvine, California?

For years now we have been importing all of our entry level telescopes from three or four primary partners in China. With the help of our manufacturing partners we refresh these lines annually. These products will continue to be built in China.

Similarly, a few years ago we began sourcing parts and sub-assemblies, and ultimately complete units of our intermediate products in China. At the same time we began substantial assembly processes in our Mexican facility. Product quality has been maintained and consumer acceptance has remained strong. We anticipate continuing to source these products from China and our own plant in Mexico.

This year we have determined we cannot continue to build high end telescopes in California and remain competitive in the market. We have therefore made the decision to move production to our plant in Mexico and our partners in China. You can be sure that we will not lower our quality standards on any product as we make this move.

10/25/2007


Question: What about the RCX and Max Mount products?

As announced earlier this year, we decided to implement some fairly serious improvements in both product lines, and determined that the simplest way to do this was to temporarily suspend the manufacture of these products while the improvements were being tested and then implemented.

We are very proud of both of these lines and we expect to be back up and running soon. However, our first priority will be to maintain the world famous LX line's position in the industry. Once the LX line is operational we will move on to production of the RCX and MaxMount.

Most RCX orders in hand, but not all, will be finished and shipped prior to the shut-down of our California manufacturing on January 1. Those of you who have orders with us for either RCX or the Max Mount should contact your dealer for information regarding your specific order.

To those of you who saw our use of the word "indefinite" in the recently published Dealer Newsletter, and to those that interpreted the use of that word to imply "permanent," I apologize. We fully intend to be back in production as soon as possible



Question: Will Meade continue to provide product support for all of its telescopes?

Of course. We intend to be the market leader, and the consumer's choice in telescopes for years to come, and we know that to do that we must build a great product and then stand behind it. As a matter of fact we are continuing to invest in improvements on our customer service/product repair business, and our customers should continue to realize these improvements over the coming months. We will continue to stand behind our products and their respective warranties.



Question: Will Meade continue to invest in Product Development?

More than ever! These past couple of years have been difficult for us as we've worked on the many areas to improve our company, but through it all we continued to spend on R&D, as we will continue to do so in the future. Our introduction this year of mySKYT was just the latest of a long line of innovative, market making products from Meade. And we have many more new products in development for introduction in the coming months and years ahead.

Question: Will the Meade Headquarters remain in California?

Yes! We will continue to operate at our 160,000 square foot facility in Irvine, California. The area formerly used for manufacturing will be converted to warehouse space, and our current office space will remain as is. The Customer Service Department and the related Product Repair Department will continue to operate out of Mexico and California, just as they do currently.



Question: Is Meade going to be sold?

Hard to predict. We know that we have many well known and valuable brand names, not only in the telescope industry but in the Sport Optics industry as well. We have a solid $100,000,000, global business that could very well be attractive to some potential buyer. Our obligation will be to our shareholders to maximize the value of their shares, whether it is through the continuing efforts of the turnaround, or through a sale of part or all of the company. Whatever happens, it should be obvious that it will always be in Meade's interest to continue to serve the customer with the best product and best "post sale" service.

Respectfully,
Steve Muellner

[Airconvent]

wahh...somebody please tell them to set up a plant in Singapore!
But as a company, Meade is more sophisticated and has a wider product range as compared with Celestron. I think both companies have their strengths but one booboo is for the boss of the BIGGEST mainstream astronomical product company in the world to tell their customers selling the company is one of their options but hey, they will still offer "post sales" service.