"The company was acquired by Bain Capital, the private equity firm, in 2007 for $1.9 billion. But, like many such deals, the buyout left Guitar Center heavily indebted just as online rivals began to emerge. To reduce the debt load, some of Guitar Center’s debt was converted to equity, making Ares Management the majority shareholder in 2014."
As a guitar player myself, I remember when you could barely walk through a Guitar Center without tripping over a guitar. These days, there's ample vacant space on the shelves (where guitars used to hang). The change happened, oh, around a decade or so ago.
Another “Romney Involement”... geee.....
They whine about Trump losing money, but how many Bain Capital owned places have went under???
I recently picked up playing after a decade away from gigging and when I walked into a guitar center I was floored at how awful and generic everything looked. Anything I would formerly call good quality (american made, Gibson/Fender etc...) was so far beyond overpriced it was insulting, and all of the moderately priced stuff had nowhere near the variety that it used to. Maybe there were six different basses, four of them looked near identical and had roughly equivalent features. I also figured out nearly too late that the way a guitar sounded inside their acoustic room was way better than outside on the showroom floor, so much better it might as well have been a deliberate trap. Always bring the guitar out of the acoustic room and try before you buy.
So another company canibalized by Bain Capital.
True. Guitar Center's problems started years ago. I didn't leave them, they left me. I got tired of going in there and asking for something pretty common and the staff, and often even the manager, didn't know what I was talking about. Worse, it was clear the staff didn't even follow up with things from manufacturers enough to even say "we haven't gotten those in yet" or "sorry, I know what it is but we don't carry it".
They became retail/no information with poor customer service and then couldn't compete with direct from the manufacturer or from Amazon, Reverb, Sweetwater, Musician's Friend, etc.
Another Romney success story? Took a little longer than usual to bring this one to conclusion.
Bain Capital at it again they have taken businesses that have been in business for decades and destroyed them what a shame!!
Bain Capital was Mitt Romney’s old company.