Steinway Stereo

[Israel Stein]

At 04:30 AM 11/30/2007, pianotech-request at ptg.org wrote:
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>Subject: Steinway Stereo Anyone?
>Message: 10
>
>Hi All,
>
>Have a look here:
>
>http://www.pianoforte.co.za/steinway-lyngdorf.html
>
>Regards,
>Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.

Don,

When the current owners (from the world of finance) bought Steinway 
at what at the time was thought to be an unjustifiably high price, 
thinking in the industry was that they were trying to get their hands 
on the brand name so that they could license it to non-piano 
products. There was no other way to generate the kind of return on 
investment from a piano manufacturer that these people usually look 
for. It looks like they finally got around to doing it.

The Steinway family when they owned the firm were constantly 
approached by manufacturers wishing to license the Steinway name for 
other products - and they always refused. I guess CBS and then the 
Birminghams had other ideas - or no idea at all, judging by the 
disastrous results of their "stewardships". Considering the state of 
today's piano market, this course of action is a real no-brainer for 
someone with a background in finance. Assuming that "Steinway" still 
has the kind of cachet that they are counting on...

Israel Stein