sold to investment group run by Tom O'mara, who w ill become president.
[Link: cepro.com]

Julie
Carver??? What were they doing ? Selling off old product, or did someone buy the name?

That's odd... The press release shows that Carver Pro is a part of the deal, but where is Carver Home??

So does Bob (so now Elan/Nortek) still own Carver's home line?? Although he hasn't done anything with the line that I can see, I remember he bought it back a few years ago...

one of our editors is tracking down info ... any other questions?

Julie,

Yeah, what does Bob think about having his name whored out and traded like a college freshman co-ed at a frat party?

When Bob Carver got divorced, his x got Carver. That's why he started Sunfire by Bob Carver.

Really.. I thought it was a contract dispute thing. No idea it was marital.

I heard that same story about Phase Linear, his first company.

Yeah I was working with him at Phase Linear when his wife bought up voting shares of the stock, and booted him out when they divorced!
Then sure enough it happened a second time after he got Carver up and rolling!
Poor guy!
He lost millions both times, and is the world's nicest guy!!! Just a little unlucky with the womenfolk!

Guys, I could be wrong but here is how I heard it went down from industry insiders. Most of this info is from "third parties" so take it for what it's worth.

When Bob was still "Carver" he took the company public. The board of directors slowly took the company in a new direction (cassette decks, low priced CD players, etc.) and Bob's majority ownership was forcibly bought out (about the time of his divorce?) but I heard he still owned about 22% of the Carver stock. Bob took his buy-out proceeds and started Sunfire.

Meanwhile, Carver was still in operation but went through a couple of major management and direction upheavals. Eventually, they went bankrupt and closed. Either right before or after bandruptcy, they or the bank sold the rights to the Carver Pro line to Phoenix Gold.

After the Carver bankruptcy Bob Carver told everyone he was awarded the rights and bought back, from the bankruptcy court for a pittance, the rights to the Carver name for just residential product and Sunfire came out with a few Carver models which they said would be a lower-end, entry level line for them. My information dries up a bit at this point, but it appears Phoenix Gold put in a claim with the courts that THEY actually owned the Carver name for pro and residential and they did in fact end up with the rights to both lines. It could also be that Bob sold them the rights to the name and the courts were not involved. However it happened, Phoenix ended up with both the Carver Pro and Carver residential names about two or three years ago.

Phoenix Gold showed reps and select dealers a preliminary line of Carver products - some of which (like the preamp/processors) were going to be OEM'd for them by Sunfire! Bob's "right hand man" at Sunfire for many years, Randy Bingham, was hired by Phoenix to run the new Carver division and launch the line. This was shortly after Bob lost his lawsuits regarding the patents on his subwoofers.

For whatever reason, the Carver line at Phoenix never launched and Randy ended up leaving and is now working for Krell. Bob ended up selling out to Nortek and probably has some sort of agreement to continue making public appearances for a year or two or three - maybe longer, maybe shorter.

My guess is they didn't mention the residential Carver line in the press releases because it really doesn't exist anymore, but they probably did get the rights to the name if they want to take another stab at resurrecting it.

My info comes second and third hand, but I believe it is mostly correct in spirit even if the chronology is slightly off. If any industry insider is reading this and has more accurate info, I would love to hear it.

Hey, maybe this will give him an excuse to start up yet another company?

The real shame of the matter is that Mr. Carver really had a huge name in the industry, which today has become almost trivial at worst, legendary at best.

If you look at the former Bob run companies, none have really fared all that well after the departure of their creator. Carver used to be synonomous with his designs, and so did Sunfire, but what are they now? Just names that are trying to stay afloat in the sea of fierce competion in a somewhat waning market of A/V seperates.

Everything was good when two channel ruled the universe, but in the world of digital, it's awfully hard to technologically compete with the technology centered brands of the world ie. Denon, Yamaha, Sony, Marantz, Onkyo, Pioneer, etc., and even harder to start fresh or attempt to ressurect name brands that meant something 10-20 years ago.

In this business, if you snooze, you lose, and although the Carver name is still recognizable, I doubt seriously that it longer means anything.

Is there even a Carver home unit in business anymore? I haven't heard of them in years. Time to Google...

Google confirms, no Carver home. I seem to recall them shutting the doors several years ago.

wow, captain, want a job?

[Link: realeyz.com]
is the only Carver home I found