Comments on: Black Diamond Equipment & Gregory Mountain Products Acquired By Clarus Corp.

By: Hans_krugger

Hans_krugger — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:30:00 +0000

What a sell-out. I consider this betryal. The ethics of climbing that were developed in the 1970s have been murdered and this move is the headstone that makes its grave. I will never buy a piece of Black Diamond gear. Its old stuff from E-bay from now on!

This is not what Chouinard had in mind when he helped these jerks get started. What a bunch of spineless money grubbing yuppies they have all become.

By: Gregory Gear

Gregory Gear — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:11:09 +0000

[...] Gear Black Diamond Equipment Gregory Mountain Products Acquired By Clarus Corp ClimbingNarccom I found some cool stuff here: Black Diamond Equipment Gregory Mountain Products Acquired [...]

By: Blake

Blake — Thu, 20 May 2010 22:03:15 +0000

As someone in the know – various friends who work there. Most of the employees (the smart ones) see it as more work for them as the integration (like VF had with TNF) and various others becomes a headache. Employees (other than Metcalf and Grover and board folks) are not going to see much of a change for a few years and they def. won’t benefit as I highly doubt the majority of them own shares, which won’t do much anyways longterm. Metcalf (awesome guy by the way) and Grove are looking for ways to get out and this is the easiest option. Company probably won’t change much and they can bail in a few years to Mehico and wherever with some coin in there pocket. BD leveraged the crap out of their capital with the new boot line, a slew of new skis, new forging for biners, new ops in Asia and Euro, and a website (which kind of blows by the way), and selling out why they looked good to potential suitors was the best bet. I really don’t see BD becoming this monster company who swoops in and buys other small outdoor brands and becomes a powerhouse. For one the industry is very stagnant, two banks aren’t going to take a risk on loaning money for ventures like that, and three what the hell is the point of having two pack companies under one banner (see jansport and TNF). Dollar dollar bill yall.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:28:56 +0000

You are dead on the money in your analysis. Venture Capital, in my view, has been the biggest negative game changer for the outdoor industry in the past 20 years.
Venture Capital only gives money if their is an exit strategy.

By: Kletternews&Klettervideos | kletterblog.info

Kletternews&Klettervideos | kletterblog.info — Sat, 15 May 2010 11:46:30 +0000

[...] Diamond wurde an Clarus verkauft, einen Überblick gibts bei ClimbingNarc, das offizielle Statement von Black Diamond hier, und hier die Diskussion [...]

By: ian

ian — Sat, 15 May 2010 11:10:12 +0000

I can’t believe Black Diamond Sold out??? No out door company ever sells out to make their company or their products better they just do it to make more money. Why would Black Diamond need to and Metolius, DMM, Wild Country, Petzl, Grivel all not need too.

By: Wilson

Wilson — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:18:12 +0000

My first reaction is ‘uh-oh’. When you try to merge cultures of two companies, inevitably a portion of both company’s personality is lost. To what extent this affects the end product is to be seen, but it can be a rough road. It’s a positive sign that they are keeping most of the top guys from each respective company on for the transition, but as it might have been mentioned that will likely change in a year or two. Remember, BD could have decided to not have been bought out, but obviously this aligns with whatever vision of growth they have. Obviously they couldn’t do it organically, so going public or merging with someone else was their only choice.

By: Black Diamond Equipment Going Public : Splitter Choss

Black Diamond Equipment Going Public : Splitter Choss — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:16:17 +0000

[...] can read the official releases here and here, and some other news here. Obviously there is a lot of emotion surrounding this announcement, and for good reason. 99% of the [...]

By: More Info

More Info — Mon, 10 May 2010 23:59:57 +0000

From Metcalf’s memo( http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/journal/news/company/birth-of-black-diamond-20 ):

“Most recently, they built and operated Armor Holdings, a company that designed and built a wide variety of personal protection and safety equipment.”

Uh huh. It appears that they then SOLD Armor holdings right before its executives were charged by the US Department of Justice for violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices laws.http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-03-07/story/armor_holdings_elaborate_sting_set_up_a_number_of_meetings

Besides the criminal charges against its exec, Armor Holdings eventually settled civil charges with the DOJ for 30 Million dollars for violation of the Federal False Claims act…they apparently sold defective body armor to the Military.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armor_Holdings,_Inc.

I don’t know. This just doesn’t bode well for me.

By: EasternClimber

EasternClimber — Mon, 10 May 2010 20:58:19 +0000

Here’s the official word from Metcalf himself:

http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/journal/news/company/birth-of-black-diamond-20