In Wednesday’s (8/15) DealBook blog at the New York Times, William Alden writes that “hedge-fund billionaire John A. Paulson’s firm, Paulson & Company, agreed to buy the company that makes the pianos, Steinway Musical Instruments, for $512 million.” The news followed reports on Tuesday that a second, unnamed buyer had offered a higher purchase price than Kohlberg & Company’s offer of $438 million in July. “One analyst, Arnold Ursaner of CJS Securities, said … ‘You have a global luxury brand. It’s no different from a painting or a magnificent Fifth Avenue apartment.’ ” In Thursday’s (8/15) Daily Telegraph (London), pianist Stephen Hough writes that he is “delighted” about the news of the impending sale, “because it suggests that a canny businessman sees classical music as a worthwhile investment.… The Steinway is built of natural materials—wood (many varieties), leather, felt, iron—but there is not the mystery about its magic as there is with a great Italian stringed instrument. It is science to the violin’s art…. Every piano is different, but if the pianist sees Steinway & Sons in gold lettering on the black fall board, he or she knows they are in safe hands.”
Posted August 15, 2013
