A Danish firm will pay up to $151 million for Vancouver-based Audigy Group, a business management company for audiology practices.
GN ReSound, the hearing aid and diagnostic equipment manufacturing brand of GN Store Nord A/S, announced it had closed the acquisition July 1 and would pay $91 million up front with another $60 million contingent on Audigy’s future earnings.
Audigy said its 186 employees in Vancouver will not be affected by the sale.
“Audigy will be a separate company and subsidiary of GN Hearing’s U.S. business entity,” GN said in a press release. “Our objective is to preserve and benefit from Audigy’s unique business model and strong management team.”
Audigy was founded by CEO Brandon Dawson in 2004 and is based at 11201 N.E. Ninth St. The company has more than 250 national “members,” its clients/business owners that last year sold 80,000 hearing care units, according to a company release.
“We don’t get into patient care, other than helping practices brand themselves,” Dawson said in a Columbian profile in 2013. “We blueprint best practices, and then offer professional development, training and support.”
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association says audiology jobs are expected to grow by 29 percent between 2014 and 2024, much faster than other sectors. That’s due in part to the nation’s largest generation, baby boomers, aging and experiencing hearing loss, according to the association.
“Major driving factors for the growth of this market are increasing the occurrence of hearing impairment in young as well as old population, rising purchasing capacity, interventions of government for improving healthcare infrastructure and increasing investments in (the research and development) sector,” according to a Grand View Research study.
Audigy’s revenues have climbed drastically during its first decade in business, bringing in $600,000 in 2005 and $26 million in 2012.
Audigy was formed to serve private practices “who want to stay independent and thrive in an industry overrun by corporate consolidation,” according to the company.
“Partnering with GN … is a significant complement for our members and the professionals we serve, and will help us to continue to achieve our mission of impacting independent business owners’ ability to thrive in a consolidating industry,” Audigy’s Dawson said in a statement.
GN ReSound, based in Ballerup, Denmark, reported about $773 million in revenue last year. Bloomberg reported GN ReSound’s parent company is the third-largest publicly traded producer of hearing aids in the world.
“With the acquisition, GN Hearing can offer unique business and performance management solutions to many of its customers, in addition to our continued offering of the world’s leading hearing aid technology,” Anders Hedegaard, CEO of GN ReSound, said in a statement.
