Hi-res music-tech company MQA has been enduring tough times recently, having restructured and entered administration in April this year.
The company said at the time that its main financial backer was seeking an exit, although there was interest in a potential acquisition from other firms.
Now that interest has solidified into an actual deal. Canadian firm Lenbrook has acquired the assets of MQA, and will continue work on its MQA and SCL6 audio codecs.
As part of the acquisition, Lenbrook is hiring “a core group of engineers and developers and sales and marketing personnel” from MQA.
MQA’s founder Bob Stuart and CEO Mike Jbara will not be joining Lenbrook as employees, although Stuart will take an advisory role on product development of the two codecs.
The companies are not strangers: Lenbook was one of MQA’s biggest licensees. The group includes several well-known audio brands including NAD Electronics, PSB Speakers and Bluesound.
Lenbrook intends to keep as many of MQA’s existing customers as possible, although the fact that it has brands who compete with some of those companies may be a challenge.
It will address that partly by keeping some of MQA’s operations, including its licensee portal, separate from its own corporate operations.
Terms of the acquisition have not been made public.
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