Ecotech (Radions) and AI merging??!!

[Reef Pilot]

Wow!! Weren't these the biggest rivals? Wonder what that will do to pricing?

[jorjef]

Buy out/ eliminate your competition, happens all the time.

[Slyguy00]

Thats pretty sweet. Cant wait to see what they come up with. You would think that it would probably make the prices come down, having the two big companies merging.

[jorjef]

You would think that it would probably make the prices come down, having the two big companies merging.

HUH??


You don't buy your completion to lower prices, you buy them to eliminate lower prices/margins.

[Reef Pilot]

Thats pretty sweet. Cant wait to see what they come up with. You would think that it would probably make the prices come down, having the two big companies merging.
Prices could come down to compete with the Chinese companies. But only if they gain some synergies and reduce their costs. I don't expect this in the short term, though, and if anything might hold off further price reductions that both companies have been doing to compete with each other.

[Magickiwi]

Link to news story or press release?

[Slyguy00]

.

[Slyguy00]

HUH??


You don't buy your completion to lower prices, you buy them to eliminate lower prices/margins.

If you think prices will go up i do believe ur dilusional. Pricing on leds isnt going up..

[Reef Pilot]

Link to news story or press release?
http://ecotechmarine.com/news/ecotech-marine-aqua-illumination-ai-announce-merger/

[jorjef]

If you think prices will go up i do believe ur dilusional. Pricing on leds isnt going up..

See my response to "ur" post below.

and if anything might hold off further price reductions that both companies have been doing to compete with each other.

you buy them to eliminate lower prices/margins.

[Slyguy00]

Lol good argument.

[Seriak]

Prices have to come down. With the introduction of Jebao and Evergrow, if prices remain high demand will start to lower. I initially bought radions for my first tank and went with Evergrow for my frag tank. The prices just couldn't be beat.

[Myka]

The press release calls it a "merger", not a "buy out". The press release describes keeping each company separate though. I think there is something they aren't telling us. The only benefit I can see to this is more buying power for components, and thus maybe increasing margins. It doesn't really make sense to me...

[Magickiwi]

Companies merge all the time. Generally it's a cooperative joining to enjoy the perks of being a much larger entity and can give their share prices a boost. In this case I think they are both privately owned so it's probably just a way they can stay in business without competing with each other.

Now if Aqua-Illumination would just answer my support request...

[Aqua-Digital]

:popcorn:

:mrgreen:

[AquaticExpressions]

I personally believe that this merger will allow two things:

1. Intellectual sharing to create a better product.

2. No competition can ensure there is no need to lower prices. Market Control :biggrin:


At the moment in the US EcoTech & AI are considered the two best lights out in the market. Reefbuilders have awarded both companies this honor and this year they both came in the finals. Although one may say that reefbuilders isn't a deciding factor on which light is better but it is.

If you cant beat them, merge them.

[Aqua-Digital]

The reefbuilders vote is nothing more than a popularity contest. This goes for all their votes, it has zero reflection in the actual performance of the product

For example The Mitras considered globally to be THE most advanced LED on the market where GHL has won industry innovation awards in Germany lost out to an unknown in the same vote as it is not main stream, it has a more select market.

[AquaticExpressions]

I agree with you but in the US reefbuilders is a huge part in the deciding factor of which light to go with...

[AquaticExpressions]

If it wasn't why would ecotech or AI put the reefbuilder awards on their boxes when they won?

[Aqua-Digital]

why would they? Any free marketing is good marketing

Reefbuilders - it actually has a very small fan base on the whole scheme of things, more magazines are read monthly. Reefbuilders has the internet reef geek audience for sure, but that counts for a fraction of the NA marketing arena.

[Myka]

So I was talking with a friend about this merger, we've come to the speculation that the merger allows for three beneficial points in the view of AI and EcoTech and it all comes down to money:

1) Buying power. Lower cost to produce = bigger margins.
2) Elimination of price competitions. Either avoid lowering of prices due to competition or possibly the next generation of modules will have higher pricing. No need for price wars = bigger margins.
3) Technology sharing. Maybe the modules will become more interchangeable via controllers, etc.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the next generation of modules and/or the next year of marketing, whichever comes first.

Reefbuilders has the internet reef geek audience for sure, but that counts for a fraction of the NA marketing arena.

This is a good point that is easy to forget. I frequently remind myself that the online world is just a fraction of the people that actually have marine aquariums.

[Madreefer]

Everyone can speculate. From any merge that I've seen it's usually not good for one of the companies involved. But I don't have a business degree so I'll leave it at that.
Ecotech products: overpriced, good product, not the best reliability and good customer service
AI products: reasonable pricing, good product, fairly reliable and poor customer service.
Be interesting to see the changes or if any at all.

[Myka]

Be interesting to see the changes or if any at all.

I think we as consumers will see very little change.

I know retailers are hoping for better margins as both the AI and the EcoTechs have very small margins and no bulb sales to make up for it. :p

[Aqua-Digital]

The issue of margins is more to do with the strength of the USD. Retailers have to stay within a certain limit of affordability, otherwise the unwise end user (and we find there are many unaware) will think they are getting a cheap deal from the USA not realizing the credit hit they will see at the end of the month.

This means the CAD price is typically lower than where it should be and in doing so hitting both dealer and distribution margins.

[Madreefer]

AI products: reasonable pricing, good product, fairly reliable and poor customer service.

I'd like to retract this as they finally got back to me with good results. They did'nt respond to voicemail from a couple of weks ago but responded within minutes this morning via email