Snowboard Manufacturer Sold to Florida Company : Acquisition: Purged Sled owners will receive $8 million in Madison Sports & Entertainment stock.
Purged Sled Co., a small snowboard manufacturer, has been acquired by Madison Sports & Entertainment Group Inc. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., the companies said Monday.
The owners of privately held Purged Sled reportedly will receive Madison stock valued by them at $8 million. Purged, with 30 employees, hopes to generate $5 million in 1995 revenue, according to its 25-year-old chief executive, Derek C. Wall.
Wall said he and company President Larry Beard, 32, own the firm, along with a handful of smaller investors. The company hopes to expand into larger quarters during 1996 and add more than 100 employees, he said.
Snowboard industry observers said the sale was part of a continuing consolidation in the snowboard industry.
“So far, this has been a small, fragmented industry,” said Shelly Hale Young, a San Francisco-based industry analyst with Hambrecht & Quist, an investment banking firm. “But as the handful of larger companies become better-financed, that’s going to force a consolidation in the industry. And we’re starting to see the beginning of that now.”
Interest in snowboarding is growing nationwide, according to Shanti Sosienski, associate editor of Transworld Snowboarding Business, an Oceanside-based trade magazine.
Most of the boarders hurtling down hills are teen-agers, but they generally spend freely for equipment. Larger companies are starting to notice the sport’s growing popularity.
A recent Transworld reader poll, Sosienski said, showed that snowboarders can easily spend “$300 to $400 for a board, and up to $700 when the bindings and boots are thrown in.”
Two companies--Burlington, Vt.-based Burton Snowboard and Preston, Wash.-based Ride Inc.--dominate the industry, and observers said that the ongoing consolidation should winnow the number of board manufacturers.
Madison Sports & Entertainment executives weren’t available Monday to comment on the company’s plans, but in earlier press releases the company said it intended to acquire a handful of snowboard manufacturers.
The sale is designed to help the company grow. “We needed capital and they wanted to diversify into the snowboard industry,” Wall said.
