Guitar Center Merges With Musician’s Friend

Guitar Center Inc., Agoura Hills, said it completed a merger with Musician’s Friend Inc. in a stock-for-stock transaction.

Guitar Center issued 1,959,970 new shares to Musician’s Friend shareholders and assumed about $18.4 million in debt for a total transaction value of about $48.3 million based on Guitar Center’s closing stock price of $15.25 on May 28.

Guitar Center is a retailer of guitars, amplifiers, percussion instruments, keyboards and pro audio equipment.

The company operates 52 stores in 26 major markets. Musician’s Friend is the largest catalog and Internet retailer of musical instruments in the United States, and also operates nine retail stores.