Bose Acquires Skullcandy To Reach New Audio Customers
Skullcandy will remain a separate brand based in Utah as Bose looks to extend its audio technology to a broader audience.
Bose has acquired Skullcandy, bringing the headphone and speaker maker into its consumer audio business while keeping it a separate brand. Skullcandy will remain based in Park City, Utah. Bose did not disclose the purchase price, according to Engadget.
Table of Contents
What Bose is buying
The deal gives Bose a brand with a different audience and identity from its own. Bose sees Skullcandy’s ties to sports, gaming, music and fitness as a way to reach consumers where it has less of a presence, Engadget reports. The Verge points to Skullcandy’s distinctive designs and longstanding relationships with board sports athletes as part of that appeal.
Bose CEO Lila Snyder told WIRED that Skullcandy reaches customers the Bose brand is largely missing. She also said Bose intends to keep Skullcandy in Park City because of the city’s connection to board sports culture. WIRED notes that Skullcandy’s relatively affordable products could help Bose compete at a different end of the consumer audio market.
A partnership already in place
The companies were working together before the acquisition. Under the Sound by Bose program, Skullcandy has designed products with input from Bose on their audio performance, according to WIRED. The collaboration began with the Method 360 ANC earbuds in 2025 and later included the Crusher 1080 ANC headphones. The Verge reports that the partnership brought Bose technologies, including active noise cancellation and head-tracking spatial audio, to Skullcandy products.
That existing work offers a picture of how the two brands may fit together: Skullcandy can retain its product style while drawing on Bose’s audio expertise. WIRED reports that Skullcandy CEO Brian Garofalow described the company’s strength in building community and culture, while acknowledging room to improve its product engineering. Bose has not announced specific new products resulting from the acquisition.
Part of a broader portfolio
The purchase adds another audio brand to Bose’s holdings. WIRED and The Verge report that Bose acquired McIntosh Group, which includes McIntosh Laboratory and Sonus Faber, in 2024. Unlike those luxury brands, Skullcandy brings a more affordable, lifestyle-oriented product line, according to WIRED.
For now, Bose’s stated plan is to preserve Skullcandy as a distinct brand rather than fold it into the Bose name. The acquisition expands Bose’s potential reach, but the reports do not establish how the deal will affect Skullcandy products beyond the companies’ existing collaboration.
Sources
This story was compiled by AI from the reports below. Read the originals for the full details.