Skullcandy acquired by Bose

Bose acquired Skullcandy on 21 October 2026 from a fund managed by Mill Road Capital Management, the Connecticut investment firm. The purchase followed several years of partnership during which Bose audio technology had been fitted into Skullcandy earbuds and headphones. The brand continued to operate separately within Bose’s Premium Consumer Audio business, keeping its base in Park City, Utah, under chief executive Brian Garofalow. Founded in 2003 by two snowboarders in Park City, Skullcandy designs and sells headphones, earbuds and portable speakers. Its products are priced well below the premium end of the market and sold on their appearance as much as their sound: bold colours, visible branding and designs made to be seen. It sells through electronics retailers, sports shops and general merchandisers worldwide. The brand grew out of snowboarding and skateboarding, sponsoring athletes and events in those sports for two decades, and extended the same approach into gaming, music and fitness. That positioning is what Bose was buying. Headphone purchases at the lower price points turn on identity rather than specification, and a brand that teenagers and young adults recognise cannot be created by engineering. Bose, founded more than sixty years ago in Framingham, Massachusetts, sells audio equipment at the premium end, for the home, for travel and fitted into cars. It had been assembling a portfolio of brands addressing different segments, already holding McIntosh and Sonus faber at the luxury end. Skullcandy extended it downwards, to buyers Bose products do not reach. The company remains privately held, which it presented as giving it the freedom to make long-term investments of this kind. It committed to fund Skullcandy’s product development and to open its own distribution and commercial relationships to the brand.