Harman has announced the acquisition of multi-device, multi-room audio technology platform Roon.
Designed for music enthusiasts, Roon is a music player platform that features a rich interface for browsing and discovering music. It is compatible with almost any audio device and comes with a playback engine built to deliver best possible sound.
The Roon platform is available for all popular operating systems and manufactures a line of hardware server appliances called Nucleus.
“At Harman we take great pride in our ability to create exceptional audio experiences for our partners and consumers around the world,” said Dave Rogers, president, lifestyle division, Harman. “The team at Roon shares our passion in bringing exceptional sound and connectivity to music lovers as they browse, discover, and listen at home and on the go. We are looking forward to welcoming Roon, whose impressive talent will join the HARMAN family and bolster our already robust engineering capabilities.”
Roon will operate as a standalone Harman business with its existing team. All Roon operations will stay in place and continue to be dedicated to serving and growing Roon’s community of device partners and customers, under a joint mission to ‘deliver engaging and personalized audio experiences across a universe of products and platforms’.
Harman also pledged its committment to growing Roon’s open device ecosystem which includes collaborating with more than 160 other audio brands, delivering audio to more than 1,000 devices.
“Our team is ecstatic to join Harman, a visionary company that has been leading the audio industry forward for decades,” said Enno Vandermeer, CEO of Roon.
“By combining forces with Harman, Roon gains the incredible scale, resources, and reach of a global technology leader, while maintaining our independence to invest in the business’s growth and future. We look forward to continuing to bring our advanced data management, SaaS expertise, and consumer engagement capabilities to our broad ecosystem of partners, as we join forces with Harman to deliver even greater audio experiences to our customers.”
The acquisition of Roon comes just days after Harman announced that it had acquired immersive audio specialist FLUX:: Software Engineering. The FLUX:: acquisition is intended to broaden Harman Professional’s offerings across multiple applications with world-class immersive technology, in addition to establishing a foundation for future innovation by bringing together FLUX::’s team with the hardware and software engineers of Harman Professional.
“The FLUX:: acquisition is part of a technology investment Harman Professional is making to bring outstanding immersive experiences for live and recorded productions,” said Brian Divine, president, Harman Professional Solutions.