Six Bidders Compete To Acquire Siemens Hearing Instruments

Siemens has narrowed down the list of potential acquirers in its auction of the Siemens Hearing Instruments business to five private equity firms plus one strategic acquirer. Siemens is among the top five hearing aid companies worldwide but, according to news reports, its shrinking sales and profit margins lagged industry leaders Sonova and William Demant in 2009. News reports put the value of the unit at more than 2 billion euros ($2.88 billion US). The winning bidder is expected to be picked by the end of February. I can’t wait to see whether the newly independent entity will inject a shot of investment and growth into a hearing-aid industry that’s badly in need of new competitive energy.

America Hears, Inc. Upgrades Entire Hearing-Aid Line to 32-Channel Digital Signal Processors

With its new Independence Family of hearing aids, America Hears, Inc., has upgraded its entire family of digital hearing aids to 32-channel digital signal processors. And, in line with its stated goal of remaining the price/performance leader among hearing-aid manufacturers, it has set prices ranging from $799 to $1,299 per hearing aid, less than half the price charged by other name-brand manufacturers of comparable-performance hearing aids. Disclosure: I wear a pair of America Hears custom hearing aids and am incredibly happy with them. I also intend to get a pair of the new Independence hearing-aid models to hear for myself the improvements the company has made in its sound-processing system.

The new, high-performance, low-cost hearing aids feature a Voyageur II digital signal processor from Sound Design Technologies, Ltd., that processes 32 independent streams of sound to provide tuned amplification at the broadest range of frequencies available in the industry. And the Advanced Dynamic Range Optimization (ADRO) sound processing software from Dynamic Hearing Pty Ltd. features a new, improved enhance speech in noise (ESIN) algorithm that amplifies the high-frequency sounds that comprise 60% of speech, attacking the problem of hearing speech in noisy environments such as crowded restaurants.

The America Hears direct-from-factory-to-consumer Internet sales model enables the company to keep costs to the end user low. At the same time, its user-adjustable programming software enables you to take charge of tuning your own hearing aids after they are programmed to your audiogram at the factory.

The America Hears Independence hearing aids come in a range of styles, from receiver-in-the-canal, to open fit, to behind the ear, to custom models. There are up to four user-selectable four program settings for different listening environments. And it features data logging–the ability to record and track the output of your hearing aids over time to understand how they are being used in different listening environments.

HearUSA Scores Hearing-Aid Distribution Deal With AARP

HearUSA, the U.S. chain of hearing-aid retail outlets, scored a major distribution deal with AARP Services, Inc. to offer discounted hearing aids and extended warranties to the nearly 40 million U.S. members of the world’s largest service organization for adults aged 50 and older. Next to an endorsement by Oprah, a distribution deal with AARP is one of the most coveted marketing prizes for companies selling to middle-aged-and-older consumers. AARP has long offered advice on hearing health but has been short on commercial offers for hearing aids to match the discounts it provides for vision products and general health insurance plans. The HearUSA deal should provide similar incentives for seniors to take care of their hearing needs, although the initial press release held back on details of the discounts and other offers that will initially be offered to customers in New Jersey and Florida and later throughout the United States.

The arrangement is good news for Siemens, which is a major investor in HearUSA and supplies most of the hearing-aid products sold by the company. In addition to providing a financial boost to HearUSA, the AARP deal may enable geographic expansion of its retail chain, which currently sells hearing aids through 180 company-owned hearing care centers in 10 states in the U.S. and its Hearing Care Network comprised of over 1,900 affiliated audiologists in 49 states.

HearUSA this week also announced second-quarter net income of $1.1 million, compared to a half-million-dollar loss in the previous quarter. Like other companies in the hearing-aid industry, HearUSA has seen a falloff in sales due to the recession, but cost-control measures in addition to the sale of its Canadian subsidiary boosted both the bottom line and balance sheet in the second quarter of 2009.

Rock & Roll Icon Stephen Stills Talks About How Hearing Aids Alleviate His Lifelong Hearing Loss

Oticon USA has used the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock concert to do a nice PR piece on Crosby, Stills & Nash player Stephen Stills, who uses Oticon Dual hearing aids. The group’s performance at Woodstock was a centerpiece of the film made about the event and kept their music at the top of the charts for years.

Unlike many rock musicians whose first deafness was a direct result of constant exposure to too-loud music, Stills was diagnosed at nine years old with a slight hearing loss in one ear. In the interview published on the Oticon web site, he shares some good insights on what it’s like to gradually accept your hearing loss and do something about it. He’s also a good example of someone who’s managed to cope with his hearing loss and continue doing what he loves:

“Now when I perform, I am able to hear the top end of the music and get back in tune….Now I can hear the subtleties of the music. This has improved my playing and my singing.”

Geek Alert: How Knowles Electronics Makes Hearing-Aid Microphones Smaller and Smarter

I’ve always been amazed by the directional microphones in my hearing aids. They are super-sensitive, they can be adjusted to catch noise either 360 degrees or just from the person speaking to me, and they are smaller than your fingernail. The technology that has to go into such finely tuned instruments is amazing, and I recently came across a good video of Daniel Warren, director of research for Knowles Electronics, that gives a flavor of the rocket science behind them. (It’s a promotional video for Wolfram Research, known for the Mathematica software tools used by engineers and, more recently, for the revolutionary computational search engine, Wolfram Alpha, developed over the past decade by computer science genius Steve Wolfram). The video is also a good example of the pains engineers have to go through to explain in layman’s terms how their inventions work and why they are so important. My rule of thumb is, even if I can’t understand half of what they say, if the product works, I will use it.

« Previous Page — Next Page »