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Turtle Beach looking to enter growing microphone market with Neat acquisition

Date Type Companies involved Size
January 14th, 2021 acquisition Turtle Beach Not disclosed
Turtle Beach looking to enter growing microphone market with Neat acquisition

Games headset specialist Turtle Beach is acquiring Neat Microphones.

The terms of the deal haven't been disclosed but Turtle Beach says that this acquisition will allow it to enter the microphone market. The company points to "rapid growth" in this sector, likely due to more people working from home due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Neat was founded in 2014 with Skipper Wise named as president. Wise had previously set up Blue Microphones in 1995 before selling the company to Transom Capital in 2008. That company is currently owned by Logitech and makes microphones such as the Yeti and Snowball, which power a glut of boring white men to make bad podcasts.

“We are entering the growing global streaming and microphone market with two significant advantages – the visionary leadership and engineering expertise behind some of the most renowned mics of the past 30-plus years, and Neat‘s impressive 2021 product lineup,” Turtle Beach CEO Juergen Stark said.

“Neat is a great fit with Turtle Beach’s 45-year legacy of audio innovation and expertise, and we’re thrilled to welcome Skipper Wise, Martins Saulespurens, and the rest of the Neat Microphones team to the Turtle Beach family.”

“This is another significant milestone for Turtle Beach. Entering the global microphone market with Neat diversifies our product portfolio into new categories, while complimenting Turtle Beach and Roccat’s offerings in console and PC accessories. The total addressable market for our diversified products and brands expands from $5.1bn to $7.4bn with this acquisition. Turtle Beach is already well-known for the excellent mic performance in our gaming headsets, and Neat‘s technology will further enhance our future industry-leading Turtle Beach and Roccat products. Additionally, the Neat brand expands our reach beyond gaming with a broader assortment of consumer and prosumer audio products.”

Neat's Wise added: “We are absolutely thrilled to bring our team’s 100+ combined years of expertise to Turtle Beach to create groundbreaking microphone products. The market is ready for a new, high-quality, easy-to-use portfolio of digital microphones. Neat is the digitally native microphone brand that, with Turtle Beach’s extensive retail relationships and best-in-class global distribution, can bring this innovation to more people all over the world.”

 “2020 showed all of us – family and friends, coworkers, musicians, gamers, streamers, podcasters, creators, influencers, educators and students – the importance of our voices being heard more than ever before. In 2021, Neat will launch new, updated versions of some of our most popular analog and digital microphones. We’re also currently developing the next generation of our products to meet the growing demand for high-quality, affordable microphones.”


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.