Ever heard of GSM Outdoors? They just bought Cold steel.

S

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Nov 21, 2019
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Check Cold Steel adress on their webpage and then google that adress.

Apparently Lynn Thompson sold entire company together with intelectual property.

There were some rumors for quite a while, but now some things are more clear, and officcial statement should be out tommorrow.

All CS fans can hope it's not true, but those who said CS is the next Gerber... well if this is true...
 
Whatever the case, there is no character in the knife world like Lynn Thompson. I would hate to see him go. But he's got that awesome ranch, and enough money to last him a few lifetimes, so maybe he thinks its time. But this is all speculation.

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The Cold Steel drawer.

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Lee D said:
I thought the same thing. Purely speculation, but maybe that whole fiasco was because LT has been planning to jump ship for awhile now and simply doesn’t care.
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*Reiterating the speculation part*

It might also be possible that they've had heavy operational influence behind the scenes. I've seen that with other buy-outs. The buyer is already invested without anyone knowing and they start changing the direction to set themselves up for their vision of success.
 
...don't like their knives....could barely open the back-lock that I gave to my nephew.
IF I can't open it, I can't use it to see if it's any good...and my 12-yr-old nephew? Forget it.
 
GSM has been passed around between various investment firms over the last few years. Huron Capital sold it to Sentinel Capital in 2018, and Sentinel sold it on to Gridiron Capital a few weeks ago. GSM has 30 different brands listed on their site, but they're all in the general shooting/hunting/outdoor industry. It's conceivable that this allows Lynn to cash out but still be involved with product development.

As far as what impact it'll have on CS moving forward, GSM has no real presence in the cutlery segment, other than some extremely limited product options for game dressing. Since GSM has some high-end brands in other areas (game cameras and ear-pro), it's very possible that they let CS continue on doing what it normally does.
 
OrangeBlueOrangeBlue said:
GSM has been passed around between various investment firms over the last few years. Huron Capital sold it to Sentinel Capital in 2018, and Sentinel sold it on to Gridiron Capital a few weeks ago. GSM has 30 different brands listed on their site, but they're all in the general shooting/hunting/outdoor industry. It's conceivable that this allows Lynn to cash out but still be involved with product development.

As far as what impact it'll have on CS moving forward, GSM has no real presence in the cutlery segment, other than some extremely limited product options for game dressing. Since GSM has some high-end brands in other areas (game cameras and ear-pro), it's very possible that they let CS continue on doing what it normally does.
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CS has been dropping policy bombs recently that made me suspect something like a pending change of management control . :confused:

Even if this OP is not the real story , CS is already acting more like Gerber or SOG than the old CS . :(:thumbsdown:

2020 just keeps on giving . :rolleyes:
 
DocJD said:
CS has been dropping policy bombs recently that made me suspect something like a pending change of management control . :confused:

Even if this OP is not the real story , CS is already acting more like Gerber or SOG than the old CS . :(:thumbsdown:

2020 just keeps on giving . :rolleyes:
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Hard to compare Gerber being acquired by a billion-dollar international conglomerate to CS being acquired by a niche holding company owned by a small investment company. Not sure what "policy bombs" you're referring to, but the industry has seen more than a few companies implement drastic changes to policies as necessitated by COVID restrictions and related economic issues, so they may not be related to turnover.
 
It sound like the end of Cold Steel. Their brand will now will now appear exclusively on cheap Chinese made garbage. Lets face it, if this were good news for collectors they would have been happy to tell us. Taylor will be buying the name for cheap in a year or two, as soon as GSM flips them.

It's a good play for Lynn Thompson. I guess he was ready to retire. He has been an industry leader for over 40 years and his production options have been narrowing since Camillus ended and Japan largely dropped out. I wish him well in his retirement.

n2s
 
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