Segway Announces The Most Understated Merger Ever

from the so-yeah-we-were-acquired-by-somebody-some-time-ago dept

Fri, Jan 15th 2010 5:56am — Mike Masnick

Considering the amount of hype and buzz that came about when Dean Kamen's Segway was first introduced, it seems like the company is going for the exact opposite in discussing its recent merger with a UK company. The company didn't even mention it for nearly a month, and only said something once rumors started spreading, and then the blog post they put up about it gives very little in the way of detail. They don't even mention the company's name:

Segway Inc. is pleased to announce that in connection with a merger that occurred on December 24, 2009, Segway was acquired by a company that is based in the United Kingdom. The acquiring company is backed by Jimi Heselden, a prominent U.K. businessman and the Chairman of Hesco Bastion. Mr. Heselden is also an investor in the independently owned Segway U.K. distributorship.

The company also got some funding (and lost its latest in a long, long, long line of CEOs), but in an interview with the local paper, Dean Kamen admits that he doesn't even know who the new investor is.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: dean kamen, merger
Companies: segway

8 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Dark Helmet (profile), 15 Jan 2010 @ 6:20am

Answer
"Dean Kamen admits that he doesn't even know who the new investor is."

This is easy. That's because Mr. Heselden is also known as Number Two, and the unknown company they merged with is Dr. Evil's Evil Corp.

Can't you just see Dr. Evil mandating that all of his henchman zip around his evil volcano lair on those idiotic things? With a tiny little one made for Mini-Me?

Well!!?? CAN'T YOU!!?????
[ link to this | view in thread ]
MarkG, 15 Jan 2010 @ 6:31am

Front Company Alert
It's this company, I'm sure
heseldenhats
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PopeRatzo (profile), 15 Jan 2010 @ 6:35am

The Magician's Friend
I still can't believe sales of Segways didn't take off after Gob looked so cool tooling around on one in Arrested Development.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John Doe, 15 Jan 2010 @ 6:36am

Solution to what?
Talk about a solution in search of a problem. Other than mall cops and city police, I don't see anybody needing these.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BenJHare, 15 Jan 2010 @ 6:52am

All well and good but...
...Segway's are completely useless in the UK anyway - our law system means they're not allowed on roads, or footpaths. They're only good for private properties or shopping centres!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
technomage (profile), 15 Jan 2010 @ 7:09am

Re: Answer
bad BAD BAD visual DH
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bubba Gump (profile), 15 Jan 2010 @ 8:00am

Re: Answer
WIN!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
hhe to haha, 15 Jan 2010 @ 9:16am

Re: Answer
His evil frickin' lair was destroyed by liquid hot maag-mah
[ link to this | view in thread ]