AUDIO RESEARCH’S VAL AND SHEREE CORA TELL ALL, PART 1 by Robert Schryer
Valerio Cora, CEO
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Had negotiations to acquire Audio Research gone that well? “There really hasn’t been that much negotiating,” Val said. “Audio Research was more or less bankrupt, so we bought it on an asset purchase/sale. It was, literally, a bid. We put in our bid for the assets of the company. That was it. “The only negotiations at this point have been with vendors,” he continued. “Some are upset, and rightly so. Some are owed quite a bit of money. Some have said they’d put it as ‘water under the bridge, we value your business, and we’ll keep going’; others said the opposite. And it’s their choice. I understand how difficult it is for them.” I CAN’T THINK OF ANY OTHER PIECE OF NEWS IN 2023 THAT WAS BIGGER IN THE AUDIOPHILE COMMUNITY, AT LEAST NOT IN NORTH AMERICA, THAN THAT OF AUDIO RESEARCH HAVING BEEN BOUGHT BY AR TUBE AUDIO CORPORATION, A COMPANY FORMED, FOR THE OCCASION, BY VALERIO CORA OF ACORA SPEAKERS.
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recently sat down across from Val and his wife and partner in business, Sheree, for a Zoom chat. They looked calm and nonplussed, like I’ve seen them look on any other day, which was the opposite of what I expected. Considering the magnitude of the historical event that was their purchase of Audio Research, and how much they must have on their plate running two companies, I expected them to look ragged.
Was there a bidding war? “There was a bit of a bidding war, but I had our target number and I wasn’t going to go 1¢ higher. If someone would have bid more, I would’ve congratulated them. I knew the realistic value of the company. There was only eight days to put this bid together and I knew how many people had visited the factory. I had a sense of what bids were going to come in.” Audio Research is an iconic American brand now owned by a Canadian. How has the reception been to that? “Fantastic,” replied Val. “People are happy the company wasn’t bought out by somebody in Saudi Arabia or some venture capitalist. The fact that I’m in the audio industry, that my audiophile ideology aligns with what a lot of people want the iconic brand to be, I think the differentiation between us being Canadian versus American wasn’t a concern. I’ve
