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About Turtle Beach
Turtle Beach is a designer and marketer of video gaming peripherals for the Microsoft Xbox 360® console (”Xbox 360″), Sony PlayStation 3TM console (”PS3″), and Personal Computer (”PC”). A pioneer in the industry, the Company has a long history of excellence in audio technology, releasing widely acclaimed products that include a full line of wired and wireless gaming headsets with numerous features that provide a competitive edge. Turtle Beach’s products are differentiated in the market by proprietary, patent-pending technologies and are recognized as best in class with the Ear Force X41 being named the “2009 Peripheral of the Year” by Official XBOX Magazine in February 2010.
Turtle Beach sells products domestically and internationally through specialty retailers, international distributors and direct to consumer. The Company has established distribution relationships with leading video gaming retailers including Best Buy, GameStop, Wal-Mart, Target, Game U.K., Kmart, Amazon.com, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Hastings Entertainment, J&R Music World, Navarre, and Newegg.com.
The Company was founded in 1975 by Carmine Bonanno, and co-founder Fred Romano joined in 1979. Over the course of its 35-year history, the Company developed a wide variety of music products under the Voyetra and Turtle Beach brand names, including electronic music synthesizers, music software, sound cards and network audio devices. During the 1990’s, the Company licensed its Voyetra audio and music software to more than 100 of the world’s leading technology companies including Dell, Intel, IBM, Compaq, Creative Labs, Sony, Yamaha, NEC and Rockwell. In 2005, Turtle Beach launched its XBOX gaming headset line by utilizing the Company’s skills and experience from its long heritage in the audio technology field. Today, Turtle Beach is the leading provider of and dominant brand for console gaming headsets.
Turtle Beach is headquartered in Elmsford, New York
Hear From the Founder
Carmine Bonanno
Founder of Turtle Beach
"Turtle Beach is an entrepreneurial-driven company that has grown at an impressively rapid rate. When it was time for us to consider a growth equity partner, we considered many firms and assessed their value proposition beyond just raising capital. Most of them didn’t understand our business and focused primarily on the numbers. In contrast, Stripes Group not only understood our business and passion, but also knew how to work with entrepreneurs to bring structure and focus to their hectic environment. It was obvious they had “been there” and could provide guidance and insight to help us with long term strategic initiatives, help build our team, and accelerate our growth in a way that wouldn’t break our formula for success.
In addition to these valuable benefits, the deciding factor for us in choosing Stripes was meeting Ken Fox and Ron Doornink. We were particularly impressed by these seasoned professionals who could help us with tactical knowledge and important business strategy decisions.
Ken is an entrepreneur who understands first-hand what it’s like to build a company from the ground up. This gives him a unique blend of entrepreneurial, operational and financial experience that helps us think about all aspects of the business and concentrate on profitable, sustainable growth.
Ron built Activision into a video gaming powerhouse and has a deep understanding of our industry, so we couldn’t have found a more perfect fit for our advisory team. By joining with Stripes, we gain Ron’s extensive marketing, business and industry expertise which will help us build a stronger brand and combine it with great products.
We are excited to have the team of professionals at Stripes as the growth equity partner for Turtle Beach. Their insight, perspective and expertise will strengthen our competitive position and help us to continue growing the company as a leader in the video game industry."