DULUTH, Ga. (BRAIN) — Fox Factory announced Wednesday morning that it had completed its acquisition of Marucci Sports, a baseball/softwall equipment brand that also owns the Lizard Skins and Oury grip and handlebar tape brands.
Fox bought Marucci from Compass Diversified (which previously owned Fox) for $572 million. The acquisition diversifies Fox outside its shock and suspension business. It also adds products that are sold to consumers, rather than to original equipment manufacturers as with most of Fox's suspension products for powered vehicles and bicycles.
"The acquisition advances Fox's position as a diversified provider of market-leading branded products with a proven ability to win over both professional athletes and passionate consumer bases, while positioning the combined company for future profitable growth," the company said. Marucci will be part of Fox's Specialty Sports Group, which includes its bike brands, Fox, Marzocchi, Easton and RaceFace.
"Our acquisition of Marucci represents a major milestone for Fox as we continue to identify ways to drive synergistic growth without compromising the core identity and values that have been so crucial to our success," said Mike Dennison, Fox's CEO. "This deal is not about baseball. It's about adding a business to our platform that clearly meets our 1+1=3 growth criteria, given that each company's individual power to grow and deliver shareholder value will be stronger together. Importantly, Marucci and its team share our commitment to winning through superior innovation and quality products in order to help drive leading positions in each of the key markets where we compete."
Dennison continued, "This transaction makes us better from day one – not just by being immediately accretive in terms of both revenue and profitability, but by further diversifying our offerings and providing us additional leverage to extend the value of our brands. With a strong balance sheet and receding headwinds, such as the United Auto Workers strike, we are in a powerful position to deliver sustainable shareholder value."
Fox recently reaffirmed its 2025 target of $2.0 billion in sales and 25% adjusted EBITDA margin – which excludes Marucci. Separately, Fox recently announced it intends to repurchase up to $300 million of shares (equating to approximately 8% of outstanding shares) under a new repurchase plan that expires Nov. 1, 2028.
Keeping score
Fox Factory, best known as a suspension brand, is completely separate from Fox Racing, best known as an apparel and safety company. While both brands were founded by brothers Bob and Geoff Fox in the 1970s, Fox Factory is an independent publicly traded company while Fox Racing is owned by Vista Outdoor (which is soon to be renamed Revelyst). Vista Outdoor also owns Bell, Giro, and CamelBak. CamelBak and Fox Factory were previously owned by Compass Diversified.
While Fox Factory owns the Easton cycling brand, it does not have the Easton brand for baseball and softball — that business has been owned by Rawlings Sporting Goods since 2020. There's another baseball bat brand with corporate ties to cycling: Louisville Slugger is owned by Amer Sports — which also owns Enve and previously owned Mavic.
This will all be in the final exam.
