Bose bought Skullcandy on Wednesday, the company said in a statement. The seller was a fund managed by Mill Road Capital Management, a private investment firm in Connecticut. Skullcandy joins McIntosh and Sonus faber in Bose’s group of audio brands.
Skullcandy will sit inside Bose’s Premium Consumer Audio business. It keeps its base in Park City, Utah, where it started on a chairlift in 2003. Bose said it plans to give the brand more access to its technology, resources and global distribution.
“As a privately held company, we have the freedom to make bold, long-term investments in opportunities we believe in, and Skullcandy is a great example of that,” Bose chief executive Lila Snyder said in the statement.
“We believe this is a win for Skullcandy and our fans,” Skullcandy chief executive Brian Garofalow said.
Partners first
The two companies already worked together. Skullcandy designs the headphones and Bose handles the audio, Harry Rabinowitz reported for Wired. Bose licenses that audio under the Sound by Bose name.
The partnership began with the Method 360 ANC earbuds in 2025. The Crusher 1080 ANC noise-cancelling headphones followed in July. TechRadar saw a newer pair, the Noise Master Buds Open, at IFA in Berlin last month, Tom Bedford wrote.
The customers Bose wants
Bose said Skullcandy’s roots in boardsports open new ways to reach consumers “where it has less presence today.” Skullcandy also has a following in music, gaming and fitness, Bose said.
“Skullcandy gives us access to a customer base that we think we’re largely missing with the Bose brand,” Snyder told Wired.
Snyder told Wired that Park City is the centre of board sports culture, which is why Skullcandy is staying there. Skullcandy’s products also cost less than those of Bose and its other brands, Wired reported. Snyder also discussed younger buyers, wired headphones and AI with Romaine Bostick on Bloomberg.
Engadget’s Ian Carlos Campbell compared the deal to Apple’s 2014 purchase of Beats. Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine co-founded Beats, and Apple sells it beside its own AirPods. Campbell wrote that Skullcandy could be “the Beats to Bose’s Apple.”
Bose’s third deal this year
Skullcandy is Bose’s third acquisition of 2026. In June it bought StreamUnlimited Engineering, a Vienna company that makes streaming software and modules for connected audio products. On 1 October it bought Firelight Technologies, the Melbourne maker of the FMOD audio software for games.
Bose’s president of premium audio, Raza Haider, spoke to Becky Scarrott of TechRadar weeks before the deal. He said Bose wants its technology in as many places as possible.
“One brand can’t cover every single passion point, otherwise it becomes a plain vanilla tech giant,” Haider said.