REPORT: Pioneer Is Leaving DJing Behind After Laying Off 3,000 Employees

Walk into any club in the world, and you’ll likely see a pair some iteration CDJ-2000s and a DJM-900 on the DJ booth. The Pioneer mixers are a standard worldwide, controlling between 60-70% the global market DJ mixers. However, according to reports from Japanese financial websites, it appears that Pioneer is in talks to sell f the remainder its DJ subsidiary.


Pioneer actually already sold 85% its DJ arm to investment firm KKR & Co. in 2015, however financial troubles from its parent company seem to have called for the sale.

Pioneer DJ did over $200 million in sales in 2018, but its parent company reported net losses in 2016 and 2017. Furthermore, Pioneer was recently bailed out during a restructuring process out by Baring Private Equity Asia, a Hong Kong buyout firm, to the tune $930 million. In the process, Pioneer laid f 3,000 its employees.

According to Nikkei Business, bidding has already begun with an expected price to land between “60 billion to 70 billion yen,” which is upwards $500 million USD.

 

Resident Advisor