Ottawa We-Vibe vibrator maker Standard Innovation merges with German firm

We-Vibe
We-Vibe

A German company will acquire Ottawa’s Standard Innovation Co., with the local firm’s founders stepping aside from the newly merged company.

Standard Innovation, which develops the We-Vibe intimacy device for couples, announced earlier this week that it will combine forces with another firm in its industry, Berlin-based Womanizer Group Management GmbH.

The two firms, united under the new WOW Tech Group holding company, will share in each other’s marketing and retail distribution channels, with promises of new products coming down the line from both brands.

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Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ottawa-based WelchGroup Consulting served as the financial advisor to Standard Innovation on the transaction.

Under the agreement, Womanizer Group will acquire all outstanding shares of Standard Innovation with the latter’s shareholders reinvesting in the combined firm. The release notes that both companies’ teams will remain “in place,” but Standard Innovation founders Bruce and Melody Murison will no longer be involved in management operations.

Last year, Standard Innovation settled a U.S. class action lawsuit that alleged the firm was, unbeknownst to its customers, collecting users’ private data through its smartphone-enabled vibrators. The Ottawa company was ordered to revise its privacy policies and pay out $5 million to complainants.

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