In a surprise announcement, Kingston Technology has agreed to sell them their extremely popular gaming division, HyperX, to HP Inc. for $425 million.
In response to the sale, Enrique Lores, president and CEO, HP Inc., said the following:
“HyperX is a leader in peripherals whose technology is trusted by gamers around the world and we’re thrilled to welcome their outstanding team to the HP family.”
“We continue to advance our leadership in Personal Systems by modernizing compute experiences and expanding into valuable adjacencies. We see significant opportunities in the large and growing peripherals market, and the addition of HyperX to our portfolio will drive new sources of innovation and growth for our business.”
Kingston Press Release
John Tu, co-founder and CEO, Kingston, followed up by giving some insight into the sale:
“Both of our companies thrive because we focus on our employees and share the same core values and culture. David Sun (Co-founder and COO) and I saw the possibilities for the HyperX business and its employees and we both realized that this change brings a brighter future for HyperX.”
Kingston Press Release
Looking at the move critically, it makes a lot of sense for HP to acquire HyperX. In recent years HP’s own Omen line of peripherals had failed to really take off in the gaming community. Where HyperX’s Cloud II has been a staple headset recommendation for years and really rounded out their products with everything from a wrist rest to USB microphones. What this sale means for the end consumer is up in the air, but the HyperX reddit community has already expressed negativity towards the move.
While the common belief is that there will be a drop off in quality or their often praised customer service will go away, one community member for HyperX noted things will, at least as of now, only improve. This echos what I’ve heard and will ideally lead to some much needed software improvement and perhaps better Omen products in the future.
