LMSC As far as the customers are concerned, oh well. It’s another story.
We have seen big corporates swallowing smaller corporations/private enterprise. This is always done to monetise and improve profits. When it happens, both sides always promise they just want to make things better for the customers. They want to inject money, improve R&D, refine the products, enhance user experience - basically, they are philanthropists with only one goal - to make the world a better place and ensure prosperity and happiness to man kind and future generations (this is what VS promised to do with CFUK, didn’t they?)
Sorry for being a little suspicious and not naïve enough to buy this BS. Both Lelit and Breville are corporates, and as such their prime objective is to make money. Lelit did this up till now by developing and making innovative coffee machines many of us like. Many of us also like their approach to helping customers service their own machines (Lelit Insider videos). Basically - many of us like the company as it was up till now.
Enters the big fish, smelling money making opportunity and makes Lelit an offer they can’t refuse. For me, being the cynical person that I am, this is warning bell things are likely to change, and this change is unlikely to be to my benefit.
Every cent Breville puts in - they will want to make a profit on. They will want to squeeze every drop out of their new lemon. Will they succeed and how they will try to do it - I don’t know. But their aim will be to make a profit on their investment. If the best way for them to maximise profits will be to make better machines and give customers better value and better service - then sure, this is maybe what they will do. But in my opinion this is unlikely. From my experience looking at this sort of takeover, in the very best case Breville will let Lelit keep going as they did before without changing much. In the worst case - they will completely ruin it as VS did to CFUK. And of course there are all the grey shades in the middle. The one thing I am sure of is that the ultimate objective of such a move is to make a profit on the investment, and that, in my opinion, is unlikely to benefit coffee enthusiast.