I hate to spread rumors…I do like to read them and discuss them though. And there’s one already rolling that says Walmart, or at least the VC firm ran by the two Walton brothers, have bought a controlling interest of Specialized. Huh? Why?
Well, it’s certainly not hard to imagine some VC company with major bucks to spend, and who clearly loves biking and high end biking companies, wanting a piece of one of the biggest pieces of the pie in the world. We all know Mike Sinyard no longer runs the big S, as he stepped down a few years ago now.
We also know they wouldn’t change anything on the outside to a successful brand like Specialized. No SpecialMart, anything weird. But it’s actually not THAT hard to imagine selling a super low end Specialized branded bike, or even a “from Specialized” type of bike range at WalMart stores. Like Intense does with their 951 bikes in Costco.
It’s probably not real, but just the same, it is certainly not out of the realm of possibility.
Strange times us bikers are living in once again…
