TaylorMade’s ex CEO explains why adidas pulled the trigger

In an interview with Yahoo Finance Mark King, who headed the company from 2003-14 before taking over as CEO of adidas USA, said that the decision to sell the golf equipment business was made in an effort to focus on the biggest growth opportunities for the company as a whole.

"The biggest growth opportunities are in running, training, basketball, and we have a lot of runway in those," King told Yahoo. "As opposed to being in something that is harder to focus on."

After suffering falling sales in the last seven of eight quarters, Adidas made the decision to sell the TaylorMade, Adams and Ashworth brands on May 4.

TaylorMade-Adidas was the only black spot on the company’s first quarter earnings report. The company will hold on to adidas Golf, their golf apparel and shoe division, and is therefore likely to retain Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia. So it’s the hardware that will go.

King recognises that changes are needed: "[Golf] needs to change some of the entry points to the game to attract new consumers. And I think golf will find a way to do that, whether that takes five years or 10 years."

But in the first instance they need to find a buyer, who just wants the core hardware division, and is prepared to take a long-term view. This looks like it will be a venture capitalist play. Could it go the same way as Acushnet and end up owned out of the Far East? We’d say the chances are yes.

For more on TaylorMade’s new M1 driver click here or on the image below.