Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation Schedules Meeting of Stockholders. Holding Corporation to Be Renamed American Outdoor Brands Corporation.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., –-(Ammoland.com)- Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ Global Select: SWHC), today announced that it will hold a special meeting of stockholders on Tuesday, December 13, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time for the purposes of seeking approval to change its corporate name from Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation to American Outdoor Brands Corporation.
The proposed holding corporation name change has been approved by the Company’s Board of Directors and reflects the Company’s expanding strategic focus on the growing markets for shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor enthusiasts.
If approved by stockholders, American Outdoor Brands Corporation will serve as the holding corporation for Smith & Wesson Corp., Battenfeld Technologies, Inc., and Crimson Trace Corporation, which represent the company’s firearms, manufacturing services, accessories, and electro-optics divisions.
James Debney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Smith & Wesson, said, “By executing on our strategy to be a leader in the shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor enthusiast markets, we have successfully grown from a single operating division to four operating divisions that serve a large addressable market and represent more than 18 respected consumer brands. ”
“We believe the name ‘American Outdoor Brands Corporation’ will better reflect our family of brands, our broad range of product offerings, and our plan to continue building upon our portfolio of strong American brands.”
“Looking forward, we intend to aggressively grow organically and through strategic acquisitions, focusing on brands and products that best meet the needs and lifestyle of our target consumers.”
If approved by the stockholders, the name change would be effective on or about January 1, 2017. At the same time, the Company also anticipates it will adopt the symbol “AOBC” for its NASDAQ stock exchange listing.
About Smith & Wesson
Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ Global Select: SWHC) is a provider of quality products for shooting, hunting, and rugged outdoor enthusiasts in the global consumer and professional markets. The Company reports two segments: Firearms and Outdoor Products & Accessories. Firearms manufactures handgun and long gun products sold under the Smith & Wesson®, M&P®, and Thompson/Center Arms™ brands as well as providing forging, machining, and precision plastic injection molding services. Outdoor Products & Accessories provides shooting, hunting, and outdoor accessories, including reloading, gunsmithing, and gun cleaning supplies, tree saws, vault accessories, knives, laser sighting systems, and tactical lighting products. Brands in Outdoor Products & Accessories include Smith & Wesson®, M&P®, Thompson/Center Arms™, Crimson Trace®, Caldwell® Shooting Supplies, Wheeler® Engineering, Tipton® Gun Cleaning Supplies, Frankford Arsenal® Reloading Tools, Lockdown® Vault Accessories, Hooyman® Premium Tree Saws, BOG POD®, and Golden Rod® Moisture Control as well as knives and specialty tools under Schrade®, Old Timer®, Uncle Henry®, and Imperial™. For more information on Smith & Wesson, call (800) 331-0852 or log on to www.smith-wesson.com.
That would kill ALL sales in California.Under current law if any changes are made to a gun (and I’m sure that the anti-gun Department of Justice would declare a name change to apply ) they must be resubmitted for new testing. That would give them the chance to refuse sales of Smith and Wesson products in California.
AND YES THEY ARE THAT STUPID IN KALIFORNIA.
I, for one cannot see any problem with the name change. However, it will allow the “new company” to possibly acquire other companies who wouldn’t want to be known as “selling out to S & W”!Joe
I will venture that only the parent company will change its name, while the firearns will remain S&W. Maybe they’ll break off a gun division and rebrand them.
Don’t mess with what works!!!!!!!!!!!! Willard
What a BAD idea!!!
What the hell’s those people thinking ??? Oh right, they’re not thinking how it will affect the customer line !!!.
The firearms better remain marked smith & Wesson thats what I’m purchasing not american outdoor brand Corp I dont want that on the gun I won’t buy it
Only the name of the holding company changes. The firearms will still be S&W.
Noooooooooo!
Ditto.
Me too.
Like Momma said…..Don’t Do It…..
Huge mistake….. Smith& Wesson is AMERICAN, American Outdoors Brands Corporation wreaks of global liberalism.
This idea would be as popular with collectors and dealers as Buck moving its knife production to China. You’ll notice they returned production to the U.S. after their sales tanked.
Talk about killing brand recognition!!! Epic bad move..
The change is only for the financial holding company! Smith and Wesson will still be the name on the S&W products
Idiots like you do read the article. The title is misleading, S&W is a product, the company that owns S&W and numerous other tradenames is what is changing!
Political correctness run amock. Is S&W caving to the left?
yes
Its so Hillary won’t go after them as a “Gun Company” when she steals the election with the fraud in GA and PA
Bad move. EVERYONE knows Smith & Wesson. That’s like changing the iPhone to the MeCell or something….. Flush it.
Giving up brand recognition like that brings to mind the time a large computer company whose name was synonymous with computers changed their name from Univac to Unisys. WTF is a ‘Unisys’?
You actually make a good point; anyone with a little age recognizes Univac, but Unisys sounds like a modem company.