Takeover offer withdrawn leaving MSY with an uncertain future:
https://www.crn.com.au/news/msys-acquisition-collapses-as-bu…
Their deals have been sucking lately anyway. Where do people get the cheapest tech offers, including laptops and desktops, these days?
I know Ozbargain! They sell Eneloops and SSDs. And I've seen great things about $80k investments too
Ozbargain never heard of her!
Store "out of stock", would you like buy a cheaper trash store for $100 more?
Pretty much the best way to get the cheapest deals is to do some research, use resources such as staticice, ozbargains and be patient. This is even more important if you want to buy a desktop and can build it yourself. You're going to save yourself a whole heap of money if you get your parts piecemeal. No one store is going to have all the parts you want at the cheapest price. Ebay and Amazon can have really good deals, especially if you have Ebay plus and or Amazon Prime. There is really zero point in paying RRP unless you are getting something that's really new and exclusive like a Valve Index.
Where do people get the cheapest tech offers, including laptops and desktops, these days?
I recently build a new Ryzen PC.
Got all my parts from eBay 20% off sales from FutuONline/ComputerAlliance/ShoppingExpress and storage from AmazonAU. Way cheaper than any brick and mortar retailer.
Computer Alliance are really good if you have EBay Plus. Just shopping with them covers the annual cost of Ebay Plus easily. If you are willing to shuck, yes Amazon is definitely the way to go for storage.
Used to be a big customer of MSY (and a fan of their store if you look at my stats) — have built over a dozen systems using parts all sourced from them but my latest computer and tech purchases have been mostly from eBay and a few from Amazon USA.
Years ago I bought pretty much everything from MSY. They were almost guaranteed to have stock and at the best price.
Now when I need parts I head to eBay or Amazon. With the regular 10% off offers on eBay, I can get the item for the same price as MSY. But it will get delivered for free to my door and with no credit card surcharge too.
I'm not surprised MSY is in trouble.
As someone who's a long-time customer of MSY, I'm really disappointed in what they've become.
I've been buying from them since when they were literally operating out of a garage in Malvern. They used to host BBQs for tech launches and it was just the ultimate geek place. There was some level of understanding that when you went to MSY, you knew what you wanted and you were there because you were after a "no frills" experience. It wasn't a place that was noob friendly and I think they liked the notoriety.
Unfortunately, they expanded too much, they tried to appeal to a wider audience, they lost their core customers and they stopped being the cheapest retailer around. These days, I can often find deals cheaper at PCCG or Scorptec than MSY. That used to be unheard of a decade ago. To be honest, I feel sad for MSY, they're closing down a bunch of stores and seem to have downsized massively in the past few months. They were really a part of my formative years and I'll ever forget the hours I used to spend reading through PARTS.pdf imagining what my next build would look like.
Good ol' PARTS.pdf. That brings back memories.
Techfast is great value for desktops when you're happy to accept the caveats of an online-only budget builder - i.e. slower delivery and support response times.
However, I've found it's cheaper to buy their prebuilts than DIY in many cases, and I have no hesitation in returning for my next PC through them.
If you're just looking for upgrade parts though, my one stop is eBay; with patience for the right sales.
I thought that takeover offer was weird. It's still business as usual for MSY. I doubt it changed the profitability or anything else.
The range offered by MSY on parts and components has steadily shrunk over the years. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find enthusiast grade hardware (in particular RAM) from local retailers. Some kits of memory are legitimately only stocked by PC Case Gear these days, with other PC stores just focusing on more volume driven products.
Lanka: "We want to buy"
MSY: "Great!", passes over PDF file with price they are willing to sell the business for
Lanka: Doesn't understand the PDF and keeps trying to call MSY to confirm terms of sale and their post sales rights
MSY: lets phone ring out and doesn't answer Lanka's calls. keeps nudging pdf price list closer and closer to Lanka
Lanka: Doesn't understand MSY and pulls out of deal
This is gold!
😂
Ok, I might be the only one with this opinion.
They're a shit company.
They offer shit service.
They offer shit after-sales service.
They had a niche following of loyal tech customers due to their low prices. They ain't low anymore.
Absolutely zero benefit buying from them than Scorptec or PCCG who are cheaper, better service and far easier to deal with.
Uhh… Why is a graphite mining company trying to buy a no-frills, discount PC part retail chain?
Lanka Graphite first announced its plans to acquire MSY in August 2018 as it planned to exit the mining business and pivot to e-commerce.
They also own a nursing home.
They also used the same MSY acquisition money to buy a biomedical company. So wtf.
It's called a reverse takeover. MSY wanted to list on the ASX, but listing is really hard. So instead they find a worthless listed company, lend them the money required to acquire them, and make it conditional on the board of the listed company being replaced by the board of the acquired company. Then they file with ASX to change their symbol.
Basically it would be MSY lends Lanka millions of dollars. Lanka uses that money to buy MSY. Lanka changes name to MSY Technology, and ticker symbol to MSY. Old MSY board becomes board of New MSY. Profit.
why is their future uncertain, are they going broke?
they were the bomb back in the day because they offered the cheapest prices
I think Lanka got tired of waiting in line and gave up?
Everyone knows you have to know exactly what you want when you go to MSY. Probably asked too many questions in due diligence…
with Lanka agreeing to instead acquire bio-pharmaceutical company Oculus Biomed for $12 million.
What.
This, mining, and MSY's tech/e-commerce business are all wholly unrelated.
Anyone have any guesses what Lanka is actually trying to do?
The article did say they're committed to exiting the mining field. They wanted to get into e-commerce, didn't go through for whatever reason, so now meds. Still makes sense to me.
Diversify. The lower the correlation, the better.
Diversification makes sense, but in this case - in areas where the investor has zero specified knowledge or expertise themselves - only really as a passive investor not an active player.
I'm sure they have a board of analysts that does all the maths and arrived at a favourable conclusion. Expertise is overrated. Most corporations have no idea what they are doing with IT (unless they are IT vendors), and they continue to exist and torture everyone in IT with random decisions.
They're being used as a reverse takeover vehicle for a reverse ASX listing.
Always liked MSY but having the cheapest prices is not a viable business model.
That is not true. Low margin comes from low operating cost, it's very viable. PARTS.pdf was very cheap to maintain compared to an e-commerce site, for example. (Think Aldi.) In order to scale up, they have to increase volume or turnover, which would be where the expansions come from. My guess is there are very limited demand for what MSY offers when delivery is the norm now, they just fail the same way as every other real life retailers.
I don't think I've bought anything from MSY worth more than $10 in the last 5 years. For my last 3-4 pc builds, 80% of the parts have come from MSY.
This is their downfall by sticking to a business model that may have worked in the 90s. They failed to develop a proper e-commerce presence. If they dont want to invest in a proper online storefront they should at least sell on eBay or Amazon. Sure the margins will be much lower but at least they will stay more relevant in the mind of consumers.
Plus selling on eBay will better their limited stock JIT selling model. Either customers can bag a bargain, or they miss out with little time lost. An online ordering system would also mean they don't need to field phone calls inquiring about stock levels.
will we ever find out what MSY really stands for?
So have a fair few stores closed?
There was 5 or so in SA, now only 2..
This time last year, there were around 28 stores Australia-wide.
It's 13 now.
I heard today that umart has purchased MSY, anyone else hear anything?
I see there was an update at ASIC regarding shares of MSY. Anyone have access to the changes?
Check staticice and possibly ozbargain.