Pirate ship acquires mechanical keyboard giant Drop

CTOnews.com, July 17, 2007 (CTOnews.com), a well-known manufacturer of game peripherals, has acquired the online retailer Drop,Drop, formerly known as Massdrop, mainly selling mechanical keyboards and their accessories, such as keycaps and shafts, and has worked with several designers in the mechanical keyboard community to launch many unique keycap designs as well as produce and sell finished keyboards, usually with features that are easy for users to customize.

Jef Holove, chief executive of Drop, said the company would continue to adopt an "enthusiast-led product development" approach and use the pirate ship partnership to expand its business.

The pirate ship acquired "certain assets" of Drop, details of which were not disclosed. But according to the Pirate ship's press release, the deal mainly involves Drop's customized keyboard business and desktop accessories. The Pirate ship said it intended to use Drop as a separate brand within the company and that Drop would continue to process "all existing warranties, orders and customer support requests".

Pirate ships have also produced a range of mechanical keyboards themselves and have recently begun to increase their customizability, such as providing functions such as hot-swappable shafts. But the Pirate ship's keyboard is aimed at a different market than the Drop, focusing more on game performance than typing touch.

CTOnews.com notes that this is one of several acquisitions made by pirate ships in recent years. In 2018, it acquired Elgato Gaming, a company that makes popular Stream Deck controllers, and in 2019 it acquired Origin PC, a maker of fever-grade PC, and Scuf Gaming, a maker of handles.