Legendary Guitar Maker Fender Files For IPO

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Here's one more sales pitch for you. Today's last word in business is your chance to buy a legendary brand.

Fender made guitars held by everyone from Buddy Holly to Jimi Hendrix to Bruno Mars - and maybe even smashed by a few of them. And now Fender has filed paperwork for an initial public offering. The company is looking to raise some $200 million. This company, based in California, wants to pay down debt, and get into new markets like India and China.

Now Fender was founded in 1946 and took off in the early 60s, embraced by bands like the Beach Boys, helping to define the surf-rock sound. Its guitar names played off the television age and the space age, the Fender Telecaster, the Fender Stratocaster.

Sales dwindled in recent years, but maybe as it sells Fender shares on Wall Street the company could create newer guitars that reflect the post-financial crisis age - say the Fender Stockocaster or the Downgrade-ocaster or the Toxic Deadocastor.

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INSKEEP: Yeah. That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

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