Just wondering whether Roon is American or funds paid to Roon go to an American firm. I understand that the company was purchased by Harmon/Samsung but may still have American offices.
Thanks Geoff, I’m aware of that document but it doesn’t answer the question of where the money flows and if it benefits an American company.
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The T&C also states:
This license agreement (License) is a legal agreement between you (“you”) and Roon Labs LLC, a New York Limited Liability Company (“we” or “us”) for any software published by Roon Labs LLC, which includes computer Software, the data supplied with it, the associated media, and online documentation (“Documentation”).
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Roon is a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. See Roon on the second page of this document:
Roon’s sales/profit/loss are included in Samsung’s financial statements, as combined with “Harman and its subsidiaries” as in the 8th page (numbered 21) of that document. Although Roon may have some degree of independence in day to day operations, all of its money flow goes directly or indirectly through Samsung. Whether you consider Roon to be an American or Korean company depends on your point of view.
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@Geoff & mSpot
Thank you both for the information.
Many of us Canadians are making decisions.
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In the UK, Harmon International is a UK business, liable for UK tax, and this business now includes, for example, Arcam, which was until a few years ago a separate legal entity.
Just because Roon or any other subsidiary appears in the parent’s P&L doesn’t mean it isn’t a US company. If Roon is an LLC registered in NY, then by definition it is a US business.
The easiest way to establish whether or not Roon is US is to query the Registry in the relevant State department.
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As are many of us non Canadians 
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Please try not to tar us all with the same brush. Bigger moves will have more impact than smaller ones; driving small companies out of business just puts more money in the pockets of billionaires that many of us think are contributing heavily to the ruination of this country.
I do not know details of how multinational companies operate, but in the US I typically see that when a foreign company begins operating in the US with local employees, they will create and register a US company as a subsidiary. It may be a legal requirement depending on circumstances, or it may be expensive or onerous to do otherwise.
I was working at a software startup in California when we were acquired by Samsung. We became a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung and later was assimilated into Samsung Electronics America, a US registered company with over 10,000 employees.
I suppose that technically I was working for an American company, although it didn’t feel that way. Our department’s budget and salary increases were directly related to how well the parent Samsung company was doing globally, and we had to follow directives from Samsung executives in Korea. If I were asked whether I worked at an American company, I would have answered no, even though the correct answer may be yes in the legal sense.
So I had to pause when I saw the question, “Is Roon an American company?”. In a global economy with multinational corporations, there are nuances to the answer.
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What is challenging for Canadians is that the USA declared economic war on us, at one point the executive even stating they would crush us economically. I know this is not the place to air political differences, just trying to weigh my options.
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I didn’t mean to be prescriptive. I empathize; we are also under threat of economic disaster. It’s a bad deal all around.
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The question, “Is Roon an American company?”, is about trading status rather than ownership.
But I understand where you’re coming from. Before I retired, I worked for a multinational. Originally, a British business (a privately owned, FTSE 100 candidate) that had expanded into a number of European countries through aquisitions, only later to be bought by a bigger fish.
Whilst the parent company imposed certain practices and regulation, the business still felt British, but I guess experiences will vary.
I guess this question was over concern about the tariffs, which will inevitably affect many of us if there’s a trade war; not only the cost of goods and services, but inflationary pressure, too.
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It’s music playing software, not a weapons company… why does everything have to get political?
And assimilate Canada as the 51st state, an astonishingly arrogant and frightening remark from someone in that office. I can’t imagine how it must feel to be Canadian right now.
I’m outside of North America but we as a family have decided to do our very small part and avoid the big tech that helped put the incumbent in office and who bent the knee so publicly. Social media and 20+ year old Amazon accounts are deleted, WhatsApp is being swapped for Signal or Telegram, we’ve not decided yet. Google will be difficult to avoid as I have much invested in Nest home devices and cloud storage, but I’m investigating options.
A drop in the ocean I know but it helps me feel better.
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Because of what is going on. I tried to move to Canada but they don’t want me coming there and getting free healthcare.
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It’s not true to say everything gets political. This is in the ot section and is mutable.
I know it’s a topic on a lot of people’s minds right now but can we please avoid getting political here as we all know the Roon Forum is NOT the place for it.
Trust me I feel very strongly about the present ridiculous situation myself but let’s not vent it here.
Thank you for your cooperation.
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ROON was initially developed as Sooloos in 2004 by an American company based in NY. It was acquired by Meridian (A UK company) in 2008 and released as ROON in 2014. This may explain why the software licence agreement is registers to a NY company. More recently Roon has been acquired by Harmon International a US company based in Connecticut but a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung a South Korean company.
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