Apogee Electronics joins Dirk Ulrich's Rockforce Tech Holding

Apogee Electronics, the Santa Monica audio converter and interface maker, now belongs to Rockforce Tech Holding Inc. The buyer was founded by Dirk Ulrich, who also owns it and who serves as its CEO. The deal was announced in November 2025, and MediaBridge Capital Advisors worked on it as Apogee's exclusive investment advisor.

For Rockforce this is the second audio brand of the year. Earlier in 2025 the holding took over Manley Labs, and Apogee now sits alongside it. Both sides presented the combination as a pairing of complementary strengths that should give the two brands a broader base for engineering, product development and international sales.

Four decades of digital audio

Betty Bennett and Bruce Jackson started Apogee in 1985. The company built its name on digital audio conversion and later added recording interfaces and software tools. Its products are used in music recording, broadcast, film work and immersive audio production.

Bennett, who is co-founder and CEO, said the company needs more resources and a wider operational foundation to keep growing. She pointed to Ulrich's track record at Brainworx and Plugin Alliance, and now at Manley Labs, as the reason she sees him as the right person to lead the next stage. Mixer and producer Bob Clearmountain, who developed Apogee's flagship plugins, also backed the transition and said he looks forward to seeing the two brands work together.

What stays the same

Apogee will keep operating from its headquarters in Santa Monica, California. Both companies stated that they remain committed to product quality, customer service and support for the creative community. Ulrich described the plan as building a shared ecosystem of high-end analog and digital tools out of Apogee and Manley. In his words, "it's all about the sound."

The managing partners of MediaBridge, John Bowen, Ethan Jacks and Courtney Spencer, recalled Apogee's early work on conversion quality for the first digital multitrack recorders and called the purchases of Manley and Apogee a sign of Ulrich's drive to develop new hardware and software tools.