B‹sendorfer's founder, Ignaz B‹sendorfer, was a former apprentice to Josef Brodmann before founding his own firm in 1828.
Yamaha's offer was made more attractive through an assurance that they would not change the brand and that B‹sendorfer's production staff would stay in Austria. Yamaha mainly wants to apply B‹sendorfer's crafting methods to its own instruments in Japan.
B‹sendorfer sells 200 piano annually and has accumulated €8 million in debt. Known for a mellow and sweet sound, its pianos fill a specialized high-end niche as alternatives to Steinway and Yamaha instruments. Its famous Imperial concert grand is almost ten feet long and was first built around 1900 on Ferruccio Busoni's suggestion; with an eight-octave span (97 keys), it has served as the inspiration for piano works by Bart‹k, Debussy and Frank Martin.