The buyer, Bluestone, owns a miscellaneous assortment of "lifestyle" brands. None has Nike/Hurley's interest in tech, unless you count Brookstone, the gadget supplier. This, at a time when "surf" as a fashion lifestyle seems to be fading.

Surf brands never last more than seven years when investment groups get involved.

Hardly anything seems to survive private investment. Nike briefly tried to bring Hurley closer to its other brands, but that failed almost instantly. The buyout of Billabong by New Zealand's Kathmandu might be promising. They seem a pretty sharp retailer.