Nike

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             Nike has formed alliances with many different companies. The American Skiing Company is a major alliance. They are the official licensee of Nike ACG (All Conditions Gear)-branded stores and concept shops. This has proven to be a great alliance for Nike. The American Skiing Company opened up a the first store in the U.S. at The Canyons resort in Salt Lake City, Utah prior to the Winter Olympic Games, which really got the ACG products more visibility in the outdoor sports market. One of Nike's newest strategic alliances is with S3's Rio Division. This division was acquired by S3 when they acquired Diamond Multimedia, which contributed largely to their shift in strategy to becoming more of a digital media company. Nike has licensed them to produce the Nike PSA[Play 120 - an ergonomically designed digital audio player geared towards fitness enthusiasts. This is a new market for Nike, but instead of running the risk of fully entering a new market, they simply licensed an independent company to produce goods for them, with the Nike brand name on it. .
             The above alliances as well a couple other strategic alliances prove to be a frequently practiced method by Nike to begin competing in new facets of the sporting goods industry. .
             Nike has made one acquisition, however. In 1995, Nike acquired Canstar Sports Inc. in which all brands produced by this company were later consolidated under the Bauer brand name. Bauer has been a major player in the hockey equipment industry, an industry with big competition, and high price of equipment. Nike saw an opportunity to infiltrate this market by acquiring Canstar. This proved to be lest costly to enter the market and really added to the diversification of Nike. Nike later created a new business unit, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, in which Nike and Bauer products would both be sold under their own brand names, but the people from Bauer were in charge of new product development and design.