Both companies make good products, so this is bad news mostly from a lack of competition point of view. Very different from say Behringer eating historical big names and turning them into cheap Chinese stuff with a shiny name.
I'm not sure Mackie (primarily mixers & monitors) were a rival to Røde (primarily microphones)
Both might have had some rival products in headphones, but it would have been a minor part of the business on either side.
Mackie might not be a rival to Rode but Rode would love to add Mackie's tech into their products (such as the RØDECaster).
bit of a surprise to see the article rendering it as "rode" and not "røde". I think usually im faily tolerant of dropping diacritics and stuff but in my mind that letter is such a big part of their branding it seems almost shocking to see it dropped