gibson files!

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Laservampire
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Re: gibson files!

Post by Laservampire »

They seriously just need to get back to basics.

No-one wants retarded special editions and wacky finishes. There are over 400 models of electric guitar alone on the Gibson website!!

Custom shop: make a Les Paul for the important years (54, 56, 57, 59). No "true historic" bullshit (or associated bullshit price), just make them as close to the old ones as feasibly possible. Juniors, Specials, SGs as well etc.

Memphis: a '59 ES-335, a '59 ES-330, a P-90 or PAF ES-175 for starters

Regular USA: a working man's Les Paul standard, a stripped down studio, a nice SG, a P-90 Junior/Special and a flying V
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HorseyBoy
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Re: gibson files!

Post by HorseyBoy »

^ Don't forget the Firebirds!
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Zacharia Matilda
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Re: gibson files!

Post by Zacharia Matilda »

Just buy an old one and be done with it. Same goes for Fender, Ric, Guild, etc etc.

Could never figure out why someone would pay so much for a new electric guitar. But I'm a fucking dinosaur.
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Bert Ohlsson
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Re: gibson files!

Post by Bert Ohlsson »

NASVILLE POST 1 May
https://www.nashvillepost.com/business/ ... bankruptcy


Gibson files for bankruptcy
Guitar giant's CEO and president to stay on as consultants, receive more than $7M in year after reorg approved

AUTHORS Staff Reports

Nashville-based Gibson Brands on Tuesday announced it has filed for protection from its creditors and will refocus on its original core business of manufacturing guitars.

The company reached a “restructuring support agreement” with senior secured noteholders and principal shareholders — Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and President David Berryman — “that clears a pathway for the continued financing and operations of the musical instruments business as well as a change of control in favor of those noteholders,” according to a release. As part of that deal — filed in bankruptcy court in Delaware — Brian Fox of consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal has been appointed chief restructuring officer.

In March, talks between Gibson leaders and KKR Credit Advisors about a potential takeover faltered over the parties’ “significantly divergent” opinions on how much the two Gibson leaders should be paid for their stakes. KKR is among the bond investors who own about 69 percent of Gibson's senior notes and are supporting the deal. Gibson, which sells 170,000 guitars annually in more than 80 countries, had faced a summer deadline to refinance more than $500 million of debt.

Gibson and its subsidiaries, which employ almost 900 people and contracts with about 80 more, on Tuesday filed a pre-negotiated reorganization cases in bankruptcy court. The move came a day after several entities under the Gibson Innovations banner, which focuses on consumer electronics and was built this decade in a debt-financed acquisition push, starting filing papers to start liquidation proceedings in a number of foreign countries.

Juszkiewicz and Berryman will continue with the company after its Chapter 11 plan is approved “to facilitate a smooth transition.” Court filings show Juszkiewicz is in line for a one-year consulting role that will pay him $2.1 million in fees and give him a package of warrants to acquire up to 2.25 percent of the shares of a reorganized Gibson. Juszkiewicz also will receive $1.5 million of the proceeds from the sale of Gibson's 54 percent stake in Japanese audio electronics company TEAC. That stake is worth more than $60 million.

Berryman also stands to be paid millions in the coming year: His one-year employment agreement calls for a salary and bonus of $3.35 million and the chance to exercise warrants for up to 2.25 percent of Gibson 2.0 in the next five years.

"Over the past 12 months, we have made substantial strides through an operational restructuring," Juszkiewicz said in the release. "We have sold non-core brands, increased earnings, and reduced working capital demands. The decision to re-focus on our core business, Musical Instruments, combined with the significant support from our noteholders, we believe will assure the company's long-term stability and financial health."

In a statement to the Delaware court, Fox said Tuesday that he expects to work through Gibson's restructuring this summer and have it be confirmed by the court in early September.

Other tidbits from Tuesday's filings:

• Financial turnaround expert Alan Carr, CEO of New York-based Drivetrain, has been added to the board of Gibson Brands. The company also has contracted with law firms Goodwin Procter and Pepper Hamilton as has retained investment bank Jefferies, with which it has been exploring financing alternatives for more than a year.

• Since Gibson’s financial travails came to the fore last summer, Juszkiewicz has steadfastly said the core guitar business is doing well. Court filings show that the company’s January sales were up 10 percent from a year earlier to about $10.2 million. Zooming out a little bit, the music instruments division produced adjusted EBITDA of $11 million on sales of $71 million in Gibson’s fiscal fourth quarter. (The electronics group, which had more than $1 billion in sales in 2014, had negative $7 million in EBITDA in the quarter on sales of just $95 million.)

• Gibson Innovations was hammered last fall by a credit downgrade from Moody’s Investors Service. That, Fox said in one of his filings, precipitated trade credit insurance providers to pull $100 million in coverage and led to the business having to “substantially cut down on purchases of inventory to preserve liquidity.” In turn, that led to lower sales and to lenders forcing Gibson to speed up required debt amortization payments — which put the electronics business in an even tighter liquidity bind.

But Juszkiewicz and his team couldn’t adequately address that problem by cutting costs and shedding jobs. Employment laws in Europe, Asia and Latin America — much of the electronics business had formerly been owned by Dutch company Philips — called for severance costs too big for a constrained Gibson to pay.

• As part of its Philips assets purchase, Gibson agreed to pay a royalty to use that company’s brands. The Nashville-based company still owes Philips about $28 million.“The [Gibson Innovations] business became trapped in a vicious cycle in which it lacked the liquidity to buy inventory and drive sales while at the same time it lacked the liquidity to rationalize its workforce to match its diminished operations,” according to court filings.

• Despite those troubles, Juszkiewicz almost had a buyer on the hook for the electronics business and the intellectual property. But knowing Gibson couldn't make a Monday deadline to pay up and avoid another loan covenant default meant those talks had to be put on ice.

• In addition to its big obligation to Philips, Gibson has identified another roughly 3,700 entities and individuals as debtors. Three of those are listed as being owed more than $500,000: Evervictory Electronic out of Taiwan, Pacific Western Timbers in Washington state and guitar case maker TKL Products in Virginia. Gibson owes another 23 companies at least $100,000.
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Philip
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Re: gibson files!

Post by Philip »

Business. :-P
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jerms
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Re: gibson files!

Post by jerms »

the primary officers run the company into the ground and then get million dollar bonuses!!! so f'n lame!!!!
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Re: gibson files!

Post by redeyeflight »

Capitalism: the old, rich, white guys at the top will always stay at the top.
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1bottlerocket
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Re: gibson files!

Post by 1bottlerocket »

jerms wrote: Wed May 02, 2018 6:25 pm the primary officers run the company into the ground and then get million dollar bonuses!!! so f'n lame!!!!
So true. I have seen this ad nauseam.

Their product line has gotten so complicated it is hard to tell what you are actually buying. A cursory look at the Les Paul model alone and you have: Standard Historic, True Historic, Modern Era, Collector's Choice, Limited Run, Custom, Artist Models, High Performance, Traditional, Studio, S Series...and the list goes on.
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Coolhand78
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Re: gibson files!

Post by Coolhand78 »

I hope something can save it, its as iconic as fender and Martin, and an American Institution. It would be a very sad day to see it go down in flames... to the point of extinction.
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simonm
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Re: gibson files!

Post by simonm »

Coolhand78 wrote: Sat May 05, 2018 11:27 am I hope something can save it, its as iconic as fender and Martin, and an American Institution. It would be a very sad day to see it go down in flames... to the point of extinction.
Even if Gibson Brands Inc died, which is unlikely imo, the name and intellectual property would still be worth a lot of money. Another company would buy the rights and the brand and set up to make Gibson guitars again, maybe even in the same factories (but employing fewer people and paying them less).
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