FOX Business- Iconic American guitar maker Gibson filed for bankruptcy Tuesday and said it had reached an agreement with its creditors on a deal that would let the debt-laden company survive.
The maker of the storied Gibson Les Paul guitar, which has been in business since 1894, said it expects to keep operating while it reorganizes around its core businesses.
Gibson, which said it has debts between $100 million and $500 million, will replace its current stockholders — including controversial CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, according to MusicRadar. Its lenders woll advance the company $135 million according to Bloomberg.
“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,” Juszkiewicz said in a statement, according to The Wall Street Journal. “Importantly, this process will be virtually invisible to customers.” read more
How the hell can a guitar company owe 500 mil??
An iconic guitar company no less?
Q – How the hell can a guitar company owe 500 mil??
A – https://www.campaignlive.com/article/gibson-innovations-tunes-its-ambitions-music-lifestyle-brand/1345905
Isn’t this the company obama protected?
Wait the F up. Weren’t they sued by the Obamanation Administration for making guitars out of protected wood?
You may remember the boot of bammy on conservative leaning Gibson’s neck….. “punish our enemies and reward our friends”.
holder seized their assets, namely some fret board wood from India, bought legally, but deemed “protected species” or some such bovine scatology. Tied them up for years, it was low-down and sickening what they did to them, I think they call that fascism, you know the real version, not the fake kind that antifa pretends to be fighting.
Bongo
As I recall. This is bull shit. Where’s our justice department? We don’t need any more victims of the Oh Blow Me administration.
@Brad – that’s what I was thinking.
Of course a lot of formerly great companies fail to innovate well, or overextend themselves trying to do something they aren’t good at.
Our Justice Department? Sessions better pull a rabbit out of his hat real soon! This silent executioner routine has about wore itself out!
Hard to determine if mismanagement mostly delt the fatal blow. Or if the wound delivered by Obama was the mortal wound that weakened them causing a long slow death.
@ L.C.Dan- Colt comes to mind.
They should make a commemorative model with a picture of a Communist boot with a big Ø in front of it engraved into the neck!
@Groucho: As I recall, Gibson was the company Obummer targeted, Martin is the company he turned a blind eye to.
OK, maybe Gibson will hold a YUGE sale and slash prices! I wants me a Hummingbird!
As a musician, I can tell you that Gibson has had problems that go back a long time. Their quality really started slipping in the mid 80s. They became famous for having issues with headstocks breaking off to where it’s a running joke on the guitar forums I’m a member of. But instead of addressing quality control issues, they instead focused on building nothing but high priced models thinking their name would carry them. I occasionally go into a GC to get strings and of course I always check out what they’ve got hanging up for sale. Without fail, every Gibson I see in there is so poorly set up and intonated that they’re practically unplayable. And try finding one that has a flawless finish. The kind of stuff that would have been pulled and re-conditioned back in the day regularly makes it out of their QC…even stuff with imperfect bindings. I’m not saying it’s impossible to find a new Gibson that is good quality, but unless your standards are pretty low you’re going to be looking at a lot of them.
But ultimately it comes down to the fact that there are a lot of better quality instruments available at a much better price than Gibson, and people know it. Until they can address their quality issues and bring something affordable to the market they will never survive catering only to the high end market…because us guys that do buy high end stuff will go for PRS, Fender, Jackson, Charvel, etc… every time because they’re better and cheaper.
What the Obama administration did to this company is criminal. I’m sure it sped up their demise.
Meh, they figured the Who was gonna smash them up anyway.
Lazlo’s hero: Gordon Lightfoot is a Gibson Man.
But that is not enough to want one.
Lazlo was a Guild man until the eighties when they started having the same problems as Gibson.
I remember Ibanez guitars used to be called ‘I-been-had’ until in the eighties; they started making Les Paul copies way better than the originals.
What Obama did to Gibson was suck up all their forward momentum.
Lazlo agrees with Turd Burglestien, I have pulled brand new Gibson’s off the wall worth thousands and right out the gate you can see it is a sub-standard product.
I hope they get their act together.
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2011/08/31/140090116/why-gibson-guitar-was-raided-by-the-justice-department
My very first girlfriend, who shattered my tender heart, and her husband work there. Too bad! Yes…I can hold a grudge.
I remember back in the 70s my friend played banjo, he remarked how Gibson would take the tone ring on top shelf banjos and shave them down so they didn’t sound as good as they’re very highest model.
You were already paying top dollar, just didn’t have as much inlays.
Still, how do you screw a company up like that?
Bad management. Same thing that killed Sears, Kmart, and Radio Shack.
Refusing to listen to customers. Refusing to adapt.
like TB & Lazlo said (& most guitarist/luthiers would tell you) … Gibson’s been putting out crap for decades
… sadly