Audio Research

[Delkat]

It sounds like AR went into receivership last week. Hopefully they can find an investor or it could be the end of the brand. Not good for a lot of us that own their gear. 

[ctsooner]

Seriously?  That's so sad if so.  They just came out with some really awesome new products too.  Thanks for sharing.  

[chris1625]

Has anyone read the court papers? I've looked and seen nothing. Having a receiver is not always from financial debt and most people don't hear much about it if it's not the bank taking over since there are usually NDA's involved.  A receivership can be from a major stock holder of an S-corp or a partner in a partnership committing a wrong doing. I'm a great example of one since one of the companies I own had a receiver appointed a day before the closing date by my request. There is an NDA on my case so I won't disclose names even though but the other party is dead now. And I'll never will disclose names just in case since I did not witness them being cremated. What happened it was found out the seller took $460,000 of product and concealed it after inventory was done but for the closing and committed insurance fraud for $258,000 a week prior to that. Both in a stupid attempt to pad his pockets for more $$$. The receiver was needed to keep the business running so it would not get devalued while it was determine if more wrong doing had happened and the total dollars. But in the end the idiot cost himself $2.1 million because the judge was not happy and I got the company for 60% off of the agreed purchase price. I was nervous through out since I had to deposit $500,000 in an I-lock to keep vendors from pulling out all while paying both my accountant and attorney fees that ended with a total of $90,000. The insurance fraud was the great blessing but a short term curse due to 18 months of an hugely inflated premiums. But the blessing, it forced a quick out come since no insurance company on the planet would provide insurance if Mr. X was involved in any business in the United States again.  I've heard from my attorney of other receivership cases of where one partner was the sales guy and  other partner in-charge of the backend doing the books and that partner was stealing. He had another case of a majority owner making racist comments online in violation of the conduct agreement in place and it was a franchised business. The parent company was going to pull the franchises if he did not sell out to the minority owners. He refused and it went into receivership while he was forced out by the court.

 

[Delkat]

They published this:

 

Audio Research voluntarily agreed to assign its assets to a receiver, Lighthouse Management Group, Inc, on April 4th. We want you to understand what that means and how it affects our daily operations.
Audio Research has been operating since the assignment was filed almost four weeks ago, ten days before the AXPONA show where our VP of Sales (Allan Haggar) worked with our dealer Quintessence Audio, which featured a statement system including Ref 10, Ref Phono10, and Ref 160M MkII amps.
Little has changed outwardly. Audio Research remains staffed with Greg and Evan answering questions and assisting owners via email and on the phone; the service department continues repairing products; production is building new products and performing updates; our parts inventory has been good and we continue to receive parts shipments; our sales department continues to accept product orders, and our shipping department continues shipping parts and product orders along with completed service units.
Dave Gordon gave our Philippine distributor a tour of the facilities on April 26, where he and his wife were able to meet everyone, see everything going on, and listen to music in the sound room. The tour had been scheduled in March and did not need to be cancelled or postponed.
Trent Suggs was relieved of control of Audio Research and we have been working with individuals to purchase the company: we expect to have a new owner very soon. There will be continuity as production, engineering, purchasing, service, and critical personnel will remain working for Audio Research. Including Warren Gehl.
We just turned 53 in April and we look forward to continuing to provide the finest high performance audio products, service and support to our loyal customers, dealers and distributors. 

Edited May 1 by Delkat

[Stringreen]

we'll see

[GdnrBob]

Though going through receivership/bankruptcy doesn't look good, sometimes it does work out for the best or at least stave off an abrupt end.

B