Smartparts Bankruptcy

[Pha|anx]

If no one saw this coming... Smartparts filed for Chapter 11 on on the 13th of May.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_681978.html


Good luck to all who worked there. :cheers:

[CatoRockwell]

Will the banks be able to seize the patents? I wonder who will buy them?

[Chronobreak]

just checked so it is just restructuring, aww we were so close.

i have been saying, i cannot picture the gardeners every willingly leaving the sport.

[teufelhunden]

sorry someone refresh my mind, is chapter 11 the bad one or the restructuring one?

The restructuring one.

The "bad" one is chapter 7.

[Spider-TW]

The "bad" one is chapter 7.
I think for that reason, people seem file chapter 11 to drag the process out and buy time, even when things aren't going to change. It's hard to tell if they actually restructured as a completely different entity or just disappeared.

[teufelhunden]

I think for that reason, people seem file chapter 11 to drag the process out and buy time, even when things aren't going to change. It's hard to tell if they actually restructured as a completely different entity or just disappeared.

Well, yeah. Chapter 7 means that you're done and you just need someone to divvy up your assets to your creditors. So people who think they aren't done file Chapter 11 to try and satiate the creditors while not liquidating the business.

[mpsd]

I don't know much about the american Bankruptcy law but I do know that Smart Parts have some very good assests, both tangible (patents, machinery, offices etc) and untangible (brand, loyal customers etc) so I do believe they can restructure and make a come back.

This come back can bring them back to business, as a smaller company, without so much marketing and sponsorships, whit a thinner product line, but can generate some profit. What I see in the future is SP being bought by a larger company like Kee or JT.

Now, the only thing I don't get is about the patents. I know medicine patents are valid for 20 years and, after that, it becomes public domain. Is that the same thing for electronics and pneumatics? If so, we may be reaching the end of some of the patents and that would/could make for a new revamp on the paintball market.

Just thinking loud...

:cheers:

[smeek]

What I see in the future is SP being bought by a larger company like Kee or JT.


FYI: Kee bought JT last year. They'd be bought by Kee, Dye or maybe Valken.

[mpsd]

FYI: Kee bought JT last year. They'd be bought by Kee, Dye or maybe Valken.

Yep, you're right. Anyways, the point is still valid.

[paintmann111]

and from the ashes AGD will rise once more! Devilmag's anyone? Didn't they have to stop making those because of SP?

[teufelhunden]

and from the ashes AGD will rise once more! Devilmag's anyone? Didn't they have to stop making those because of SP?

Uh, I think they stopped making Devilmags because the people involved were cluster-fs who couldn't source lemons to make lemonade in under 8 months.

E-Mags on the other hand...

[Pump Scout]

The comment above about a Chapter 11 being used to buy time is accurate for businesses still operating. Not sure how much play that has with a business that is shut down. The last time I was in the middle of something like this (had an employer do it a couple years ago), it went from "shuffling assets to run leaner" to "selling some locations off and blowing out really old inventory to raise capitol" to "filing Chapter 11 to protect ourselves and restructure the company" to "lock the doors, turn in your keys to the security guy from the bank, go home, you're all out of work, and by the way, we're converting the bankruptcy to Chapter 7".

The buying time concept will hold more water if the company changes attorneys once or twice. That's a pretty sure sign of a time play.

[going_home]

The buying time concept will hold more water if the company changes attorneys once or twice. That's a pretty sure sign of a time play.


But wait.......
Aren't the brothers G attorneys themselves ?

:ninja:

[Pump Scout]

Yep. But Gomez Addams once said that a man who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. :)

Actually, now that I think about it, Bill Sr. was a patent attorney, but he recently passed. Not sure exactly what line of professional training Billy or Adam have. I'm sure they've got business attorneys on hand for this.

[Fred]

Check their patents, the bank has owned them for months...

[doc_Zox]

the main legal eagle was Bill Senior

Bill Sr. died this spring


William Marshall Gardner, 79, of Ligonier, died Saturday afternoon, May 1, 2010, at his home


PNC bank now owns the Intellectual property

http://assignments.uspto.gov/assignments/q?db=pat&reel=021006&frame=0524

[spantol]

And they owe the bank an additional $281,232 above and beyond the value of the patents:

http://www.timschaffer.net/sp-bankruptcy.pdf

So I guess that's where the bidding could start.

[cerrik]

Another thing with all the Ch 11: G.I.Milsim

Not that it'll take off or resurrect the company. But they could be restructuring for that mess. It takes time to retool the factories in China to mass produce .50 cal markers instead of .68 cal ones :D

[Pha|anx]

Another thing with all the Ch 11: G.I.MilsimDid G.I. file C11 also?

[RehKal]

Another thing with all the Ch 11: G.I.Milsim

Not that it'll take off or resurrect the company. But they could be restructuring for that mess. It takes time to retool the factories in China to mass produce .50 cal markers instead of .68 cal ones :D


To be honest. I think GI Milsim is what did this to SP. To make up the cost of producing all the new markers, the advertising and everything else they'd have to sell a LOT of those markers. And quite frankly, seeing the reaction of the paintball community to the "50 cal revolution"...... I don't see it happening. Which means a lot of lost money in something that isn't going to take off.

[Doc Nickel]

And quite frankly, seeing the reaction of the paintball community to the "50 cal revolution"......

-Personally, I'm still kind of stunned they even tried it in the first place. I'm even more surprised that "Smart" Parts was itself surprised that a ballistically badly inferior round didn't take off.

I'm not surprised they used a lot of misapplied tech-speak and marketing gobbledeygook to try and sell it, but I am surprised they were surprised when their doublespeak couldn't cover up the round's glaring deficiencies.

It would be nice to see someone pick up the SP IP for a song- karma's a B-word considering that Sp themselves obtained the original e-gun patent by driving PneuVentures out of business and then buying up the IP for pennies on the dollar.

But be careful what you wish for. Those patents are still valuable, and some of the legal contracts around them are still binding. Having a big corporation pick them up won't necessarily be any better- and can easily be even worse- than SP's strongarm tactics.

Doc.

[luke]

-
It would be nice to see someone pick up the SP IP for a song- karma's a B-word considering that Sp themselves obtained the original e-gun patent by driving PneuVentures out of business and then buying up the IP for pennies on the dollar.

Doc.

And that should TK. :cool:

[ProblemKinder]

could this mean the return of the E-Mag...?

[mt84]

could this mean the return of the E-Mag...?

Hope so.... :D

[BigEvil]

You can still buy emags brand new from Tuna. They never went away. Now, if you mean a potentially all new emag.... then :dance:

[KillerOfGiants]

Yeah, this is 2010, why would you want an oldschool e-mag? If TK did come back full time and completely modernized the EMag.... oh boy.

[going_home]

Yeah, this is 2010, why would you want an oldschool e-mag? If TK did come back full time and completely modernized the EMag.... oh boy.

Yeah who's going to send a cease and desist now anyways ?

But better yet let TK start selling new AGD pneumags instead !

;)

[BigEvil]

But better yet let TK start selling new AGD pneumags instead !

;)

You mean like this one?
http://www.joshuasilverman.com/images/TKLL3esmall.jpg

[Beemer]

You mean like this one?
http://www.joshuasilverman.com/images/TKLL3esmall.jpg

Ya but he fixed it and made it better. ;)

[going_home]

You mean like this one?
http://www.joshuasilverman.com/images/TKLL3esmall.jpg

Exactly.
All that needs is an Apex barrel on it.
Reach out and touch someone heheh.


;)

[ProblemKinder]

You can still buy emags brand new from Tuna. They never went away. Now, if you mean a potentially all new emag.... then :dance:

humph. I had no idea. has tuna been paying SP royalties or have they not figured out what's going on yet?