MasteroFlego
Rock Crawler
All of those you mentioned have fairly large followings, so it's unlikely any of them are going away.
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HobbiCo / Great Planes / Tower Hobbies
- Thread starter JatoTheRipper
- Start date
All of those you mentioned have fairly large followings, so it's unlikely any of them are going away.
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svt923
I wanna be Dave
You set up an allowance for uncollectable account at the time it is believed collection is unlikely (a long time ago for most creditors) and expense either the entire loss or a portion of it in that period (year, quarter, etc.). When it is certain you will not get paid, you remove the allowance and receivable from your books (what the creditors will be doing shortly) and expense any portion of the loss you haven't yet written off.
skinnyj
Pebble Pounder
The one question I have is, where does this leave the Traxxas/Hobbico/Aarma lawsuit? I can't imagine that Horizon would buy an asset with litigation against it.
calcagno45
RCC Addict
Not to this magnitude but I’ve been seeing far too many write offs from the oil prices busting the Gulf of Mexico operating companies. Unsecured creditors usually take on the the chin the hardest.
Losing options is always sad. I agree there. I'd be really sad if the Bomber and SMT10 went away, but other than that I couldn't care less if Axial faded into oblivion.
The original SCX10 will always hold a special place in my heart, somewhere deep in there, because it got me into scale crawling. But Axial left its customers hanging, first, when it delayed the SCX10 II way too long and only released it after the competition surpassed them and, second, when the parts supply had dried up and all kits were out of stock and they didn't offer any explanation. I know people will say things like "Axial doesn't have to tell you anything" and they are correct, but I can and do disagree with it and I have the option of losing faith in that company and moving on to bigger and better things which I did.
Now that the huge debt to their vendors and lack of money came to light it's way more obvious why Axial didn't have stock. They had to create new molds and go to other vendors for parts because the previous vendor wasn't going to give Axial anymore parts without getting paid. The mishandling of this business is just a disaster and I don't know who in their right might would hire anybody involved in driving Axial/HobbiCo into this abyss.
I think most of the Losi products will be saved. It would look bad if Losi/Vaterra started selling rebranded Axial products instead of their own. The SCX10 II is popular so it might be saved. I'm guessing the Ascender will get the SCX10 II axles or something like that.
As a general statement, Losi/Vaterra products are higher quality than Axial products.
As far as Tower goes, I don't think they'll be carrying Horizon because I don't think they'll be around. That, to me, is the saddest part of all of this.
calcagno45
RCC Addict
The litigation will remain with the estate of Hobbico most likely. The purchase agreement from Horizon explicitly excludes everything and anything possible with the Traxxas litigation. Then depending on how much money is recoup thru preference payments and is left with the estate, will somewhat dictate of Hobbico estate has the means necessary to fight the claim against Traxxas. If not, Traxxas will likely win the suit but collect nothing.
My totally uneducated guess is that all (or at least most) product lines will remain. From Horizon's perspective, Ascenders and SCX10s make up some percentage of the sales market in that category. Removing one from the market will boost sales of the other slightly, but a large number of those lost sales will go to competitors and not necessarily back to them. Maintaining 2 separate, previously profitable lines makes sense, especially when so much of the overhead expenses are reduced due to the consolidation.
LRP is officially out of business since they could not find a buyer, but the owner is coming back with a new company called "Lautenbach Racing Products." Interesting...
http://www.lrp.cc
http://www.lrp.cc
skinnyj
Pebble Pounder
Not a great analogy, as Horizon does not own AE, they are just a distributor, but I get what you are trying to say.
How do you fathom that your analogy is even close to the idea that HobbiCo may put SCX10 II axles on an Ascender?
Ditchrat
RCC Addict
Just putting it out there. why would you buy a company just to dismantle it? This wasn't a situation where there was high demand for the companies, evident by the selling price, so there wasn't a huge risk of someone else buying them and being a competitor.
I know you like your ascender, but it clearly isnt as popular as the scx10 or the scx10II.
1100 scx10ii threads and 1000 ascender threads, and how much longer has it been out?
I really don't think this was a buy out to stop competition, I think it was a buy out to acquire assets cheap. I guess we are going to find out.
However maybe all those fuking jeep bodies might go away.
Companies buy other companies and dismantle them all of the time. That's nothing new or unique.
Tower is just a distributor. Horizon already is a massive distributor on their own. I'm not sure it would make sense to double the size of their distribution unless they double the size of their product line. Maybe they will keep Axial, etc. operating separately.
You have a good point. Like you said, time will tell.
And hell yeah to **** all of those Jeep bodies!
Brake Weight
I wanna be Dave
MasteroFlego
Rock Crawler
I'd rather have a batmobile than a jeep
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
calcagno45
RCC Addict
Part of this Horizon/Hobbico purchase agreement was to hire 15 key employees from Hobbico...
Man, this happens more than you think. We have customers that use the same legal name with additional numerals behind it. They get behind on jobs or project, don't cash flow, file BK and then start a new business. they get work based on name and project managers...
Agreed here. I think Horizon would likely take over product lines as is and keep selling to both existing market shares.
Jato, the 10.2 came out before the Traxxas or HPI so I'm not sure what competitor "surpassed the 10.2 before it was released". As far as I'm concerned its still the best performing box stock crawler out there and has the most potential for even better performance. With that said, Axial's plastics and shocks make the quality sub par when compared to the other brands, especially considering they are priced higher. Hopefully Horizon can fix that. Axial clearly didnt give a crap.
At any rate, I highly doubt that they will discontinue the Ascender or the 10.2 in the near future. I see no point in continuing to produce the SCX10 Deadbolt though. It has been surpassed by all the competition.
At any rate, I highly doubt that they will discontinue the Ascender or the 10.2 in the near future. I see no point in continuing to produce the SCX10 Deadbolt though. It has been surpassed by all the competition.
You have a point. Maybe it was only the Ascender that came out before the SCX0 II. But we know it raised the bar considerably and I think it forced Axial's hand to make a 2.0. If not for the Ascender the Axial guys might still be rocking the OG SCX10.
calcagno45
RCC Addict
Boom, just like that, an objection was filed by the Unsecured Creditors Committee alleging that Rusty Freeland is a member of Armory Capital (retained by and is an indirect owner of Horizon) is also a member Meyer Capel which is a law firm for Hobbico. Freeland is on the board at Horizon and Armory Capital is paid by Horizon. So he's on the Horizon payroll and also a member of the law firm for Hobbico.... The committee is questioning the status as a good faith purchase alleging that Horizon lacks good faith under Bankruptcy law.
Basically, in layman's terms, the Unsecured Creditors Committee, known as the UCC or Committee, is formed by polling the top unsecured creditors (like Futaba, VP, STRC) for participants and then the court approves a committee. The UCC looks after the bankruptcy proceeding and tries to maximize the return for unsecured creditors which are usually forgotten behind the secured parties like banks, bondholders and mortgagees. So in this case, the UCC is likely trying to blow up the sale or force Horizon into paying more in order for more money to be distributed our pro rata. This objection will get negoitated between Horizon, Hobbico, and the UCC until an agreement is made or it's taken to court for the judge to make a decision.
Basically, in layman's terms, the Unsecured Creditors Committee, known as the UCC or Committee, is formed by polling the top unsecured creditors (like Futaba, VP, STRC) for participants and then the court approves a committee. The UCC looks after the bankruptcy proceeding and tries to maximize the return for unsecured creditors which are usually forgotten behind the secured parties like banks, bondholders and mortgagees. So in this case, the UCC is likely trying to blow up the sale or force Horizon into paying more in order for more money to be distributed our pro rata. This objection will get negoitated between Horizon, Hobbico, and the UCC until an agreement is made or it's taken to court for the judge to make a decision.
The Ascender came out a long time before the 10.2 and no doubt forced Axial to up their game. Kinda like ARRMA made Traxxas up their game with the Revo 2.0. :lmao:
The Ascender is a better truck than the SCX10. It just has a few flaws that it put it behind the 10.2 in the performance category IMO.