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  1. #1

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    Guitar Center Expects to File for Bankruptcy After Debt Plan ...

    www.bloomberg.com › news › articles › guitar-center-i...


    Play live . . . Marinero




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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    I wish them luck.

  4. #3

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    Guitar Center has been using one credit card to pay off the others since at least 2013, when Eric Garland began writing about their financial shell game.

    The article about Bain Capital (yep, Mitt Romney's firm) is a good intro to the financial shenanigans* and he's written many additional articles if this one piques your interest.

    * I use that word subjectively. Everything they did is legal. It's just not the kind of thing you and I can do. To paraphrase Garland, when you can't pay back a million or two, it's your problem; when you can't pay back a few hundred million, it's the bank's problem.

  5. #4

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    Being a regular customer, I got a heads up email from them telling me not to worry and to keep on buying stuff from them. I suppose many others here got one too. I've grown to like them for their return policies and convenience. I wouldn't invest in them but plan to continue being a customer.

  6. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by starjasmine
    Guitar Center has been using one credit card to pay off the others since at least 2013, when Eric Garland began writing about their financial shell game.

    The article about Bain Capital (yep, Mitt Romney's firm) is a good intro to the financial shenanigans* and he's written many additional articles if this one piques your interest.

    * I use that word subjectively. Everything they did is legal. It's just not the kind of thing you and I can do. To paraphrase Garland, when you can't pay back a million or two, it's your problem; when you can't pay back a few hundred million, it's the bank's problem.

    Romney was not involved day-to-day ops starting in 1999, and formally left in 2002. GC was purchased in 2007.

  7. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by starjasmine

    The article about Bain Capital (yep, Mitt Romney's firm) is a good intro to the financial shenanigans* and he's written many additional articles if this one piques your interest.
    Romney was the sole shareholder in Bain and following his departure continued to reap financial benefits of their, what some call, predatory practices almost up to the time he got whipped by Obama in 2012. I read an article somewhere... ah, here it is.

  8. #7

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    I'm no fan of Pierre Delecto, but so? We've been through this all before.

    At the end of the day, the "buy low, sell high" gambit with GC turns out to have been a bust. A bad purchase, agreed? (Young people aren't interested in playing real musical instruments at the the levels they were in the past, and retail is dead).

  9. #8

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    (Did you read the article?) Mitt was the sole partner in a division called Bain Capital. He was given the opportunity to build that into a new business line in Bain and he did. And he got paid (a freakin lot!). This has nothing to do with politics. This is how the country really runs. Mitt did not invent the private equity ‘industry’ (band of thieves?) It was around long before him, but he brought it to the public’s attention. Most have no idea what private equity funding means other than Bain/Mitt made money. At that level the only politics are dollars.

    Bain is a drop in the ocean compared to KKR or Blackstone. I worked as a consultant on the other side of two deals involving KKR and that was in 84 and 89 well before the Mittster was a vulture capitalist.
    As you can tell I have zero respect for these people. I honestly can not describe how loathsome they can be.
    As in your article, when they put a “deal” together there is a partnership formed to fund that deal. This is all done under SEC and IRS rules. Don’t fret those rules are loose enough to have fun with. Totally legal that they do not need to publicize who and how it’s financed. So it’s no surprise that if Mitt had his money in any partnerships (deals) when he (Or any partner) leaves the partnership they have SEC rules to abide by. Part of that is, yes, what compensation is due that partner for what percentage of his/her funds went in to start the partnership. Any partnership works just the same; a partner in a large accounting firm (KPMG, Arthur Anderson, Deloitte) has to put their own financial skin in the game to be considered a partner. No surprise Mitt got both deal money and even more for building up Bain Capital.
    Problem is... there are all sorts of leverage games the big guys and gals get to play. At the top of that food chain they have ways of using other peoples money as their own to front their investment in a partnership/deal.
    So the scheme is, you put a deal together using funds that are leveraged from some other deal you’re part of. And then you make more money. Remember Bernie Madoff? He did that, but he only had so little funding that once those other people (That didn’t know he was using their money) wanted their money it all came down. Bernies still in jail.
    BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH GC? (Or dare I say Gibson)
    Well first thing is we customers will have no way to know what bond covenants define the funding (bankruptcy in GCs case). Second is please people note the dates, Mitty is not part of the Bain/GC equation. Lastly the decisions made will have nothing to do with music, but with returning the correct percentage of equity (money) the investors signed up for.
    As to Gibson. Our dear Gibson is now run by ex KKR people. I would bet my L5 that KKR has their hands on the shoulders of these folks and have provided funding to them. Therefore: partnerships. They can talk about authentic but the true authenticity is if gibson does not produce the equity return expected by investors it will either be sold or closed.
    So as you have read in the Bain article, that will not be a pretty picture. They will, as all VCs must do for investors squeeze every penny out of Gibson. If that’s best done moving production to Mexico, start learning Spanish. The VC does not care, it’s just the return on investment for the partnership.
    Thats what they do to us plebes, kids. Take our jobs and get money for it. Sinful. These cats are going to make us miss Henry like crazy.
    and no I am not betting my L5

  10. #9

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    So?

  11. #10

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    Bain did their thing on woodwind and brasswind. They are still around.

  12. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by jazzkritter
    (Did you read the article?) Mitt was the sole partner in a division called Bain Capital. He was given the opportunity to build that into a new business line in Bain and he did. And he got paid (a freakin lot!). This has nothing to do with politics. This is how the country really runs. Mitt did not invent the private equity ‘industry’ (band of thieves?) It was around long before him, but he brought it to the public’s attention. Most have no idea what private equity funding means other than Bain/Mitt made money. At that level the only politics are dollars.

    Bain is a drop in the ocean compared to KKR or Blackstone. I worked as a consultant on the other side of two deals involving KKR and that was in 84 and 89 well before the Mittster was a vulture capitalist.
    As you can tell I have zero respect for these people. I honestly can not describe how loathsome they can be.
    As in your article, when they put a “deal” together there is a partnership formed to fund that deal. This is all done under SEC and IRS rules. Don’t fret those rules are loose enough to have fun with. Totally legal that they do not need to publicize who and how it’s financed. So it’s no surprise that if Mitt had his money in any partnerships (deals) when he (Or any partner) leaves the partnership they have SEC rules to abide by. Part of that is, yes, what compensation is due that partner for what percentage of his/her funds went in to start the partnership. Any partnership works just the same; a partner in a large accounting firm (KPMG, Arthur Anderson, Deloitte) has to put their own financial skin in the game to be considered a partner. No surprise Mitt got both deal money and even more for building up Bain Capital.
    Problem is... there are all sorts of leverage games the big guys and gals get to play. At the top of that food chain they have ways of using other peoples money as their own to front their investment in a partnership/deal.
    So the scheme is, you put a deal together using funds that are leveraged from some other deal you’re part of. And then you make more money. Remember Bernie Madoff? He did that, but he only had so little funding that once those other people (That didn’t know he was using their money) wanted their money it all came down. Bernies still in jail.
    BUT WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH GC? (Or dare I say Gibson)
    Well first thing is we customers will have no way to know what bond covenants define the funding (bankruptcy in GCs case). Second is please people note the dates, Mitty is not part of the Bain/GC equation. Lastly the decisions made will have nothing to do with music, but with returning the correct percentage of equity (money) the investors signed up for.
    As to Gibson. Our dear Gibson is now run by ex KKR people. I would bet my L5 that KKR has their hands on the shoulders of these folks and have provided funding to them. Therefore: partnerships. They can talk about authentic but the true authenticity is if gibson does not produce the equity return expected by investors it will either be sold or closed.
    So as you have read in the Bain article, that will not be a pretty picture. They will, as all VCs must do for investors squeeze every penny out of Gibson. If that’s best done moving production to Mexico, start learning Spanish. The VC does not care, it’s just the return on investment for the partnership.
    Thats what they do to us plebes, kids. Take our jobs and get money for it. Sinful. These cats are going to make us miss Henry like crazy.
    and no I am not betting my L5
    I was rarely as relieved as I was when I divested from KKR (which was a legacy, nothing I sought). Besides the laughable ROI, their tax-time shenanigans were supremely vexing. I cut my losses; and Gibson is off my Karmic plate. And still well represented in my stable.

  13. #12

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    My oh my. GC the largest retailer of guitars has taken the plunge. Sad.

  14. #13

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    My daughter works for GC, and they say nothing will change, and they will continue to pay creditors. We shall see.

  15. #14

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    Duplicate of this thread:

    Guitar Center to File for Bankruptcy

  16. #15

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  17. #16

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    sgosnell,

    I hope that your daughter is correct. I'd hate to see Guitar Center gone.

    GT

  18. #17

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    ... while Fender says guitar and instrument sales are booming (and through GC as well)...

    Fender sales boom as guitar playing surges during the pandemic

  19. #18

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    Many of GC's stores are in malls. Mall traffic is way down with covid.

  20. #19

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    Interesting. I've never seen a GC in a mall, have always seen free standing stores.

    And retail dying? Yeah, they call it retailmageddon or something like that, and it didn't start with COVID.

    It's an internet thing. The most disruptive technology in history?

  21. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by sgosnell
    My daughter works for GC, and they say nothing will change, and they will continue to pay creditors. We shall see.
    They may continue to pay creditors but many of them are probably not going to get paid in full. That is very likely to cripple several of their suppliers both large and small.

  22. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
    They may continue to pay creditors but many of them are probably not going to get paid in full. That is very likely to cripple several of their suppliers both large and small.
    I worked in a GC repairs dept. You're absolutely right, we'd order essential supplies (bulk strings, parts, electronics supplies, etc) and they had to be back ordered ad nauseum. Suppliers just weren't sending things that used to be put on the regular accounts. And we were told by the managers that all parts were to be ordered through the office (when we used to be able to get parts simply by calling the vendors directly). That's when we knew the writing was on the wall. Nobody in management would say. Always "Everythings as good as it's ever been. This is our strongest quarter ever...). And suppliers somehow just didn't want to supply as they distanced themselves from sending stuff. Add to that their business policies of only buying from a fixed and finite pool of ultra big name vendors who rested on their laurels, and then were extremely reluctant to stand by inferior product manufactured to have a useful life of less than a year. You can see that to the public, everything was great and shiny, but behind the scenes the floorboards were rotting faster than anyone could ever repair them.
    The sales floor would sell tons of low end budget offerings with prestige names, and 3 months later they'd show up in the repair shop with collapsed tops, split sides, warped necks and worse. And getting Taylor, Martin and Gibson to be accountable? Heh, you could tell they'd already written off GC as a lost cause. Their "generous 30 day return policy" was great, but things that were returned were never returned to the floor to be profitable. We had stuff hanging on the walls in the repair shop in limbo between "marked for clearance" and "see if you can send this back to the factory" (no).
    Funny thing, the guys and gals working the sales floor really believed things were better than ever. They didn't see the fallout and because of the cut throat commissions system, they didn't WANT to know that the guitar they just sold wouldn't last a year in New England.
    Self perpetuating system of cash over quality. Could this be part of the reason they're in trouble to begin with?

  23. #22

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    I've never seen a GC in a mall. There are many GC stores in the Houston area, all in standalone stores. In strip malls, alongside other stores yes, but not in the big malls. Same in New Orleans. Perhaps it's different elsewhere.

    Jim, you're certainly correct, the purpose of bankruptcy is to shed debt. Logically that should be debt to investment firms, and suppliers should still be paid for product. Logic may not rule, however, and it would not be the first time a corporation has used bromides to calm the workforce. FWIW, my daughter is seeking other employment.