Any Rumors?

[Hughlysses]

This article was posted yesterday: http://www.jsonline.com/story/money/...ted/363517001/

Unable to secure other investors or a buyer, Melvin said the decision was made to liquidate.

“We had numerous investors and buyers who came very close to acquiring the company in the last four months, but it didn’t go through,” he said.

I guess that explains the delay in the auction. It's hard to believe they had buyers that "came very close to acquiring the company" but LAP chose to liquidate instead.

[d_adams]

No, don't take just a little bit less money and let the manufacturer survive, put that nail in the dang coffin and be done with it. I'm thinking that's their motto anyway.

[han]

I'm afraid this is very likely. I think Asian investors will recognize the value of the brand more than US investors do and I wouldn't be surprised to see Hero, Geely or similar selling EBR's in a few years.

And what stinks is they can buy the name and everything. It wouldn't be quite as painful if they just used the technology without the name, but it's going to be a kick in the gut to see a crappy Chinese bike being sold as an EBR.

I'm hoping nobody is interested in the IP and Erik can buy it and protect it. I wouldn't mind if Indian or Harley bought it and put their name on it and rolled it into their product line, and even if somebody like Yamaha (who I respect) did something with it, that wouldn't be too bad, but my nightmare is that it gets bought by a company that doesn't know or understand the brand and just sees dollar signs attached to the US name and heritage.

HARLEY working with Buell again?!? https://youtu.be/31g0YE61PLQ

[1190SX]

I wouldn't call them enthusiasts. Sharks maybe, vultures for sure. Personally, I think it *could* have been a viable enterprise on a small scale with what they had on hand, provided that they re-invested some of the motorcycle sales back into the business rather than just pocket it and turn away. They stated that it's a soft market, I say BS. They may not be selling like hotcakes, but they're selling. Now that they've used up all the available bodywork, things are going to get ugly unless someone steps up and makes small runs of it for a decent price. Even if they'd only offered one color of bodywork, it would have been better than nothing at all.

Yes, I was an early adopter (March 2014) and paid a price for mine. I'm on my 4th one now, just hoping this one will last a while for me.

It's just my opinion, but I think they planned it out like this from the beginning, regardless of what story they told the court & receivership steward. Sure sounded good with their "5 year plan". Just wish Bruce would have won like it was originally announced but then the winning bid was pulled out from under him to the detriment of us all.

I think we all were hoping for a better outcome.

[Scott]

So does anybody have any idea what happened yesterday? I checked in on the auction and nothing seemed to be happening on the IP. Was it all just done in private and offline, or did nothing actually happen?

At this point, I would be happy if nobody bid. That would mean LAP would retain ownership and Erik could probably work out a deal with them to regain ownership. It would be great to see the right person swoop in and get them back up and running, but that's unlikely and I'd rather have LAP retain ownership and keep it close to Erik than have a Chinese company snap it up.

[Hughlysses]

So does anybody have any idea what happened yesterday? I checked in on the auction and nothing seemed to be happening on the IP. Was it all just done in private and offline, or did nothing actually happen?

At this point, I would be happy if nobody bid. That would mean LAP would retain ownership and Erik could probably work out a deal with them to regain ownership. It would be great to see the right person swoop in and get them back up and running, but that's unlikely and I'd rather have LAP retain ownership and keep it close to Erik than have a Chinese company snap it up.

Nobody that was there has said. I think the first portion of the auction ran so long (it wrapped up around 6PM IIRC) that they just postponed the second auction until today. The site still says "The live auction will begin soon. Continue bidding in the catalog until the live auction begins." Some of the lots in the second portion of the auction include most or all of the items in the first auction, so they had to complete the first auction before the 2nd auction could begin.

i suppose it's possible that nobody was willing to cough up the $100k deposit required to even bid. I guess we have to wait and see.

[EBRRider]

Nobody that was there has said. I think the first portion of the auction ran so long (it wrapped up around 6PM IIRC) that they just postponed the second auction until today. The site still says "The live auction will begin soon. Continue bidding in the catalog until the live auction begins." Some of the lots in the second portion of the auction include most or all of the items in the first auction, so they had to complete the first auction before the 2nd auction could begin.

i suppose it's possible that nobody was willing to cough up the $100k deposit required to even bid. I guess we have to wait and see.

$100k deposit required to even bid. I guess that keeps us normal guys out of the game.

[Hughlysses]

$100k deposit required to even bid. I guess that keeps us normal guys out of the game.

No kidding. Plus you have to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) so you can't tell anyone about the cool stuff EBR was working on.

1:40 CDT and the auction STILL hasn't started.

[Hughlysses]

I sent a message to LAP on Facebook and asked what was going on with the second auction (IP and tooling). They responded: "There were no bidders able to be prepared in time. Discussions still open."

Interesting. You had to have the $100k in LAP's hands at least 24 hours before the auction, which could have been an issue.

[Scott]

I sent a message to LAP on Facebook and asked what was going on with the second auction (IP and tooling). They responded: "There were no bidders able to be prepared in time. Discussions still open."

Interesting. You had to have the $100k in LAP's hands at least 24 hours before the auction, which could have been an issue.

Well, that's an answer (and not the worst of possibilities IMO). Hopefully Erik can scrape together enough cash to buy it off LAP in the absence of any other offers. And while Buell fans can't crowd-fund the tens of millions required to actually keep things running, maybe we could at least help Erik get his rights back so he can own the key pieces.

Maybe someone (Hughlysses?) could ask LAP what it would cost to get that done.