Found something interesting on the synthtopia post about this from vic about what went down with Open labs.
Victor Wong wrote:Everyone,
Let me dispel some things that have been floating around the net that is simply not true. To do so, I quote from my past posting:
I gave up the CEO title 5 years ago to concentrate on building the brand and the community around Open Labs. I was in charge of Artist Relations and Marketing. As you can see, Open Labs had a great brand and marketing brought in record number of potential customers.
Once I gave up the CEO title, I had no check writing privileges and did not have any final say in who to pay, who to hire, what projects to green light and how the business operated. Though I was still chairman of the board, and was the “face” of the company, I was told in the last 2 years to “sit in my office and let the new management work”.
The new management consisted of executives from DELL circa 1991 – 2001 and the CEO that replaced me. They were brought in by the investors who eventually foreclosed on the assets of the company after the money was all spent and the executives leaving, which means I did not drive Open Labs into bankruptcy.
I fact, I took pay cut after pay cut to help keep the company alive. In the end Open Labs owed me so much money that they were willing to sign a general release, which then allowed me to form the new company. Therefore, I did not “sell out the company and took the money and ran”.
Here is what really happened:
We had a board meeting on May 26 to determine the future of Open Labs. Three plans were presented and I, as Chairman, along with the board, voted to keep the company operational so that it can be put up for sale, seek additional investments, or wind it’s business down in a proper manner. To accomplish this, we had to cut our budget down to almost nothing. I, along with the bulk of the employees had to be laid off. Hank and several people were kept on to keep the business going. We made the official announcement at a company-wide meeting on Friday, May 28.
However, the debt structure that the company has now created was very large and accruing multiple five figure interest payments each month, which made it an extremely unattractive investment. This was a recent occurrence and started with the investment and the new management that installed into Open Labs by the investors.
The foreclosure was not discussed in the board meeting. It was initiated by one of our investor groups/creditor unilaterally after I was laid off and after my resignation as Chairman. I only heard about it second hand. There was nothing I, nor anyone else, could have done about this, once that investment group decided to go down that road. This is now the same group that has proclaimed themselves “the new owners”.
To be honest, I have kept quiet about this because words are cheap. I would rather let my actions speak and to create a company from scratch and produce the products we have in less than 6 months says a lot.
They are not expensive. The 61-key is priced about the same as any 61 key workstation from the “Big Three”. The 88 key is $300 to $500 less, but offer way more in performance and features.
They are also smaller than most of them. The 61 key is only 36” wide, which is 12” shorter than a normal 61 key workstation and is only 4” thick instead of 7”.
They also only weigh about 28lbs, which is 20lbs lighter than other production stations.
A lot of people wanted to see these products happen, and some that didn’t. You can usually tell who they are by their posts. Nevertheless they are here and I think they speak for themselves.
So, here are the facts, I have documents to back them up, and I am glad that I am finally at a place where I can set the record straight.
