Gibson stops stringing creditors along, strikes a chord by filing for bankruptcy

By Sam Barsanti | May 1, 2018 | 6:43pm

Aux Features Music

As predicted back in February, iconic guitar company Gibson has been forced to file bankruptcy in an attempt to pull itself out of a financial tailspin caused by a series of organizational issues behind the scenes—in other words, the company still makes a ton of money, but its built in such a poor way that it’s having immense trouble paying back its debts. As reported by Bloomberg, Gibson owes “as much as $500 million,” and the bankruptcy filing comes with a “change of control” deal that gives the lenders some ownership over the new company. It will also allow Gibson to dump its Gibson Innovations branch, a money-bleeding “music lifestyle company” that nobody seemed to care about except for CEO Henry Juszkiewicz.

Speaking of Juszkiewicz, his position as a stockholder in Gibson is being taken over by the lenders, but he will be kept around for another year “to facilitate a smooth transition.” Apparently, a group of creditors had refused to continue working with Gibson while Juszkiewicz was in charge, so dumping him should theoretically go a long way toward getting the company back on track.