Meade in Trouble

[issdaol (Phil)]

Hi All,

Just found this on another site.

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea.../o/all/fpart/1

Would be sad to see them disappear, but potential buyers here should be aware.

[MikeyB (Michael)]

Your link doesn't work. Phil.

[asimov (John)]

The link worked fine 35 mins ago, but not now..Edit: Yes I meant it has been deleted by CN mods.

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

The link to Cloudy Nights is fine...me thinks the thread in question has been deleted by CN moderators.

[Dixie]

Yep I think the thread has been pulled on CN - not entirely fairly on those people thinking of laying down cash on Meade gear.

[issdaol (Phil)]

Yep. It looks like the link has been deleted or made non-accessible by CN Moderators and without any notification/reason.

Essentially the article included details (which is public SEC information in the US) of Meade's latest financial announcement.

Main point was that Meade made significant losses over the past 12 months and are down to approximately $300k operating revenue.

Meade are basically saying this is not a viable operating position and they are investigating options to close down or reduce overall operations or find alternate funding arrangements.

[Astroman (Andrew Wall)]

Read about it here... http://www.meade.com/nasdaq/sec/Form...3_FYE_2013.pdf

[MortonH]

Wonder who else might be heading in the same direction?

[erick (Eric)]

Looks genuine. Here is the essence:

"The Company has incurred significant recurring losses and negative cash flows from operations which have resulted in reduced liquidity and a weakened financial position as of November 30, 2012. The Company also has endured working capital problems caused by product development delays during the past twelve months. In addition, in January 2013, the Company’s largest customer, and one additional customer, notified the Company that they had unilaterally, and without prior notice, decided to indefinitely hold payment of approximately $0.6 million in accounts receivable, which will further reduce the Company’s already limited liquidity. Due to these issues, the Company’s management now believes substantial doubt exists about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern and that it must modify the Company’s business model and operations to reduce spending to a sustainable level. Such actions could cause the Company to be unable to execute its business plan, take advantage of future opportunities, respond to competitive pressures or customer requirements. It may also cause the Company to delay, scale back or eliminate some or all of its research and development programs, seek opportunities in a strategic relationship or business combination, or to reduce or cease operations."

Looks very challenging for the company.

[MikeyB (Michael)]

Approximately $1.1 million or 65% of the net increase in inventories of approximately $1.7 million during the nine months ended November 30, 2012 was due to an increase in inventories relating to the Company’s new LX800 and LX600 products which have taken longer to develop than expected and are not yet ready to be shipped.

The Company reported net sales of $13.8 million for the nine months ended November 30, 2012, a decrease of $3.8 million or 22% from net sales of $17.6 million in the same period in the prior year. Approximately $2.9 million or 77% of this decrease was attributable to reduced net sales of low-end telescopes, spotting scopes and microscopes to mass retail customers due to increased competition from the Company’s Chinese-owned competitors and reduced demand for these products by consumers. Approximately $0.4 million or 10% of the decrease in net sales was attributable to a reduction in net sales of high-end telescopes due to delays in shipments of the Company’s new LX800 and LX600 products, which are still under development, and the impact that delay has had on net sales of other high-end telescope products, offset partially by increased demand for solar telescopes. Approximately $0.5 million or 13% of the decrease in net sales was due to a reduction in sales of other products due to decreased demand for those products.

The situation is like deja vu but this time around it's even worse than Meade's last near-death experience back in about 2007. They still had some room to move then (primarily by transferring all manufacturing to their Mexican factory), but now cheap Chinese imports have taken much of the low end of the market, the high end is shrinking and their new product lines have been delayed, leaving the Coronado solar scopes as the only positive area. Unfortunately, Meade's financial resources are now so depleted that without an injection of capital the present situation may prove terminal.

[Dixie]

Looks like the only option is for a take over as happened with Celestron. Not sure who might be in the game for that - presumably the US authorities would not allow Synta to add another US scope maker to its portfolio.

[h0ughy (David)]

wow, if they do go bust it is going to mean that your scope will be a collectors item with little access to spare parts. i think i will hold onto my 14" ota i have. For me i was really waiting to see what their lx850 mount was going to be like. now i think that will only ever be a pipe dream. probably go for the chinese g8 instead

[Dixie]

Got more confidence in the EQ8 being right than the LX850, if it ever comes out. Like you I have a 14" OTA waiting for a mount.....nothing more fustrating than good optics on an unreliable mount.....

Originally Posted by h0ughy

wow, if they do go bust it is going to mean that your scope will be a collectors item with little access to spare parts. i think i will hold onto my 14" ota i have. For me i was really waiting to see what their lx850 mount was going to be like. now i think that will only ever be a pipe dream. probably go for the chinese g8 instead

[issdaol (Phil)]

I would hazard a guess that the Delays and Troubles with the LX800/LX850 were the final straw.

I big investment in R&D and getting the original LX800's to market needs to show a quick return instead it turned to custard.

[MrB (Simon)]

In addition, in January 2013, the Company’s largest customer, and one additional customer, notified the Company that they had unilaterally, and without prior notice, decided to indefinitely hold payment of approximately $0.6 million in accounts receivable, which will further reduce the Company’s already limited liquidity.

That really stinks.

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

I was on the phone with Bintel the other day ordering ' bit's ' and queried as to what happened to the Meade LX 80 Alt/Az Mount from their Web Site....and the other Meade Mounts also

Response ....they've been pulled off the Web Site ...what Mounts they have ...have been sent back ...a couple they had sold had issues only a short time after being sold ...hence they came back and had to be ' sorted out '

Sooooo ... they did not want to be stuck with having to ' try and fix ' problems with brand new mounts.

After searching the Web ...Bintel is certainly not alone on this ..!!

Flash ..!!

[Peter Ward]

Meade have gone broke before.

As to whether they go chapter 11 will be interesting.

BTW Chapter 11 is a farce IMHO, it effectively allows their (USA) Companies to trade while insolvent....free trade? Hardly !

[grantch (Grant)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

Meade have gone broke before.

As to whether they go chapter 11 will be interesting.

BTW Chapter 11 is a farce IMHO, it effectively allows their (USA) Companies to trade while insolvent....free trade? Hardly !

Hi Peter, you can look at this two ways. In Australia if you go bankrupt, essentially it is over. All your hard work building the business, and the livelihoods of your employees come to an end.

The American system is somewhat more tolerant of failure. Bankruptcy allows you to try and negotiate a way out with your creditors to save the business as a going concern. If the US system was like Australia, many major US businesses would not be here today (GM, Airlines etc).

There are a lot strong views either way.

[AndrewJ]

The American system is somewhat more tolerant of failure. Bankruptcy allows you to try and negotiate a way out with your creditors to save the business as a going concern.

I guess the counter to that is if there are really no consequences for their actions, they do what they like and who cares who gets hurt.
Ie the recent banking and housing fiascos.
Not too many of the "entrepreneurs" are suffering.
That said, it does look like Meades problems stem from a different route of trying to release untested new stuff before even fixing/sorting out what they had, ( that gives them their bread and butter ).
Doesnt give one a warm feeling at present.

Andrew