Vortex of Sound heeft nieuwe info los weten te peuteren over de vorderingen bij de verkoop van het failliete Aureal. Het hoogste bod blijkt inmiddels bij Creative Labs te liggen en 3dfx heeft door wat bureaucratisch gezeik geen bod uit mogen brengen. Vortex of Sound weet tevens te melden dat er ondanks het faillisement binnenkort waarschijnlijk toch een nieuw WDM driver update voor de Vortex kaarten wordt uitgebracht:
When it rains, it pours. We're privy to more updates on Aureal, but please note that these came from an outside source familiar with the situation; while the source is trusted, we have not been able to verify the accuracy of these with anyone else at this time.
- 3dfx was not allowed to bid for the company after all due a procedural problem, possibly because they did not submit a qualifying bid in time.
- Guillemot and Creative got into a bidding war with the bids going from $8 million to $12 million from Guillemot, and from $11 million to $16 million, all the way up to $21 million from Creative.
- Since the Guillemot bid was not high enough, their deal does not provide any revenue for any of the unsecured creditors, so the creditor committee would not accept their bid.
- The Creative bid provides some money for the unsecured creditors but would require Aureal to withdraw its lawsuit against Creative. Oaktree, the secured creditor (and main investor), is against selling the lawsuit, so this offer was unacceptable to them. Since the pending litigation "asset" is not up for sale, the bankruptcy court cannot compel the company to sell to Creative.
- Guillemot placed a 5 day deadline on their latest offer and went away to see if they could improve the offer to bring it more in line with Creatives. They might return to court before the end of the month to adjust their offer.
- Creative, acting as the white knight, has placed a 30 day deadline on their highest offer, and has also said that they would match the Guillemot offer (same price for the same limited assets) if a deal with Guillemot could not be consummated within the Guillemot 5 day limit.
Het faillisement van het financieel minder draagkrachtige Aureal was overigens grotendeels het gevolg van de rechtszaken die zij door door Creative aan het broekje gelapt kregen. Nu heeft Creative Aureal op de knieën gekregen en staat men op het punt om de toko over te nemen. Een overname door Guillemot of een andere partij dan Creative zou de concurrentie in deze door Creative gedomineerde markt in ieder geval wel goed doen.
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