| Author | Message | ||
     Hughlysses |
Another commentary on the closure, including quotes from a previous less-than-factual article: http://lanesplitter.jalopnik.com/one-man-s-imperfe ct-quest-to-build-sportbikes-in-americ-1704285665 | ||
| Hughlysses |
And Erik himself just posted a comment about the article on Facebook:
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| Cyclonedon |
With EBR receivership all tied up in the court's hands right now, I doubt if anyone can say much because the lawyers have advised all parties to keep quiet. After everything has been settled in court, we'll all have a better idea what really took placed and caused this all to happen like it did! | ||
| Hughlysses |
Hero's Q4 financial report has been posted: http://www.heromotocorp.com/en-in/uploads/Annual_R eports/quarterly_pdf/20150513105300-quarterly-pdf- 386.pdf Perhaps some of you business guru's might find something of interest in it. EBR's closure is mentioned in footnote 9. | ||
| Wymaen |
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-insta nt&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=convert+Rs+1550400000+t o+dollars Is hero saying their investment in EBR has only been worth $562,000.00? | ||
| Snacktoast |
Wymaen, 1,550,400,000 rupees, with today's exchange rate converts to $24,437,900 as your link shows. Not sure where you $562k came from? | ||
| Dave |
Is EBR in Europe, Australia, etc still operational? DAve | ||
| Hughlysses |
EBR Australia's website is still up, whatever that means: http://www.erikbuellracing.com.au | ||
| Stevel |
Dave, No, it's also over. | ||
| Hybridmomentspass |
Id say if the factory in WI closes it means the rest of the satellite locations fall too | ||
| Wymaen |
@snacktoast: $25,000,000.00 -$24,437,900.00 $562,100.00 | ||
| Hughlysses |
Hmmm, apparently Hero isn't quite as ready to take on all design work in-house as they stated immediately after the EBR closure announcement: http://indianautosblog.com/2015/05/hero-hx250r-lau nch-delayed-180001 | ||
| Glitch |
The article makes it sound like EBR shut the doors without Hero's knowledge, or is my reading comprehension off. (it very well be, reading isn't my strong point these days) It seems Hero has bit the helping hand. I just don't understand. Hero don't pay their bills, and EBR is the bad guy for going out of business and not helping finish their bike??? If all this makes no sense just ignore it, I'm still (re)learning | ||
| Lake_bueller |
^^^ Something definitely isn't adding up. Hero doesn't pay and forces EBR to shut'er down. Then Hero can't finish their much anticipated bike that was designed by EBR. The whole thing just keeps getting weirder every day. | ||
| Hughlysses |
It sure looks like Hero didn't anticipate this turn of events. Barely 2 weeks before the closure announcement the head of Hero said they were ready to buy all of EBR as soon as Erik would sell. What if Hero deliberately held back on their payment for work trying to force Erik into selling and he chose to put the company in receivership instead? | ||
| Gobadgers |
Thinking out loud: Suspect that some or a lot of the engineering work still in the patent process and owned by EBR and Erik Buell et al. Other work might have been assigned to Hero, but if never paid for could be in limbo. Therefore Hero has bikes that they want to bring to market but have components that have patent claims. Search "United States Patent D670,631", "ornamental design for a wheel" It sure looks a lot like the design of the wheel on the Hero HX250R A link to this patent and that further provides an images link: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PT O2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-b ool.html&r=13&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=erik&s2=B uell&OS=erik+AND+Buell&RS=erik+AND+Buell Another example of work: i.e. Search "United States Patent 8,950,539" titled "Lightweight integrated rear suspension and drive enclosure for a ridden motorized vehicle" | ||
| Hughlysses |
Thomas- I'm pretty sure both those patents are associated with the Hero "Leap" scooter. There may well be other EBR patents that we haven't seen. There's a thread on EBR PATENTS here: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/713 493/762384.html?1431301472 | ||
| Court |
Hero fu&&ed up | ||
| Ourdee |
I would agree with Court. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I wonder- if Hero were to cough up the $20M they allegedly owe EBR, what would happen? Would EBR's creditors be paid off and the receivership end? | ||
| Court |
No. You can not violate Erik Buell's trust and "buy" a 2nd chance. Character is non-negotiable. Hero fell, Erik stood by his values. Court | ||
| Hughlysses |
 | ||
| Stevel |
Hero fell, Erik stood by his values. Yes and Erik is broke. The patents are owned by EBR, which is also half owned by Hero. | ||
| Hughlysses |
The patents are owned by EBR, which is also half owned by Hero. Most of the patents we've found (see other thread) are actually assigned to Hero. Erik and several other former/current EBR employees hold a patent for hybrid motorcycles independently of EBR, so Hero doesn't own any of that. | ||
| Ourdee |
If the patents were owned by EBR, and Hero had a 49% stake, and EBR is in receivership under Wisconsin law, Wouldn't the patents belong to the receiver of EBR? When I was in the service, "hero" was a derogatory term. Not much seams to have changed. | ||
| Hughlysses |
If the patents were owned by EBR, and Hero had a 49% stake, and EBR is in receivership under Wisconsin law, Wouldn't the patents belong to the receiver of EBR? That would seem to be true, but we haven't found any patents listing EBR as the "assignee". See the other thread for details. | ||
| Davegess |
Court has this right, and much about this whole deal is really messed up and makes little sense. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I guess in my original question, I was wondering what would happen if a Hero rep turned up at the receiver's office, and said "Oh, we just realized we never mailed this $20M check to EBR. We're so sorry." Would Erik even have any say in what happened? At any rate, it doesn't sound like Hero has any idea of doing that. A little more info on the HX250R delay: http://www.autocarpro.in/news-national/ebr-bankrup tcy-delays-hero-motocorp-hx250r-launch-8502
I wonder how much luck Hero will have in finding external help. I would imagine anyone qualified to help would know of their treatment of EBR and demand full payment up front. As Court intimated, Hero really shot themselves in the foot with their treatment of EBR. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I generally find working with Indian companies that unless you are negotiating from a position of power, they will work to screw you every chance they get. We were bidding a job for an on-site technical resource. Based on the description of duties, the offshore supplier bid at top rate of $77.60/hour. Contractual rate based on job description was $65.70/hour. The person they submitted was barely qualified at the $65.70/hour rate. Give us chopped liver and charge us for caviar. And this was with hard coded hourly rates spelled out very plainly in the contract. Indian firms will not abide by contracts. You have to watch them like a hawk and hold payment until you are completely satisfied. South American countries, by contrast, will simply lie to your face. They'll tell you that your shipment was destroyed when the factory burned to the ground while you sitting outside of the building. We were expecting a shipment of clothing. The manufacturer in Peru was wishy washy on the ship date. They finally were pinned down on a date and wouldn't you know it, the truck with all of our clothes just happened to be stolen on the date they were shipping. Strangely, they couldn't provide the number of boxes, the items in each box, etc. It was like they never even shipped.  When I deal with India I use one hand to cover my balls while I use the other to squeeze theirs. | ||
| Xb984r |
Sorry but if bike sales can't keep you open then maybe you don't belong open. |
