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Cakewalk is down, Tascam can follow soon
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Gibson Brands announced today that it is ceasing active development and production of Cakewalk branded products. The decision was made to better align with the company’s acquisition strategy that is heavily focused on growth in the global consumer electronics audio business under the Philips brand.

    Cakewalk has been an industry leader in music software for over 25 years by fusing cutting-edge technology with creative approaches to tools that create, edit, mix, and publish music for professional and amateur musicians. Gibson Brands acquired Cakewalk in 2013.

    Gibson Brands, a growing company in the music and sound industries, was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. Gibson Brands is a global leader in musical instruments, consumer electronics, and professional audio, and is dedicated to bringing the finest experiences to consumers by offering exceptional products with world- recognized brands.

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  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    After 30 years of Cakewalk's long and illustrious history, I am saddened to announce that we ceased new product development and reduced overall operations this past Friday. You can read the formal announcement from Gibson here, which states that this decision was made in order to align with the company’s acquisition strategy, focused on growth in the global consumer electronics audio business.

    Working at Cakewalk has been an incredibly positive experience for all of us who worked here. This can largely be attributed to the incredible people who worked here, past and present. I've been at Cakewalk 19 years and I've never come across a more dedicated and talented group of people. Our greatest motivation was the joy in producing software for an astonishingly passionate base of artists, musicians and producers who used our software to create music on a daily basis.

    So what does this mean for you, our loyal customers who've been with us all these years? Cakewalk's servers will continue to operate, you will still have access to all of your online assets, and your software will continue to work normally. A dedicated team has been established during this transition period to continue to serve the Cakewalk community. Monthly updates to SONAR from Cakewalk will however cease during this time. We will continue to post notifications to keep you informed with any relevant developments. A sincere thank you to everyone in the Cakewalk community.

    Sincerely, Noel Borthwick, CTO, Cakewalk

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Reasons behind decision

    Around $520 million in debt coming due in 2018 (and it is in junk status already) :-) Company has 10 times debt/EBITDA ratio.

    In recent month they started active sell out of property (and also part of Onkyo shares), but it is not clear if it'll manage to survive next 1-2 years.

    From https://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/18349/mergers-gibson-brands-or-branding-2#Item_1

  • IronFilmIronFilm

    Cakewalk is down, Tascam can follow soon

    I hope not! I really want to see Tascam's response to the F4/F8.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @IronFilm

    Let's hope for it, Gibson Brands situation can unwind fast.

    They can split TEAC actually or sell.

  • halfmachalfmac

    TASCAM is very important to the media community and I think some company will realize this. It would be a shame if they were shut down as well.

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