Some Guitarists Tried To Buy Out Gibson Guitars And It Didn't Go Very Well

A crowdfunding campaign to buy the company has failed spectacularly   17-Mar-15

An IndieGogo campaign to buy out Gibson Guitars has failed after it was ended prematurely by the campaign manager.

The campaign, titled "Gibson Guitar Company Acquisition", was seeking to raise a whopping $22million.

After two weeks, it had raised just $200, after being backed by only six funders.

The man behind the campaign, known only as "John L", has now withdrawn it from IndieGogo and has returned the $200 to the respective funders.

It was painfully clear to anyone monitoring the attempted acquisition's progress that the campaign was on course to fall miserably short of its intended $22million, but John claims that he has called it a day on his plans because of 'negativity' about it on guitar forums online, and not because of the small sum raised.

"With so much negativity and cynicism surrounding the campaign efforts, it has absolutely no chance of succeeding, and therefore to let it continue to run, would simply be a waste of time and would inspire nothing but false hope among its contributors."

The campaign had also been reported to IndieGogo as being a scam, though John maintains that it was not a scam, and that all funders were able to get a refund at any time during the campaign, and have been refunded now that the campaign has failed.

John was unhappy with the direction Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz has taken the company in, and wanted to get Gibson back to its traditional core, and away from its current move towards being a lifestyle brand and a 'family' of sub-brands such as KRK and TASCAM.