Fanatec & Endor: Over 30 International Investors Interested

Maybe Zuckerberg will buy them and you'll have to be online and logged into a Facebook account to use your wheel and pedals.

Oubaas said:

Maybe Zuckerberg will buy them and you'll have to be online and logged into a Facebook account to use your wheel and pedals.

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Thanks for that horror image.... Selling my Fanatec gear in 3...2...1...

I believe Motorsport Games will purchase Endor/Fanatec, then throw them away just because they can.

Considering that the company has strong globally leading / competitive products and user-base, and that those products are still in high demand and have Playstation exclusivity (DD bases) as a USP, and that the supply issues already seem largely resolved, I'd say that's as promising a foundation any investor could hope for. So if they can get their restructuring and finances in order then Fanatec should be fine. That's obviously a huge task still and they're by no means "out of the woods" by any stretch, but there's lots of lights at the end of the tunnel so I wish them luck.

This is great news. The Corsair”deal” always looked like a stitch-up to me & I can only hope that the people involved really get stung by it! Let’s hope someone who cares about sim racing & Fanatec wins out & puts Fanatec back where it should be, at the top of the tree. It would be even better, in my opinion, if the original owner had a part to play.

Sounds fishy to me. You rarely get that many interested investors, but everything around Fanatec is quite strange & fishy.
I still hope the engineering team grows up some balls & start a new company from a clean sheet of paper.

Its officially confirmed now!

I will buy it!

marlinboy said:

This is great news. The Corsair”deal” always looked like a stitch-up to me & I can only hope that the people involved really get stung by it! Let’s hope someone who cares about sim racing & Fanatec wins out & puts Fanatec back where it should be, at the top of the tree. It would be even better, in my opinion, if the original owner had a part to play.

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The reason they are in the position they are now is mainly due to the original owner, why on earth would you want him a part of it?

No investor will get involved because of expressions of sympathy and a love of computer games.
Keep dreaming about fluffy little pink lambs.
Money, technology, especially patents, real estate, production machines are what counts.
From my own experience, I can imagine how this will work.
First of all, the whole business will be streamlined.
Employees will be "asked" to leave with severance pay so that temporary workers can take on this task more cheaply, and it will also be outsourced. Quality will drop.
Perhaps not immediately if there are still subsidies to be had from the state.
If the investor has made enough profit, it will be sold to a new investor.
And again, it will be streamlined, outsourced, and laid off. Quality will continue to drop.
If the investor has made enough money, it will be sold on to investor number three.
He will then close the whole business and outsource it. Probably somewhere to Southeast Asia, as in my case. There, employees will have to do this work under poor working conditions and at a wage that will never allow them to buy these products. The quality will then have reached somewhere between the earth's crust and core and the products will be more expensive than before in order to maximize profits, with significantly lower production costs than at present.
I experienced this myself. Therefore, my sympathy for the affected employees is very limited.
When this happened again at another company I was employed by, I luckily left in time.
It doesn't have to be like this, but I would be surprised if it didn't happen.
That's just my experience with these locusts in pinstripe suits who call themselves investors.
I don't own any Fanatec products myself, I prefer long-established companies, but they won't be the products that you owners of this hardware know.
Of course, if an investor is found, there will be shiny and expensive advertisements saying that everything will stay the same. That's completely understandable. I would do the same as a financier.
After all, I want to milk the cow, not scare it away.
In addition, the pie is getting smaller and smaller as more and more manufacturers are flooding the market and very few of us buy a new carbon-coated wheel base with 120 Nm every month, as well as a steering wheel made of pearl-studded Schlobotnick leather with LED interior lighting and pedals made of space aluminum including a load cell for 1000 kg brake pressure.
Other manufacturers will follow the path that Fanatec is currently taking.
Because the steering wheels, wheel bases and pedals that are no longer used have to go somewhere.
At some point, everyone will have this or that hardware, whether new or used, and the market will be saturated. If you also consider that top equipment for "driving" bits and bytes costs several thousand euros, then something is wrong. Everyone should spend their money as they please. That is their right.
But they should also be aware that they are part of the problem because in order to sell more products,
more and more has to be added on top. That costs more and more for licenses, prototype development, etc. But this shrinks the target group for these products to just a few thousand and will no longer cover the development costs at all. At best, it will only cover them. If that goes wrong and the company owner's ego is bigger than the Andromeda galaxy and he has only backed one horse, well, we'll see what happens then.
Logitech serves several genres with its hardware and does not sign any super-expensive licenses.
At least I don't know of any.
Thrustmaster also serves several genres and despite having several licenses ( there are more than just licensed car brands) has high-quality products in its portfolio.
Moza is just starting to serve several genres. It remains to be seen whether these will be accepted.
So, three manufacturers are named. So it is not hidden advertising.

Have a nice weekend everyone

As a Western European, I hope the buyer isn't Chinese but European. I'd especially like Fanatec to remain a German company, for our German friends. I'm afraid that one day we won't produce anything here anymore and I wonder what money we'll have left to buy Chinese products.

J.J.McClure said:

No investor will get involved because of expressions of sympathy and a love of computer games.
Keep dreaming about fluffy little pink lambs.
Money, technology, especially patents, real estate, production machines are what counts.
From my own experience, I can imagine how this will work.
(...)

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You're forgetting the part about the Nile turning into blood, the locust swarm, the three days of total darkness and the death of every Egyptian's firstborn son...

Investors are fickel things at the best of times, and when pitted against each other the best deal may not be arrived at.
Remember the TVR saga? Wheeler sold a Company that at around that time was Britian's biggest car manufacturer 2000 units in a year, then the Russian dude bought it spilit it int a billion pieces and spread them around for a bit, then along came Len, the saviour of the brand, gathered togethered most of the bits got loan and investment and just a year later showed the world the new Griffith... now a decade later it's still the only one that's been constructed (one actual car that is) but I believe there is talk of a new Electric range from full four seaters through mud slinging off roaders, if the right investment can be found... again!

So back to Fanatec, becoming the 'goto' wheel for the Gran Turismo brand at Playstation having seemingly taken over the spot previously held by Logitech... might Sony not be a good place to go knocking for money, and as some of the titles on the playstation are making their way to the PC might it not fit if (in as many see as an unlikely event) Gran Turismo were to get a PC release... because, when asked nobody at PD has ever said NEVER!

It's time to review your communication. The Fanatec brand now belongs to CORSAIR in Europe and the UK. You only need to consult the EUIPO websites to see this. Stop repeating the same nonsense and investigate...

You're falling for it with a ready-made statement for the press. It's an age-old strategy to give information to the press in the hope of putting pressure on the main buyer. CORSAIR owns the FANATEC brand and 49 products.

SlawekTX3 said:

It's time to review your communication. The Fanatec brand now belongs to CORSAIR in Europe and the UK. You only need to consult the EUIPO websites to see this. Stop repeating the same nonsense and investigate...

You're falling for it with a ready-made statement for the press. It's an age-old strategy to give information to the press in the hope of putting pressure on the main buyer. CORSAIR owns the FANATEC brand and 49 products.View attachment 777240

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That is absolutely correct, and we reported on that here.
We also asked Corsair about it, and the IP will go back to Endor if it is acquired by another investor, as we highlighted here.

Yannik Haustein said:

That is absolutely correct, and we reported on that here.
We also asked Corsair about it, and the IP will go back to Endor if it is acquired by another investor, as we highlighted here.

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Thanks for the answer. How can an acquired trademark be returned to its original owner in the event of another investor. It makes no sense at all. CORSAIR owns the rights to the brand, so if ENDOR is unable to conclude the sale with CORSAIR, it's going to be one hell of a problem for them. It's a disastrous management of the file. Who's going to buy a company that no longer owns the rights to its flagship products? You really shouldn't stop at ENDOR's communication, which is playing a dangerous game with vague communication. Legally, the FANATEC brand is in the hands of CORSAIR on European and British soil. If a new investor wants it, he'll have to negotiate with CORSAIR, which will undoubtedly ask a premium price for it.

Yannik Haustein said:

That is absolutely correct, and we reported on that here.
We also asked Corsair about it, and the IP will go back to Endor if it is acquired by another investor, as we highlighted here.

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And the obligations of the bridging loan are met.

Although it's unlikely, but if the sale of Endor falls through, and it falls to a dissolution of the company with a fire sale of assets to satisfy the creditors then Corsair will likely retain the ownership of the brand and trademarks, unless this is considered to fall foul of the "Claw Back" clauses as outlined in sections 129 to 147 of the German insolvency code.

For reference : German here. English translation here

Oubaas said:

Maybe Zuckerberg will buy them and you'll have to be online and logged into a Facebook account to use your wheel and pedals.

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If that happens, I will sell my gear for unbelievably cheap and start from zero.

Oubaas said:

Maybe Zuckerberg will buy them and you'll have to be online and logged into a Facebook account to use your wheel and pedals.

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100 Zuckbucks for an hours use.

F1Aussie said:

The reason they are in the position they are now is mainly due to the original owner, why on earth would you want him a part of it?

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Because whatever you think of Thomas Jackermaier, he did an incredible amount for sim racing. I never said he should run the company but his knowledge and experience would be a tremendous asset to the company.

Honestly, who gives a sh!t ? Cycling just lost one of the most innovative vendors in the power meter market, Stages. They were a great alternative to very costly systems from other vendors. Then other people thought they could make power meters. Flood the market. End of Stages.

I have Fanatec stuff. I bought the 2018 F1 steering wheel. Instead of getting it in 2018 before Christmas, it came in April of 2019. I bought the DD2 in 2018 and it wasn't delivered until 2019. I recently installed Pineapple grips on the steering wheel because the alcantara covering completely dissolved. Fanatec has had issues BEFORE the Black Friday horror.

Stop being loyal to companies on any level, be it consumer or employee. If you want loyalty, get a dog.

P.S.
Never support any company who touts "sustainability". Those companies are totally full of Sh!t.