ADAM Audio, the Berlin-based manufacturer of active studio monitors for the professional audio industry, is restructuring its business, having filed for bankruptcy around a week ago. ADAM was co-founded by Klaus Heinz and Roland Stenz in 1999; Stenz left the company in 2010 to form EVE Audio.

In a statement delivered on Tuesday, ADAM announced:

‘ADAM Audio… had to file for bankruptcy last week with Mr Heinz and the administrator aiming to restructure the company. “Too fast a growth with too many products created a capital demand we could not raise,” declared Klaus Heinz, founder and CEO of ADAM Audio.

ADAM is one of the leading manufacturers of active studio monitors and has had many test reports and reader quotes that have rated the products “extremely favourable”. ADAM is represented in more than 60 countries and works with its own subsidiaries in the USA, the UK and China.

There are currently ongoing negotiations with different investors to convert this positive market acceptance into further growth.

Berlin, Nov 18th 2014.’

Dr Philipp Hackländer, of White & Case Insolvenz GbR in Berlin, was appointed as administrator on Monday 17 November.

The German Insolvency Code (1999) is similar to a Chapter 11 filing in the US, and shifts the emphasis of the process away from liquidation towards reorganisation. The Code entitles employees of a company to be salaried for three months while the administrator strives to rescue the business.

Heinz further confirmed today: “In agreement with the administration, all subsidiaries continue their work.”

In a Facebook exchange posted on 11 November, ADAM Audio replied to a customer that “we have serious delivery problems, this also applies for spare parts”. ADAM hopes to resume deliveries of product in January.

www.adam-audio.com

 

I cannot believe this. A highly profitable company that has excellent sales and market perspective declares bankrupcy because they cannot raise the capital demand they needed. Ten years ago, companies like this would have been flooded by capital from investors.
It's a paradigm for what's wrong with today's financial system. Banks are no longer there to provide the economy with capital but are ends in themselves. Thank you Bill Clinton, your Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was two in the hat for the civilized society.
Fuck this.

 

looks like another cash flow casualty, don't you just love banks?

 

@ fraifikmushi damn bro you are 100% spot on that one. this forum is on some shit ! wow

 

Maybe they can start a kickstarter or gofundme campaign lol... but seriously I hate to see companies that make quality products go under, I'd bet it has to do with the bedroom producer scene going WAYYYY cheap on monitors... they probably lose out on alot of business to the Fostex and KRK's of the audio world; companies whose products are just cheap enough and just (barely) good enough to mix on... Hopefully they can pull themselves out of the fire

 

The reason for this is not bad sales.

 

In some sense, that's the unfortunate drawback of a kind of excessive 'Capitalism' !!!

As is the case in most of the industrialized Countries, when a (several) Bank(s) go 'bankruptcy', the 'Taxpayers' (most of the Citizens !) are the first to be called to rescue (if possible !) such 'Banking Entity' or another one... and you guess, when the opposite happens, this (these) same Bank(s) is (are) suddenly conspicuously absent parties !!!
Even worst, as it has been the case in some European Countries these last years, not only some 'Bank Entities' were close to bankruptcy, then saved by most of the 'Taxpayers' afterwards, but a few time later, most of these same 'Bank Entities' have reached new heights and records in their own assets !!! *yes*

 

Welcome to Capitalism, where everything start to become logical only, when you start thinking like a bussinessman

 

@ Kimikaze,

Here you won ! "Where everything start to become 'LOGICal"...

Ask (or look) for the 'APPLE' Business Plan about their main DAW... *yes*





What's New in 'LOGIC Pro'... well, more 'income' for us poor 'APPLE' eaters !

 

Is a real shame, quality product. Someone I hope will buy them out.

The banks obviously don't care but they themselves a business also with their hands ties by political bullshit also. They also can disappear more or less overnight more or less even with the huge 'bail out's' they often receive.

Is really messed up with far too politics involved but that's the way it is. You only need to examine some off the ridiculous fines that are being imposed upon the banks by somewhat 'unscrupulous' methods for trading in the 'Dark Pool' etc,etc. Even the courts can't really do jack about it either.

The worlds financial climate is very messed up & all over the place.

Is a real shame a very sad. Who next I guess

 

I will buy them out! any one know how much they need ? Damn that sucks

 

Nice idea studio5599 maybe we can all have like a whip round & start producing some high quality 'Audiosex monitors' *yes* Sounds cool!

Ultimately the fault lies with the company themselves.

We all know the bank's don't give a f**k but they not going to invest in what they can't make money off. Simple as that.

Adam have obviously overshot the fine line regarding capital & now will pay the price. Hey something good could eventually come of it though.

It's happened to millions B4 & will continue to happen to million's more in the future. Very fine line between Highly profitable one day & zero cash the next when so much capital already invested.

Same with your house, you work like a bastard, manage to afford a mortgage if you lucky enough, the government tax u like a bastard & invest it in the civil sector which in return generates zero revenue & messes up the economy so they tax u some more!

U then spend the rest of your life paying off the interest whilst making some other twat rich in the process. He then buys a huge boat, does loads of drugs & get's drunk & crashes it on purpose so he can claim the insurance & file for bankruptcy & start again.

Then the goverment take u're house off u when u die or claim 40 odd percent inheritance tax & bails out the once rich bloke who is now broke so he can buy another boat to crash!

Not quite like that but something like it I guess lol!

It's sucks but that's how it is I guess

 

Maybe a kind of 'partnership', repurchase of the 'Brand Name', purchase of the remaining assets,... could be done between 'ADAM Audio Professional' and other Big Companies involved in the High-End & Professional 'Studio Monitors' field (?).
I was thinking, among others, at 'Behringer', which Company (despite also 'German' !) is well-known to make several kind of 'partnerships' with some 'illustrious' names involved in the professional 'Audio Area'...

 

That's terrible. i love Adam monitors.

hopefully they'll be bought out, would be a loss if they didn't.

 

Heil EVE!
She will take care of ADAM from now on. Adam is sick...

 

I think ADAM make too good a product to go under totally. I strongly suspect they will be bought out by one of the big boys like Yamaha/ Roland etc etc...

They sure got the product right but sounds like the management wasn't on the ball. Damn shame.

 

Maybe Jack O’Donnell will buy ADAM AUDIO like he did with other big companies
http://www.inmusicbrands.com/about

 

Exactly. KRK is a very smart company as they sell so much cheap crap, but they also sell some really great monitors. Anything from KRK other than Expose and VXT is really barely good to mix on, let alone master, but people think if they buy some cheapo Rokit 6 they bought VXT/Expose quality. It's weird how human minds work. If it's a well known brand, they'll buy it and think "now I've got great monitors for not much money". :/ Regarding some manufacturer's budget lines, many times they'd be better off buying some quality hi-fi speakers...

Face it, people - shit sells the best. That's why lots of good companies went under or merged [by Harman - http://www.lexicon.com/ for example] and now they're forced to make and sell shit, or rather - they sell their brand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdkeMpN8hOI.

Shame to see ADAM has problems. It's a good company and even their budget speakers are good and usable. [A7X...] Although personally I don't like the sound of their monitors. I'm a fan of Dynaudio/Focal/Neumann.

 

Again: problems raising capital does not mean they have bad sales!

The problem is stated pretty clearly in the opening post: They grew to fast and now they can't raise the capital they need. That has nothing to do with how successfull their business is.
It's the investment policy of the financial institutes that is the problem.
Read here: http://www.inc.com/jeremy-quittner/restricted-capital-access-restrains-business-growth.html

 

This "new capitalism" is the problem. Or rather "corporatism". Big problem for everybody in every way. Mergers are the problem, too. There should be many small companies which make great products like it used to be in the 80s and 90s. But mind you, their products are more expensive, however their products last much much longer due to far better quality. I've got stuff from the early 90s that still works as new! But I'm really worried about the new stuff I bought...

But the resistance is building up with all this crowd funding and stuff... I hope people will open their eyes and see what I see. A bit more money for a better quality product. It will give them satisfaction in the long run. Like, you can buy a cheap USB audio interface but it will break in a few years, as opposed to buying quality and more expensive audio interface that will last you for years.

I've got a RME HDSP 9652 from 2003 [or 04? can't remember] that still works the same as on the day the first owner bought it. Yes, it was expensive, but... it still works and I expect it to continue working the same. Can you say the same for your M-Audio cheapo USB card you bought in 2008 or thereabouts? I don't think so. I've seen plenty of them break after just a few years of use. In the end it really is "you get what you pay for". Sad but true.