Moog and inMusic announcement

you live in florida now? that’s a lot of straw hats for one guy, they let you write those off as a business expense?

I still feel bad for moog employees, I can only imagine most of them are still going through it right now.

this doesn’t look great

1 Like

heart-wrenching.

4 Likes

Na. Florida was before NYC.

It’s shitty that some of the employees have lost their jobs, and I feel for them. If I read that IG post correctly, it sounds like they are receiving some severance, which is the right move.

And with some products staying in the US, maybe it won’t have as much of a ripple effect. I read an article a few years ago where Moog stated that everything except for circuit boards and a few other parts were manufactured in the US, even the wood and metal for the enclosures.

It sounds like Moog will be doing something similar to Fender. Premium products will be manufactured in the US, and less expensive products in another country so they can save on labor costs., with their headquarters will be staying in Asheville.

The whole thing is a bummer, but I am not all doom and gloom on this. Moog has had a long and varied history. Bob passed away 18 years ago, and look at all of the cool synths they have made in that time. And I feel like the last decade has probably brought some of their most interesting instruments. Time will tell though, so lets see what the future brings for old Moog.

9 Likes

it also says that he didn’t read one page of his contract, cause if what it sounds like actually happened that’s almost self negligence

As someone that in the past has lost their job due to a mother company making a cost cut: those words from Moog don’t mean shit and is a basic PR text.

The employees that got fired should speak up so consumers can get a fair assessment of the situation.

Meanwhile, c levels still safe as usual.

9 Likes

They might have signed a non disparagement agreement in exchange for a severance package. I don’t think you’ll hear much from them directly. Such clause would be illegal in many European countries, as the employer would be forced legally to offer a severance package.

5 Likes

It’s all too easy to cast this as a “bad company do bad thing to nice people” story, but it looks to me like job losses were fairly likely whether Moog had sold or not.

Maintaining production as it was could probably have ended in the company going under completely, resulting in far more losses. Moog is a (relatively) small business trying to operate in very challenging conditions, it’s a shit situation, but I’m struggling to see a bad guy here.

7 Likes

Gearnews did a good article on the layoffs. They got responses specifically from Moog - inMusic.

Related to this thread and from that article :

First, our headquarters will remain in Asheville where we will continue to design, innovate, and manufacture instruments of the highest standard, such as Moog One, Minimoog Model D, legacy modular, and our newest innovative products.

And :

Last week we made the difficult decision to adjust the size of our assembly team to better match our new approach.While this transition was challenging for everyone, substantial support, benefits, and healthcare was provided to those affected, easing their journey to new opportunities.

Definitely read the article, besides just these extracts.

They are planning for new products, next year. You’ve had to expect that, so it will be interesting to see the direction they choose for that, my guess is it’s a steady course, more of a slight course correction than turning the ship.

So from their response some manufacture will be retained in Asheville. From experience there are plenty of reasons for some sorts of manufacture to be done in the USA and this will continue to be true.

I’d love to see the return of the Moogfests eventually, as well.

3 Likes

Some very balanced discussion of the acquisition.

Queued. Thirteen minutes long. Nick, Robin Vincent, DivKid, Paulee Bow.

6 Likes

I really enjoyed this discussion, thanks for posting it!

2 Likes

The video’s a mixed bag imo.

It’s true that Inmusic won’t necessarily screw up Moog. The modern MPCs are not a bad thing, I’m glad to own one. And it also seems likely that, as Nick said in the video, Moog may have been struggling before Inmusic entered the picture.

On the downside, I thought Moog management was let off rather easily on how the whole thing played out. The employees’ vaunted part ownership of the company seems to have been a farce. They didn’t get a vote on what happened (non-voting shares, presumably), nor has any Moog line employee posting on the buyout mentioned any big golden parachute for the people working on the assembly line. Whoever owned the majority of the stock (Mike Adams??) probably made a nice profit, and the line workers got screwed by comparison, they got thrown a crumb. Business as usual.

I also REALLY didn’t like Paulee referring to Moog’s assembly line staff as “random people” and minimizing what they do. I will leave out most of my reaction here to avoid getting banned.

9 Likes

That rubbed me the wrong way too. Thankfully someone (Nick, I think) stepped in and corrected his statement afterward, explaining that these people are skilled labor and should be highly valued.

4 Likes

benn jordans take:

7 Likes

“benn jordans take:”

halfway through the video this guy starts kvetching about antisemtic memes…wtf?! no thanks. I’ll get my info elsewhere.

1 Like

Didn’t that happen though?
There’s articles about it all over the internet

16 Likes

I can’t watch this guy.

5 Likes

It’s a shame, cause it’s brilliant in my opinion.
I wouldn’t say it’s 100% objective, but the points that are made are precise and solid.

I especially enjoyed the point about counterfeiting Nike Air Jordan. Synth business is indeed the only one I can think of right now were blatant counterfeiting of existing product (e.g. Keystep) but also iconic ones is not severely punished.

Actually, I do think that it’s important that people like Kirn, Jordan or Loopop have the balls to call out an aggressive liar and thief.
That B can say publicly that they basically are a non-profit organization and act as Robin Hood is distorting the reality to an unbearable degree.

29 Likes