Two months ago, we reported that Corsair was preparing to acquire Endor AG, the company behind video game peripheral company Fanatec. Fanatec, most famous for their racing wheels, is €70 million deep in debt, and this bailout would have saved the brand, and a few hundred European video game jobs.
Unfortunately, that deal has collapsed, and Endor AG is now entering insolvency proceedings.
As shared on the /simracing subreddit by user Morilec_ITA, Endor AG made the official announcement on their website. It came with quite a detailed explanation, which we will share below:
“The attempt to restructure Endor AG in accordance with the German Company Stabilisation and Restructuring Act (StaRUG) has failed. The reason for this was the request by the former CEO and majority shareholder to convene an extraordinary general meeting in order to prevent a reorganisation under the StaRUG without presenting a viable alternative scenario.
At the same time, negotiations with the majority shareholder on a financial reorganisation involving all shareholders have been taking place in recent weeks. However, these negotiations had to be broken off without result due to unrealistic demands.
The strategic investor CORSAIR then decided not to make any further payments from the bridge financing, as the ongoing disruptions made a reorganisation under the StaRUG impossible. The lending banks have also rejected further financing due to the over-indebtedness.
The Management Board regrets that the negotiations with the strategic investor CORSAIR, which were already at an advanced stage, could not be finalised. A further open-ended process to rescue the company is now being initiated as part of the insolvency proceedings with the aim of reorganising the company and securing the Landshut site and jobs.”
If you were wondering, the former CEO and majority shareholder they are referring to is also Endor AG’s and Fanatec’s founder, Thomas Jackmeier. While it’s certainly ugly when a company turns on their founder, this situation came about because Jackmeier himself made the mistakes that brought them to entering €70 million in debt. In fact, Endor AG ousted Jackmeier as CEO for these reasons.
It seems that Endor AG’s management believes they can still get a buyer, and that Corsair is even still interested. So this situation has come about because the management couldn’t find a way around working with Jackmeier, who still owns most of the company.
Whether Fanatec is ultimately revived after this, and its employees continue to be employed, it’s certainly a disgraceful state of affairs for the company to come to this. And it seems that the blame lies once again with Jackmeier. In this case, we side with Endor AG’s and Fanatec’s workers, over Jackmeier and their management. Hopefully, this all ends with Fanatec’s racing wheel makers secure with their jobs, and continuing to make enthusiast direct drive wheels for sim racing’s most fanatic enthusiasts.
