Jawbone Fails To Pay Key Business Partners and Has Almost No Inventory In Stock: Sources (businessinsider.com)

BarbaraHudson writes: The battle between Fitbit and Jawbone may be coming to an end. Business Insider is reporting that wearable fitness maker Jawbone is facing some serious financial problems as the company has almost no inventory in stock and is running out of options to generate revenue. If you click on any of the products for sale on their site, it will say that they're all sold out. Business Insider reports: "Jawbone's Facebook page is littered with complaints from customers saying they have been unable to get in touch with a customer service representative to help with defective products. The Jawbone Facebook account has been responding to these issues, blaming a backup of complaints for the delays. A Jawbone spokesperson said the complaints were because of Jawbone's customer service restructuring. Another person close to Jawbone told Business Insider that there is almost no inventory left and the company is running out of options to generate revenue. The speculation among some Jawbone employees now is that the company might sell to a private equity firm if it can't raise more money, the person close to the company said. Jawbone also declined to explain why its inventory has sold out. A spokesperson said, 'they have sold through what they have to sell.' The company said it was not because it couldn't pay vendors though. It would not provide any estimate on when products would be available for sale on its site again, but did say it planned to make more products." The report says that, according to an internal NexRep email, the company cut ties with the customer service agency NexRep earlier this month after Jawbone failed to make payments. "The email, written to NexRep employees by a NexRep executive, claims that Jawbone is 'struggling financially' and that it couldn't pay NexRep for its services," reports Business Insider. "It also says Jawbone is 'fighting hard' to raise more funding. 'Jawbone is not able to pay us for past services, and their ability to pay us in the future is uncertain at this point,' the NexRep email reads." This resulted in "many staffers being laid off."

Comments

Unusual situation

[operagost]

Usually, we have a company that makes garbage no one wants, so when they liquidate they have a ton of stock. This is unfortunate... and stupid, because it seems like they should have taken SOME KIND of action before they had nothing to sell.

I wonder exactly how terrible they are when they have a product with a solid demand, yet no one will invest in them. There has to be embezzlement.

Re:Unusual situation

[BarbaraHudson]

Nobody is going to invest in a company that has fallen from a $3 billion evaluation to a $1.5 billion evaluation, and already has sucked up almost a billion from investors with nothing to show for it except requests for more funding, and no new products for over a year. That $1.5 billion evaluation is obviously going to fall further now that the sh*t has hit the fan, resulting in Jawbone being worth less than what the investors have already put into it.

Sayonara. Jawbone got tempted by the fitness market, but it wasn't a good fit.

Shouldn't this be in a business journel?

[jfdavis668]

The fits and collapse of a business are better discussed in a business journal. This story isn't really about technology at all.

And so what?

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

And we should care why, exactly?

Two niche gadget makers go after the same market, one wins, one fails...so what? Why are we supposed to care?

This kind of thing happens all the time, every day. What's the Earth-shaking news here?