Gibson Bondholders Want CEO Henry Juszkiewicz Fired

In case you missed the memo, Gibson Guitars has been facing bankruptcy ever since a failed venture into consumer electronics, a stint of poor product design, and generally unfavorable management decisions.

These issues have left Gibson with nothing but a pile of debt worth about $375 million. If this debt isn’t paid back by July, the company could be facing an additional $185 million in charges. Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz seems to think that by that time, the company will be able to completely refinance their debts, which doesn’t exactly clean the slate but gives them some time to get their shit together. He is so confident in this presumption that he has refused to cooperate with bondholders, claiming that “[they] have other intentions that are not necessarily my intentions,” according to Bloomberg.

Looks like Juszkiewicz’s stubborn-ness is finally going to bite him in the ass.  Bondholders who claim to control over 2/3 of the company have stated that they will not be investing any more money into Gibson while Juszkiewicz is still in charge.  I can’t really blame them – Gibson is going to continue being a shit-show unless major changes are made soon.  Still, Juszkiewicz claims that “he has no plans to give up majority control.”

“They’re trying to do everything possible to put the company in a worse position, and get us in a situation where they’re exclusively talking to us. But factually, we’ve made our interest payments, fulfilled our obligations, and our intent is to pay back all bondholders.”

Good grief, man.  Just suck up your pride and accept the fact that you screwed up. At this rate, Gibson is going to tank before you can say Juszkiewicz five times fast.