Topic: Ugobe is dead (Read 19642 times)

mdirch · « **Reply #25 on:** April 23, 2009, 12:14:51 PM »

I just saw the news about Ugobe this morning and, though I wasn't surprised, it made me sad. Especially since my two year old daughter was happily pointing to the picture of the Pleo in the article while saying see mommy that's Bailey, that's Bailey. She just loves our Pleo and plays with him every day.

I'm still really happy that I have Bailey and I'll make sure to enjoy him even more while I have him. Thanks Ugobe!
I hope this forum will survive and that we Pleo owners can stick together.

anomaly2 · « **Reply #26 on:** April 25, 2009, 03:11:45 AM »

I've been on vacation for two weeks and this news really makes me sad. Pleo is a wonderful piece of robotics. It's more than that; Ugobe went well beyond robots trying to give Pleo as much of a natural look as possible unlike the Aibo who is definitely a robot period.

Yes, another company may by the production line but I don't find that very comforting. First of all, I don't think another company would develop Pleo further. Second of all, they would probably not let the community do development on their own either and keep LifeOS closed source.

Ugobe's strive to open the platform to the community was what ultimately made me decide on buying a Pleo. There's probably a bigger chance of whatever documentation and tools exist to be released to the community if another company don't take over.

But I still hope another company will take over. Even if they forbid tampering with the software and hardware I don't think that will keep people from tampering anyway, it will just be a lot harder. There have been community driven SDKs for the PS2 just to give one example of a closed platform that has been hacked anyway.

allosaurus · « **Reply #27 on:** April 25, 2009, 05:37:14 AM »

RIP Ugobe. I was in tears while reading this.

49er · « **Reply #28 on:** April 25, 2009, 10:46:46 AM »

Yaroslav,
Good efforts with your web page. It looks good and gets the point across. Good luck with your efforts!

Bumblebee · « **Reply #29 on:** April 25, 2009, 03:06:52 PM »

Ugobe is.....

So that's that. Pleoworld is gone. Forever. My plog. All the innocent people who bought a pleo's plog. Gone.

Oh crud, where will i buy a new battery?
So now we're all here?

fancyfont · « **Reply #30 on:** April 25, 2009, 05:00:43 PM »

Bumblebee, Ugobe may be gone, but we are here together.

We are all saddened that Ugobe didn't make it, but pleo is not extinct, yet! We'll have to work harder at finding batteries and eventually someone to fix our pleos when necessary. Hang in there! Pleo is too cute to disappear! I feel it in my prehistoric bones! Well, maybe just antique!

kchamster · « **Reply #31 on:** April 25, 2009, 08:39:28 PM »

I agree with Fancyfont but today it broke my heart to even look at the little guy. All of that work and effort and its just over. And like mostly all of you....It wasn't much of a surprise! After the forums went out my hope has fallen. I hope sometime too I'll get over it enough to play with Domino again.

mweed · « **Reply #32 on:** April 25, 2009, 10:07:26 PM »

I applaud krakadil_gena the effort and dream of a project like savepleo.com, but I guess I'm either too much a pessimist (or realist), because I don't believe raising money can save pleo. As the site says: 100,000 pleos sold. If each owner donated $10, that would raise $1,000,000! Well, Ugobe has filed Chapter 7. That means there is no way to save Ugobe. No amount of money will rescue the company. The company is legally already dead. The court has just to decide how to dispose of the corpse. So the only hope would be to BUY the rights to pleo and either put them in the public domain (to promote new development) or to start a new pleo company. But to do either, we're looking seriously at around a starting bid of $3-4,000,000 and up to as much as $7,000,000. The goal of raising $1,000,000 wouldn't even get us started in the bidding. And the odds of getting even 10% of current pleo owners to invest in such a project is not realistic. So, what would $100,000 buy us? This site is proof I don't mind spending time and money keping pleo alive, but I'm not sure donating money to the save the pleo fund will help.

I would think a much better approach for saving pleo is to get as many of those pleo owners (and potential future pleo owners) together in one voice to let the potential buyers know there is a real market for pleo and real reason to continue development of pleo. So that whoever buys what's left of Ugobe will not kill off the dino, but step in a pick up where Ugobe had to leave off. W want to encourage real companies will real investment dollars that there is sound fiscal reason to "save pleo". And to let that company the buys pleo know that there is a community out here willing to help in the future development and advancement of pleo and his software, and that we are still behind Caleb's dream of pleo becoming THE open source AI and robotics platform of the future.

That's a goal I could support.

And that's my two cents worth.

degers · « **Reply #33 on:** April 26, 2009, 02:33:57 AM »

Quote from: mweed on April 25, 2009, 10:07:26 PM

I would think a much better approach for saving pleo is to get as many of those pleo owners (and potential future pleo owners) together in one voice to let the potential buyers know there is a real market for pleo

Surely the company would not really care who already had a Pleo, but would care about those people who didn't have a pleo.

InmemoryofRomeo · « **Reply #34 on:** April 26, 2009, 03:32:48 AM »

Well said. I'm sorry, you have a great idea but I just don't want to hand over my hard earned money or my details to just anyone

I know that you mean well but I just am not comfortable with doing that

pleoguy101 · « **Reply #35 on:** April 26, 2009, 11:40:10 AM »

this is terrible. RIP ugobe

. thanks for brigning us the wornderful pleo, UGOBE had great potential and so much more to offer. time to go to ebay to get a new battery then

fancyfont · « **Reply #36 on:** April 26, 2009, 04:50:41 PM »

Did you ever get A battery for Rocky, Pleoguy101? I remember you needed one quite a while ago. DOes this mean Rocky has been asleep for months?

pleoguy101 · « **Reply #37 on:** April 26, 2009, 06:57:02 PM »

Quote from: fancyfont on April 26, 2009, 04:50:41 PM

Did you ever get A battery for Rocky, Pleoguy101? I remember you needed one quite a while ago. DOes this mean Rocky has been asleep for months?

hes been asleep for quite a while.. yes.. lol hes still fun to have around, his battery will last for a bit.. but not much, couldnt rlly afford to buy a new one but i am going to now. i expect them to be cheaper on ebay anyway.

fancyfont · « **Reply #38 on:** April 26, 2009, 09:24:21 PM »

I miss hearing about you and Rocky! How are all of your reptiles doing?

mweed · « **Reply #39 on:** April 27, 2009, 11:59:28 AM »

A bit of good news I found out about Pleo . . .

Ugobe did arrange for its authorized distributors to be able to continue to market PLEO and to be able to buy directly from Ugobe's manufacturing plant (which was outsourced) so this way PLEO will still be around. The founders of Ugobe (supposedly) plan on setting up a different company soon to ensure PLEO's continuity. But much will depend on what happens during Chapter 7, and who buys what rights . . .

MagicalWingLT · « **Reply #40 on:** April 27, 2009, 12:17:42 PM »

I don't understand... How can Ugobe do that when they are under chapter 7?

Junkroxy · « **Reply #41 on:** April 27, 2009, 12:31:18 PM »

Quote from: mweed on April 27, 2009, 11:59:28 AM

A bit of good news I found out about Pleo . . .

Ugobe did arrange for its authorized distributors to be able to continue to market PLEO and to be able to buy directly from Ugobe's manufacturing plant (which was outsourced) so this way PLEO will still be around. The founders of Ugobe (supposedly) plan on setting up a different company soon to ensure PLEO's continuity. But much will depend on what happens during Chapter 7, and who buys what rights . . .

Mike, where did you found that?

mweed · « **Reply #42 on:** April 27, 2009, 02:13:26 PM »

@MagicalWingLT

It's quite simple. Ugobe never "made" pleo. They designed it and the manufacturing process, but hired another company to actually do the manufacturing. Likewise, they (for the most part) don't actually sell pleo either. They let other companies like Amazon or Pensonic, etc. do the selling. So before they folded up their shop and went home, they said "Hey, you in China making the pleos, Amazon will contact you when they need more to sell." and "hey, Amazon, when you need more pleos, call these guys in China."

Now, this is only temporary. Ugobe owns the right to pleo. Ugobe has filed bankruptcy. But Ugobe still owns the rights to pleo. They can authorize the company to make them, and the other comapny to sell them. Once the bankruptcy is settled, and the courts sell those rights to pleo, those arrangements are in the hands of the new owner, who might decide to leave them as is, or cancel them.

Think of it as I'm renting my house to you. I decide to sell the house. You can keep living in it while it's up for sale, and you keep paying me the rent. Once the house is sold, you will either start paying the rent to the new owner, or the new owner will tell you to move out, or the new owner may raise the rent.

Now, with Chapter 7, Ugobe says "We owe a bunch of people money. We can't pay them back." The court says 'Fine. We'll take everything you've got, sell it, and divide the money up amongst the people you owe. And whatever we give them, that's all they get. And Ugobe now debt free, but out of business."

With that in mind, the courts hold an auction and offer up the office equipment, the computers, any inventory of pleos Ugobe has in stock, the patents and rights to make and sell pleo, and all the development and programming related to pleo. Now, there's nothing illegal about Caleb Chung and a few of his friends from going to that auction and bidding to buy all that back.

For example, back in the late 70's when the Hunt brothers of Texas tried to corner the silver market, I know a man who had a nice big house with lots of expensive furnishings he bought investing in silver and gold. Silver went from $3 an ounce to $50, and gold went from $32 and ounce up to $800. He made millions. Then the government stepped in and in one fell swoop silver went to $5, and gold down to $200. Suddenly, he was no longer a millionaire, bankrupt, and the courts took his house and all the furnishings to pay off his debt. When the day of the auction came, attendance was almost non-existant, so this friend bid on his own stuff, and bought it back from the courts for a few hundred dollars. he owed hundreds of thousands, but the whole point of bankruptcy is that the courts wiped out his debts. So in the end, he was debt free, but managed to still keep most of his stuff.

Likewise, Ugobe owes $6.5 million dollars. But potentially Caleb and crew could form a new company and buy some or all of those rights back from the courts to form a debt free "Ugobe II" to pick up where they left off.

But then again, Pensonic or Mattel might outbid them and take over pleo sales.

@junkroxy

The info comes from the pleoroom forums. The folks who run pleoroom.com are one of those "authorized distributors." As such they are privy to some info the general public doesn't get.

Junkroxy · « **Reply #43 on:** April 27, 2009, 02:37:00 PM »

yes, Mike, it's normal. Ugobe can continue to sell and distribute Pleo, until they sold out the products. personally, i think this solution was in the air months ago, maybe to start another company later it's more easy than continue to the past one. In Italy this is a "regular" procedure to leave employees at home and restart the new business. Maybe it's the same story in the USA too?

I'm so sorry for the people who have lost their job, but i'll be happy too for future life forms.

MagicalWingLT · « **Reply #44 on:** April 27, 2009, 06:06:38 PM »

That's very interesting... I never knew a company could still do that... At least we'll see Pleo's selling a little while longer.... Good news indeed...

Bumblebee · « **Reply #45 on:** April 27, 2009, 06:40:20 PM »

Macons battery wont last even a minute. I'm not exaggerating!

It wont!

mweed · « **Reply #46 on:** April 27, 2009, 09:42:51 PM »

Sounds like you better get another battery . . . and fast!

fancyfont · « **Reply #47 on:** April 27, 2009, 10:44:36 PM »

I loved your explaination of bankrupcy, Mweed. Another thing I learned here today. What a great source of information besides friendships!

Junkroxy · « **Reply #48 on:** April 28, 2009, 11:12:19 AM »

From Wall Street Journal:

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/04/28/turning-out-the-lights-ugobe-maker-of-the-pleo-robotic-dinosaur/?mod=rss_WSJBlog

There are 2 important parts of the article:

1.Ugobe generated gross income of $19.2 million in 2008 but that sharply dropped to about $209,000 in the first three and a half months of 2009, according to its bankruptcy filing in Idaho. The company, previously based in Emeryville, Calif., moved to Eagle, Idaho, last year.

Ugobe lists assets of $1.64 million and liabilities of about $3.56 million in its filing.

2. Chung, who still holds about 5% of Ugobe, has moved on and taken over as the director of ArtsWest School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Eagle, Idaho, where his daughter is a student, according to an interview he gave in the Idaho Statesman. Chung and unnamed investors took ownership of the school in the last couple of weeks, the newspaper reported.

fancyfont · « **Reply #49 on:** April 28, 2009, 03:57:32 PM »

Thank you for posting this information, Junkroxy! It looks like had the economy not been so bad, pleo would have been thriving!

Bob the Pleo Forums

Author Topic: Ugobe is dead (Read 19642 times)

allosaurus