Randall Smith FIRED from Mesa??

[spawnofthesith]

Sounds like utter bullshit but I’ll eat my words if anything other than unsubstantiated YouTube shuckster claims and “trust me bro” sources come

[greatmutah]

Yeah anything at this point is pure speculation. I think most of us here know that.

[zozobra]

But grown men need their drama, goddamnit

[RaceU4her]

I didn’t know that’s how it worked in the corporate world, Well I hope then it was his choice to leave without any bullshit, that would be a sad way for it all to end, even if it didn’t end well and you’re Gibson you still gotta put out a statement thanking him

[fastredponycar]

I'm waiting to hear back from a couple of people who would have credible info on it but if it's true, yeah kinda what Raf said, I've been a part of these buyout's and mergers and the leadership of the company being bought never stays. They will stick around to make sure the transition happens and after that, they sail off with their earnings.

[Endtime]

There’s no doubt this was a contract written after he sold it. For him to be a part of this or that. But I know for fact the MESA dudes all said they were told “nothing would change.”. Prices were supposed to stay normal etc etc. Because obviously if they price themselves out of the market, people are gonna be let go, and their increases have hurt sales. Who knows if this was the time Smith was said to be let go or not, and obviously he sold it cause he was gonna get out sooner rather than later but most people like him who had this long standing business would TRY to make sure his company and employees don’t get the shaft from the new owner. But often times that happens no matter what promises were made. Gibson has memory holed numerous businesses they bought out. I doubt Mesa flat out disappears but man, $3.5-4k amps ain’t the way forward.

[gibson5413]

I have been part of a few different tech company acquisitions and this kind of thing is fairly standard practice. For example, I was with a company called Omniture (a data analytics company in the mid-2000s). We were acquired by Adobe as they wanted to add digital analytics to their digital media GTM strategy. The Omniture CEO stayed on for a full year as the company was absorbed into the Adobe family of products. He left at the one-year mark of the acquisition.

Not saying it is exactly the same with Randall and Gibson but I would bet that is what happened for the most part.

[greatmutah]

There’s no doubt this was a contract written after he sold it. For him to be a part of this or that. But I know for fact the MESA dudes all said they were told “nothing would change.”. Prices were supposed to stay normal etc etc. Because obviously if they price themselves out of the market, people are gonna be let go, and their increases have hurt sales. Who knows if this was the time Smith was said to be let go or not, and obviously he sold it cause he was gonna get out sooner rather than later but most people like him who had this long standing business would TRY to make sure his company and employees don’t get the shaft from the new owner. But often times that happens no matter what promises were made. Gibson has memory holed numerous businesses they bought out. I doubt Mesa flat out disappears but man, $3.5-4k amps ain’t the way forward.

I agree with you there. I think Gibson thinks Mesa should be charging Friedman prices for their gear and that’s not good for Mesa. Mesa was never the most affordable brand by any means but they weren’t always the most expensive either.

[spawnofthesith]

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/gibson ... smith-exit

[greatmutah]

Welp, it’s official.

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/gibson ... smith-exit

So we’ll have Pre-Gibson Mesas, Transition Period Mesas and Post Randall Smith Mesas on reverb. Probably sooner than later. Not to mention Pre-Gibson Pre-95 Exist Rectos.