Oak Ridge Ipix Bankruptcy
Following the Ipix Corporation bankruptcy case makes me wonder how much money an individual can make by creating a company, finding investors and later, after due time, filing for bankruptcy.
The case ended a few days ago but from reading the various news articles on the auction 2 of the 3 bidding parties were formed by Ipix executives. The company listed debts of $7.87 million and had about $3.5 million in cash.
The two companies (Luminetx and Argusight) with Ipix executives were bidding less than a million dollars for the patents and technology that were up for auction until an anonymous bidder pushed the price up to $2 million and later $3 million. The anonymous bidder ended up winning the auction for $3.6 million much to the dismay of former Ipix executives. The creditors are much happier with the auction price and will probably break even after adding in the $3.5 million from Ipix Corp.’s bank accounts.
What I find astounding is that executives can take huge salaries while the company they are running goes bankrupt paying for the development of technologies and patents. Then they can form a new company and buy the technology and patents with the money they made as executive officers, of the now bankrupt company, minus the cost of development.
What does this amount to? Stealing. I guess theft is the risk you take when you invest money in a business that you don’t control.
UPDATE: Sony bought IPIX.
References:
knoxnews.com
knoxnews.com
knoxnews.com
panotools.info
knoxnews.com
knoxnews.com
knoxnews.com
