Vadim goes into liquidation

Posted at: 5:24pm 7th July 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

Director blames investment deals falling through, as well as the credit crunch, and puts the Vadim brand up for sale

After regularly amazing us with its stunning Dream PC entries such as the Cepheus, it saddens us to announce that today Vadim Computers has gone into voluntary liquidation. The company’s director, Vadim Chobanu, explained that in simple terms, ‘one of the reasons for this sudden action is the credit crunch that unfortunately hit the electronics and PC hardware industry hard.’

However, he expanded on the details, explaining that one of the main financial issues involved getting the money required to build an exclusive case design this summer, as well expanding in the US and Europe. Vadim originally planned to borrow the required money from the bank, but the bank rejected the business plan.

According to Chobanu, the ban’s reasoning was that Vadim Computers needed to remain a small company in order to survive the tough economic climate. This was a problem for Vadim’s shareholders, explained Chobanu, saying that ‘we did not forsee the possibility of any viable prospects emerging which were to offer a suitable return on investments to the shareholders and fair remuneration for employees, were we to stay small.’

As a result, Chobanu sought after investment elsewhere, and recently started negotiations with a city-based capital investment company. ‘The investors were very enthusiastic about the whole deal,’ he says, adding that ‘the investors were willing to offer us more than we initially asked for.’ Plans were then made for a new website launch, a Multiplay LAN event and a Dream PC entry (The Ragnarok - pictured below) for Custom PC, based on a hand-made prototype of a new case, which has even been delivered to the CPC lab.

However, Chobanu explains that ‘the investment agreement was cancelled at the last minute by the venture company.’ He puts this down to ‘their lack of knowledge in the Boutique PC market and the complex business model we present compared to other industries.’

It was then down to Chobanu to analyse the finances after four months of slow business and a negative balance sheet. He concluded that the company needed a new venture capital investment ‘would put our creditors in a less reasonable prospect of being paid if another investment arrangement would fail.’ As a result, at Vadim’s shareholders meeting today, which Chobanu describes as ‘extraordinary’ it was decided that V-Solutions Ltd would ‘cease trading and go into voluntary liquidation.’

The brand of Vadim Computers is now up for sale, and Chobanu says that he will be ‘more than happy to assist with my expertise and suggest best ways forward to the interested buyer.’ He also says that the Blastflow waterblocks business will be unaffected by the decision.