Murf wrote: "1st - to the consumer who was told told a company bought the outlet/store/business and therefore would not honor the warranty. When a company acquires another company they acquire ALL the ASSETS and ALL the LIABILITIES. They assume the whole package. So they are obligated to honor any warranty - that is a Liability they 'purchased'."
Murf, this is not always true. Buy-outs can be constructed in many different ways and those don't necissarily include the liabilities. That is especially true when a company is at or near bankruptcy. The buy-out contract will specifically state this and how it is handled. In the case of a bankruptcy, this has to be approved by the bankruptcy court and the creditors beforehand.
Consider a company might have $20 million in annual production but has $100 million in liabilities. Would they have any chance to sell out? Not likely but if they approve a buyer who will accept maybe $30 million of that debt, it might be a good deal for everyone. Their employees will be able to keep their jobs and the creditors will recieve 30 cents on the dollar they are owed instead of NOTHING.
Buy-outs are constructed according to the situation that exists. In the example of warranties, the buy out can mean the company will be closed for a short time. (this may only be a day) and a new company will be formed, will take over the existing employees, the existing customers and the existing production facilities and maybe even the name but since it is a new company, the liabilities will disappear including the warranties.
I had this happen to me once. I sold to restaurants and one of my customers was $600,000 in debt. He simply closed the stores for a couple of days, re-incorporated the business and totally escaped all debt. This was 6 or 7 years ago and he is still in business under the new incorporation. That was wrong but he (or his lawyer) knew how to work the system. Everything was legal but in my book, it was thievery. He is still in business and apparently a valuable customer to somebody else. Not me! I figure if he'd do that once, he'd probably do it again and I'm not going to be in the line of fire. He'll never be my customer again.
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