Upper management is out of touch with what the business even does. They don't understand the performance aftermarket, and the board has no interest in resolving the issues around here. If you've ever wondered what being a red-headed stepchild feels like, try working in the performance automotive business that a PE fund focused on environmental issues accidentally bought. In sales, commission is both capped and low, and the goal posts move several times a month, regardless of what the goals start out as, making even 80-90% goal attainment (and commission bracket) impossible. The base pay is comically low, and there's no way to know until well after the end of the month what you're going to get paid on, because reasonable sales targets will be made unreasonable in the blink of an eye, and covering EBITDA for the absolute dead weight of the fleet business somehow becomes the jobs of the enthusiast team...in the last days of the month. When GEF was trying to sell derive, transparency wasn't even a consideration, and C-Level lied about what was going on - despite everyone already knowing and panicking about their jobs. You can choose transparency or confidentiality, but they chose neither. The sale they wanted (and failed to get a buyer for several times last year) seems unlikely, because the valuations are comically high, and the market is facing serious regulatory and economic concerns. There's no bailout coming from a new buyer unless they change their pitch entirely and reevaluate the business's revenue potential. It honestly looks like they're just trying to sink the performance business in an effort to write off a loss this year. If that's the strategy, at least it's not purely ineptitude? Which is a positive, I guess. Things turned quickly because of management changes, and not for the better. Morale took a serious hit, and the business is hemorrhaging cash; the company appears to only be interested in a "good money after bad" model, which is sad for a brand that held so much value for so long.
