Why did CCI go out of Buisness?

I was just checkin out some of my favorite woodies and saw they were CCI and went to check out some other CCI's and saw that they went out of buisness. I just want to know why they went out of buisness after designing some great woodies like Shivering Timbers, Legend, Raven, and a lot more?

They undersold themselves, selling rides at little profit or even at a loss. That plus the rumor that the owners' nasty little divorce basically forced the split of the company.

------------------
If given the choice I'd choose a hamburger over a hotdog anyday of the week.

Depends on who you ask. I just got the bankruptcy discharge papers this week, so what they owed me I'll never see a dime of (my company hosted their Web site).

Some will tell you it's because Denise Dinn was giving rides away. Others will tell you she sucked at estimating project expenses. Others still will say that her reputation for not paying vendors on time and not completing projects on schedule harmed her reputation (the real sticking point for S&S hiring her... I'll never get that).

------------------
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

temper temper.....

------------------
"Step on that lapbar and make it nice and tight!"

AJ, what are you talking about? No one here is being nasty or even abrupt in response. Jeff, I don't know much about bankruptcy, but don't banks usually pay off remaining debts?

^I'm only 16, I haven't had economics yet. ;)

------------------
Whenever you can ride a roller coaster and experience 15 spots of intense airtime, you know you're on a good coaster. (see: Phoenix)

Defaulting on debts means there's nobody left to pay if liquidated assets aren't enough...

English? Sorry, maybe it's just me but I don't quite get it. Is Jeff basically screwed and will never get his money back? That sucks if so...

------------------
Whenever you can ride a roller coaster and experience 15 spots of intense airtime, you know you're on a good coaster. (see: Phoenix)

The divorce of the principals owners also didn't help.

For the folks who would like it broken down a little, here's my take on what Jeff said:

* The company gave quotes for rides that were often too low generating little, if any, profit
* Mrs. Dinn never payed anything on time
* Schedule? What schedule?

MarimbaGuy- If the bankruptcy is over and done with and the company no longer exists there is nobody left to pay any remaining debts.

CCI liquidated all its assets to pay what debts they could, but unfortunately for Jeff it seems that he wasn't high enough on "the list" for CCI to make due on what he is owed. So, yeah, Jeff is pretty much SOL, unfortunately.

------------------
- John, who is still owed $.50 by Brad McGlaughlin from back in 7th grade
Homepark: Cedar Point
Home-away-from-homepark: Paramount's Kings Island

For those who aren't faimiliar with it. Bankruptcy is the condition in which a company (or person) is hopelessly in debt. They don't have the money to pay their debts and aren't likely to ever be able to get the money. If you get too deep in debt, you have no cash to buy materials, and people won't sell to you unless you pay up front because they don't want to get stuck.

When a company declares bankruptcy, the assets are sold and the resulting funds are distributed according to a list of priorities. Bankruptcy lawyers and taxes get paid first, because no lawyer would handle the bankruptcy without that and because the government that wrote the laws gets the taxes. Employeed wages and salaries generally come next, they everyone else that the company owes. For a company with relatively small capital assets, usually on the bankruptcy lawyers and the tax man ever get anything.

Michael Darling said:

"* Schedule? What schedule?"

I don't recall any of their rides opening up particularly late?
*** This post was edited by Mr Rush 8/22/2003 8:44:36 AM ***

I don't have a temper about anything. I'll never get my couple hundred bucks, but I'll probably survive anyway. The other observations aren't mine, but the observations of some of her former employees and customers.

------------------
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

Having had a fair amount of experience in the construction biz, it is *critical* when estimating jobs that you take into account such unforeseeables as: bad weather, delays in materials arriving to the job site, employees' sick days, cost overruns when the price of materials goes up unexpectedly, etc., etc. I think in the grand scheme of things, Denise probably left her customers happier than her accountants, and I'm sure that left CCI in the red often enough to create at least SOME of the "slow pay/no pay" problem.

The payments issue really showed up in their dealings with PTC...and the G-trains on those last few coasters weren't exactly well-received...which hurt their rep within OUR community...

------------------
"The robot mafia is running numbers?"
"Well, nothing fancy, mostly just ones and zeroes"...;)

I realize this will probably get a lot of people upset, but, I can't resist...

Ride The Boss. 'nuff said.

d8 -

------------------
"Welcome to Wisconsin... Illinois' Largest State Park."

That's the Gerstlauers talking.

------------------
If given the choice I'd choose a hamburger over a hotdog anyday of the week.

du8die said:

Ride The Boss. 'nuff said.

CCI went out of business because they built a$$-kicking, hard-core, out-of-control coasters?

They should have implemented a television advertising campaign. ;)

------------------
"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

I don't know much about the CCI saga, but what makes me wonder is why Mrs. Dinn wasn't advised more closely regarding her balance sheet? I would think it would have become obvious to any sensible person with an accounting background in the company that she was underselling herself. What did Mrs. Dinn do at the company anyway? Was she a chief ride designer, or just a pretty face (well, figuratively speaking.....)? What did the divorce have to do with anything? Sorry, I guess I'm just out of the CCI loop.

------------------
"That's DOCTOR Evil. I didn't spend six years in evil medical school to be called 'Mr. Thank You Very Much.'"

I don't think you need to be or have an accountant to realize that if you can't make payroll you're not doing well.

------------------
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

Hopefully they could have identified the problem before they were unable to make payroll - sounds like good business sense to me -

------------------
"That's DOCTOR Evil. I didn't spend six years in evil medical school to be called 'Mr. Thank You Very Much.'"