According to reports it looks like Diamond owes over $32 million to various companies. It's much worse than I imagined. Here are the top 30 entities they owe $ to:
Penguin Random House LLC $9,202,181.45 {Marvel Comics, Dark Horse, IDW}
Bandai Co, Ltd $4,348,743.08
National Entertainment Collectibles $2,682,994.22
Kin Kin Mould $1,811,934.04
TMP International, Inc $1,734,814.39
Disney Consumer Products, Inc $1,712,447
Hasbro, Inc $1,064,378.39
Wizards of the Coast LLC $914,601.84
Xceeding Partnership Solutions $843,496.70
Little Buddy LLC $694,628
Simon & Schuster, Inc $600,144.80
Bandai Namco Toys & Collectibles $576,072.46
Lunar Distribution $496,967.84 {Image}
United Parcel Service, Inc $476,398.57
VIZ Media, LLC $421,204.93
Catalyst Games Lab, LLC $401,483.12
The Army Painter Ap S $386,925.86
ARA, Inc $378,827.04
Titan Publishing Group Ltd $357,417.28
Square Enix Holdings Co, Ltd $314,295.51
Microsoft Corp $307,816.00
The Pokemon Company International, Inc $280,375.00
Transcontinental Inc $243,541.48
Beast Kingdom Co, Ltd $237,903.14
Funko, LLC $237,631.62
Publisher Services, Inc $223,140.92
Dynamic Forces, Inc $217,317.64
Pai Technology Inc $211,331.50
Udon Entertainment Inc $202,694.07
Super7, Inc $163,686.50
After the comics, graphic novels, cards & games....around half of the debt is owed to various licensee holders and/or toy & collectible companies....which falls squarely on the Diamond Select Toys & Collectibles, LLC branch. Disastrous....
Don't have to go out on a limb to conclude that this company as we've known it is toast. More than likely will be cut-up with various parts being sold-off. Steve Geppi turns 75 years old next week. The times have changed & there's no way he has the energy or patience it would take to turn this thing around. From the outside looking in it appears he's trying to find the least-painful way out at this point. Man, moving forward the smaller publishers are gonna be screwed...
But yeah, hope the Gold Leader mini bust is nearly finished and out of the factory by now. Once that last pilot piece is done I feel it would be a good stopping or resting point until another entity eventually buys out this tiny division (formally GG) and/or the SW license. In a few years there will be new things as there always are. The hobby survived losing Master Replicas, it surely can survive this as well. Though it still remains to be seen if it can survive Kathleen Kennedy....