Anderton
 
You might also want to look further into Eric Garland's writings about Guitar Center. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that companies whose primary source of income is big box retail are facing challenges. However, some companies have plans in place to deal with that reality. Others want to deny it. Personally, I'd bet on the companies that are making plans.

Last time I checked, the two Guitar Centers within 10 miles of me were still open for business.

I've read more articles than I can count in the last few years saying that Guitar Center was doomed and would be boarded up within months. Yet, whenever I drive by my local GC, it always seems they've managed to figure out a way to keep doors open and lights on for just a few more short hours bless their hearts.
 
Does that mean the pundits are wrong? The way I see it you can pick any company on the planet and start writing articles claiming said company will be out of business in months. And if you keep saying that long enough, sooner or later you'll end up being right. You might have to say it for a couple hundred years, but sooner or later, every company folds or gets absorbed or otherwise ceases to exist.
 
 
Same with Sonar. I suppose sooner or later there will come a day when Sonar is no longer a supported product. It would be foolish to believe otherwise. I still feel pretty confident that I will realize a satisfactory amount of value for my investment in lifetime updates.

outland144k
[font="'book antiqua', palatino; color: #003366; font-size: small"]Now, Bapu, you're just being evil (or is it "evil being"?).
 

 

Evil is in the something of the something......

manciamusic
Well... In my Opinion for the survival of the company the "OSX New line"  will be Critical. 

I love these old-timey opinions.

GC is still open for business. As is Gibson. I'm glad Craig feels confident about Gibson and I'm neither a fortune teller nor an investments expert. That doesn't mean a "junk" credit rating is something to dismiss out of hand, nor is a huge debt with an apparent failure to meet obligations, no matter what the plans are.

As I said, I'm not too worried about Sonar. I also understand how annoying it is when "outsiders" write partial truths about a company you work at, my wife has that constantly working at a high profile wind farm development project over here. I guess I just find Craig's rebuttal a bit too light on actual info.

FWIW-If people could predict the future then your weather man/women would always be right.

while i'm not worried about Cakewalk anyway becuase I have no reason to not trust them (plus to be honest, I'd probably just pay anyway if I had to again since it's the center of my music life)... I did pay for a "lifetime subscription" to XM radio 14 years ago, and then when I got a new car last year they tried to tell me it was for the lifetime "of that radio" (while I of course couldn't find the original document I signed... how convenient... i did ask at the time of signing if it would stay lifetime after switching cars/radio units and they said yes)...
 
I argued for 2 straight weeks until I got them to transfer it to my new radio but they said they're not going to do it again next time. total scam. screw XM radio. that's the moral of the story.

FWIW, aren't moody's and S&P the ratings agencies that couldn't predict the financial collapse of 2008? And also gave AAA+ ratings to toxic assets?

Absolutely. And there are documented cases of being able to "buy" ratings from them.
Even so, they are still (or again?) considered authorities in credit/investment evaluation so I'm going to assume that it's not without reason. Even if they're partly BS the mere fact that many investors and banks use them to determine whether or not to invest and what kind of interest rates to charge for loans makea their opinion quite important.

Even in the worst case, if Gibson ends up in bankruptcy court, the lawyers will probably make some deals to streamline the business and sell some assets to pay off creditors.  So maybe Cakewalk ends up somewhere else.  If it is a reliable profit center, then somebody will surely bid for it! 
 
And if not, I still can use Platinum on Win 10 until the wheels fall off.  I figure that even if I only get a year's worth of updates from Splat for life, it is a break even deal.  But I'm an optimist, and I expect to see these updates churning out for years to come!