Well like everyone else I am shocked and frustrated.  Probably will be mad here in a little while.   My guess is there are a couple of things going on.  
 
1. In reading the Gibson article it is apparent that the owners are not really sure what they are doing or are just pocketing the profits of Gibson without concern of customers.  If their quality is really that bad then I have to believe they are hemorrhaging on the guitar side and need to cut expenses and lower margin business.  I was considering a Gibson guitar but you can bet that is off the table. I just heard from a friend that Gibson was considering bankruptcy earlier this year and was looking for debt financing. I am assuming they may not have got it or it is insane interest rates.   
 
2. For the last several years I felt that Sonar was losing ground as when you would read articles, look for tutorials or troll forums you just didn't see Sonar mentioned.  As one who has been through many company transitions I can tell you it is difficult to stay focused on your job while going through all the changes.  I have to commend the long standing staff at Cakewalk for their perseverance and continued focus on the customer.  I wonder what they could have done with a really good owner. 
 
3. I would assume a company that is ran by anyone with any business sense would have already tried selling the company before simply shuttering it.  If the CEO's personality is what is portrayed on line I doubt anyone really wants to deal with him or he wants too much money to make the deal make sense.
 
4. My hopes:
 
A. Someone somewhere will pick up the asset.  (My guess is that won't happen until Gibson goes bankrupt or is purchased by someone that cares.  I would assume that Gibson while shutting it down will keep the intellectual property and might be required to sell it if it has value in bankruptcy to pay debts. 
 
B. They do keep it up and running long enough for everyone to get transitioned.  I really feel sorry for those of you that use this software to run your day to day business's.   
 
C. That other companies might take this opportunity to reach out to the Cakewalk community and offer them special deals on their software to get us transitioned.  I hate to think about how much money I have sunk into this product over the last 30 year.  
 
Sorry for the rambling, I think it is more therapeutic than anything else. 
 
Lastly like everyone else on the forum here I pray that each and everyone of the people that devoted themselves to Cakewalk will find work quickly and that this will not impact their families in a dramatic way.  It is obvious this was not in any way the real Bakers fault.  
 
Will look forward to the Question and Answer worksheet Noel mentioned after they recover from the shock.  
 
If possible I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!  My experience is taking time to value family and friends has immense more value than what any job or company can provide. 
 
Terry

I am very sad about what Gibson did with Cakewalk, without any warning. The only way for Cake to escape from this trap is to be sold to a group of big brands or a large software company.

Microsoft I read a while ago that she was thinking of developing a powerful Daw for windows that was hers. Maybe Microsoft, but would I be more pleased that the behringer group that acquired midas among other companies was getting the why not to dream about Adobe?

I just think that the employees and whoever is in there can not accept this situation from being reduced to "let's keep the servers running." The guys have 30 years of experience, one of the most innovative Daws developers in the world.

aceric
I see many people in this thread who are kind of panicking about what to use beyond sonar now that it's at EOL. Without trying to sound like a sales guy, I encourage you to try Mixcraft 8,

My suggestion would be for people to take a little time.  It is sad to see the end of the line here.  Frankly I am most sad for the bakers who have worked so hard on this project over the years.  The reality is that the DAW field is really crowded.  We users have a lot of options and for most of us, there really is no need to rush off to the next thing. 
 
Most DAWs do one update a year or something like that.  So really, nothing changes for Sonar users until about a year from now.  Many of us already use more than one DAW, which brings up another point of sadness.  One of the greatest things about SONAR was the user base.  With few exceptions, pe3ople here have been extremely generous with their time and expertise.  I have not found a similar culture anywhere else.  If anybody does find that, I'd appreciate hearing about it because for me, the DAWs themselves are close enough to be considered equivalent.  The people make the difference.

In germany I read a lot of newer articles that Gibson is nearly insolvent. Apparently because they have bought Phillips.
So it is possible that the name of "Gibson" is possible soon sold to an other group. Gibson has a lot of debt and has to pay them 2018. And they cann't. But that's been known for a long time.
Maybe Cakewalk will be sold again to a new group?

Microsoft has teamed well with StaffPad which strength is in music notation entry using the Surface pen device. So i hope they will consider doing something good with Cakewalk. The recent thing that Sonar integrated was the Surface wheel device.

I've tested a few other DAW's in the last two years before updating to Splat from x1 and there are strengths and weakness in all of them, but what I mostly got out of it was just how great Cakewalk is. It may not do what other DAW's have as their strength but it does everything they do and don't do really well. I think that's why it attracted so many people from so many different genres(analog to digital sequencing). Thanks to all the Bakers, Craig and all the members on this forum for making a fantastic platform or should I say Splatform.  I hope someone finds the value and buys it but then again, I don't know about what the benefits Gibson has of Liquidation vs Sale. 

With other words: (I guess ...) Gibson has no money to pay Cakewalks developer team.
And I hope they will sell Cakewalk as fast as possible to a new company.

I believe it would be normal for Gibson to have already made a few efforts to sell Cakewalk. Nobody would shutter development and then try to sell - they'd sell a going concern with all the developers and IP. So it's my guess that there were no takers. 
 
I thought growth through acquisitions was a 1980s thing that IME has not seen many successes. 

https://twitter.com/kingstudiospa/status/933428526518239232
 

@gibsonguitar you guys just killed so many studios .. Including mine... By destroying sonar... What the hell man..I'm outraged. Absolute trash company you are. Sell cakewalk and let us work...

 
Real lives, real business impact .. 
 
 

The more time Cake gets in Gibson's hands, the faster it will be forgotten by ordinary users. It's no use for Cake to keep fans. Although ordinary users should not even be aware of this information about the end of the company. Cake must be sold as soon as possible. We as users have to make some sort of petition to rid Cakewalk of this situation. That's urgent, maybe a petition will help, we just want to get Cakewalk out of Gibson's clutches.