I call this false. Stern's factory in the last 2-3 years has been packed elbow to elbow with materials and people. From what I understand, the 2008-2010 era was a skeleton crew with large portions of the factory almost unused. They were I suppose 'wide open' except that 'wide open' on a skeleton crew and low cost games in 08 wasn't the same as now. Stern took/received investment at one of the darkest times in pinball. The reason people see this move differently with JJP is that JJP is giving up equity and taking funding in the most successful pinball market in almost 20 years.

Despite most of the overanalysis in here, the simplest reasons to take on an investor are: either JJP is out of cash and needs more, or they have some new goals or opportunities cooking that need cash and they don't want to wait for it.

MY hope is that this funding and investment is to take JJP to the next level and get a real competitor out there for Stern - faster delivery, more titles, new innovations, etc. What may have taken 3-5 years of organic growing pains might now be possible next year. Whether this is true or not, no one yet knows.

Buying 'failing' companies happens all the time when there's real money to be made and the people or policies of a company are the roadblock. (not saying this is or is not JJP - just debating private equity here) The best deals I've seen in my days were intelligent hardworking investors buying a mismanaged or misdirected company with a great product or service who were struggling to properly make profit. Often having an idea or ambition doesn't mean one knows how to run a company and deal with people, deliveries, quality, customers, etc... That's were a lot of private equity shines imo - running a company regardless of the product or service offered.

Great example of the above. Stern was bordering on closing down because there was no demand - why invest in a company about to close the doors? Because its cheap (buy in the downtime, sell high at the peak), and the group coming in had new ideas about how the games should be built and sold (and probably were willing to gamble on a market remaining) - strip the expense out, create LE hype, and we're at 8k+ Stern machines with a BOM smaller than TSPP

Again all speculation. I know nothing about JJP's position, but in my experience private equity loves struggling companies with good ideas and intentions because they can often find the exact causes of the problem.

I have a question actually and maybe I missed the answer - why was this announced?

I mean, the ownership and finances of JJP have always been private, it's a private company, and really as far as the pinball world has been told, it seem to be 'business as usual' - so ultimately why does JJP want us to know this partnership exists at all?

Excellent point. Well put.

It absolutely doesn't to me. That's my point - good product does not equal good business and in my experience with private equity, it's often the opposite - they come in and clean up a poor business plan and/or mismanagement surrounding a great product. Most of these people aren't interested in reinventing the wheel or fixing the product itself - they take what they know - running a business - and apply it.

My personal take on smaller private equity (because it's how I would evaluate a company for a quick ROI) would be to look for companies producing a great product that they can't keep on the shelves and yet can't quite make ends meet. It's a private investment goldmine because if you can remove the roadblocks (frankly its usually people or process related imo) the cash comes pretty easy - the hard part (engineering, inventory, setup manufacturing) is already done before you walk in.

Again take Stern - did private equity there suggest Stern had a solid business plan? No customers, no sales. Fast forward to today, the product is really no different (read all the complaints about the same problems over and over haha) yet the business is thriving because of the changes in management, marketing, licensing, and production. It was a new business plan for Stern, not a confirmation that their existing one was good.

Again, not necessarily true with JJP. We have no info.

I like how when news comes out everyone criticizes debate and conversation around 'overanalyzing' it, and when there's no news everyone criticizes debate and conversation around the same old topics.

Cant discuss the new, or the old... why are we even here?

Its shaping up very well so far. I have high hopes and will undoubtedly pick one up if it reaches the level of WoZ in terms of quality and theme integration.

That said, no pre-order will be coming from my pocket for any machine