Rumor: Raon Digital gone bankrupt?
Grab your salt shakers and gather 'round, folks. It's time to share a rumor that's beginning to seem a little less like fiction and a bit more like fact as the days go by.
I received an email tip early last week about Raon Digital – makers of the Vega, Everun, and Everun Note UMPCs – being in some kind of financial trouble that recently landed them in bankruptcy court. I hadn't heard even a whisper about this previously, so the news came completely out of left field for me. The tipster had sent me solid information before, though, so I had no reason to immediately distrust the email. Since the Korean company has issued recall notices on its website in the past, the first thing I did after reading the email was head there to check for an official announcement. The site looked exactly like it always did, with the Everun Note still appearing on the front page and nothing new or exciting anywhere else.
A few days later, word about the company and what looked to be a confirmed bankruptcy appeared on a couple of small Korean websites. I checked the official site again: no change. At this point, I emailed Raon Digital for a comment.
I haven't received a response yet but today, a week after the first tip rolled in, I went to check on the main site again. This is what I saw (and at the time of this writing is still there).
Gabia is the domain registrar and according to public info, Raon Digital still has more than a year left on its ownership of the raondigital.com domain. So although a site being unavailable could mean many things that have nothing to do with bankruptcy, it's clear that the issue isn't one of Raon simply forgetting to renew the domain.
Whether these three separate incidences (email tip, news on small Korean sites, unavailable Raon website) are just well timed coincidences remains to be seen, but the evidence sure is mounting that something is going on. If nothing else, this rumor will either cause someone "in the know" to come forward with some information or at least increase your sodium intake for today.
