It looks like we can chalk up Ugobe, makers of the lovable Pleo Robot, as one more victim of the poor economy and the ongoing credit crunch. Evidently, it was never a matter of whether there were enough people buying the personable robots, because Ugobe defintiely had the orders. The problem came when the companies who ordered shipments could not pay Ugobe, because their credit was frozen or denied. As a result, Ugobe has had to lay off 20 employees and declare Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Owners of existing Pleosaurs are understandably a bit freaked out.

This just in from Robert Oschler…

Hello GearDiary,

The Idaho statesman finally managed to get some additional details on Ugobe’s bankruptcy and what caused it. Apparently the credit crunch caused large orders to go unfulfilled as customers that had placed large orders with Ugobe were unable to pay for them since their banks stopped providing liquidity. There is also background information on the loss of key management personnel. The article also gets quotes from Caleb Chung, Pleo’s inventor and Ugobe co-founder, on what will happen at the upcoming bankruptcy hearings and what he intends to do next:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/business/story/743073.html

I’m getting tons of E-mails from people looking for batteries, chargers, and other questions on Pleo since they heard of Ugobe’s demise. I want to make sure those people get helped and my Pleo blog’s last usage will be to take care of those people, especially since the Pleo World site is now officially gone:

http://www.robotsrule.com/pleo/blogger.html

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Thanks,
Robert Oschler