JAN. 30 | WOODWIND & BRASSWIND | BANKRUPTCY
GC Scoops Up WW&BW...Again

Guitar Center will buy The Woodwind & The Brasswind for $29.5 million via an agreement approved by federal court today.

Bidding under the Musician’s Friend name, Guitar Center had originally offered $37.1 million for the South Bend, Ind.-based retailer, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Nov. 21. With a $40.5 million offer, Steinway Music Instruments replaced Guitar Center as lead bidder (as approved by judge Harold Dees Jr.) in mid-December.

Steinway dropped its bid on Jan. 15, and Guitar Center submitted another bid on Jan. 23, a day after bids for an auction of the estate were due.

Guitar Center’s offer “represents the highest and best offer to purchase the transferred assets and is a fair and reasonable offer,” said a court document filed today by Dees and attorneys for Dennis Bamber, Woodwind & Brasswind’s founder. Also according to this document, the closing will occur on or before Feb. 15.

“We’re all anxious to move forward as quickly as possible,” Chad Gettlefinger, a corporate attorney for Bamber, told the South Bend Tribune.

guitarcenter.com; wwbw.com