Ammo Inc is Trying to Buy GunBroker

“Mr. Wagenhals noted that “we founded AMMO to be a disruptive technology-based company that could serve the shooting community with cutting-edge ammunition offerings, whether that be for the military, law enforcement, hunting or recreational shooting communities.”

Maybe Mr. Wagenhals will be willing to upgrade the technology side of Gunbroker to something that isn’t 10-15 years behind the times. Gunbroker’s current ownership has been unwilling to make some simple changes to make the platform much more usable by both buyers and sellers. The changes they do make tend to be not all that helpful, while skirting things that would be easy to do and make a world of difference in using their site.
 
Interesting. I'm equal parts intrigued/concerned.

100% agree with @cubrock's take on GB's awful UI, but I'm also always wary of new ownership (something about "crack smoking" comes to mind 😉). I'm a relatively regular buyer and seller on GB yet still find myself constantly going to its "help" section for answers on how to do stuff. It's one of the least intuitive websites if you want to do anything other than browse overpriced listings. Some fresh blood and perspective might be a good thing.
 
Question:
How does Ammo Inc have enough money to do this? Never seen someone using their ammo. Is it big in LEO/Mil?
 
Jerzsubbie said:
Buying GB seems awfully risky to me considering the left’s constant lawsuits and wanting to do away with online sales.
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That doesn't matter. Any gun/ammo company should operate as if everything is OK right up until the day it isn't OK. If the crap hits the fan, they can always file for bankruptcy and the ownership will glide into early retirement.
 
Starkherz199 said:
Ditto. Maybe the current owners sold cheap because the writing is on the wall.
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  • GunBroker.com’s estimated 2020 revenue of approximately $60 million, over $40 million of EBITDA, positive net income and strong free cash flow
  • Purchase price of approximately $240 million,
 
pinkbunny said:
A synergy of business buzzwords? :p
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Exactly, those are nothing more than business buzz words, and often with little substance behind them.

I have to say I am SHOCKED that GB is clearing $40M! The high margins make sense for a service business and their nonexistent investments. Seems like a fair price.
 
Read the article, I do not see any vertical integration between the two companies. Ammo inc is a relatively new company, founded in 2016. The CEO was formerly in the motor sports industry and purchased a ammo manufacturing facility and wpgraded their production. Unless they are going to use gunbroker as a channel to increase the margin on their ammo bypassing the retail sales channel, I do not see the integration. But $240 million seems an awful lot for a sales channel.
But since it is a stock transaction, no cash changing hands, probably a good way for gunbrokers owners to get rid on some of the regulation risk by obtaining a hard asset based business. Ammo inc, seems like they are taking a flyer in order to get some cash flow(have not looked at their financials.
 
On the other hand, if they can secure components , it IS an awesome time to be in the ammo manufacturing business.


Corporate Slogan-O-rama for sure. Add those to the list we've suffered through:

Ship to Stock, Poke-Yoke, Lean , Right Size, Globalize, Synergistic, Fail Fast, Agile, Customer Journey, Core competency, on and on and on.....
 
pinkbunny said:
Question:
How does Ammo Inc have enough money to do this? Never seen someone using their ammo. Is it big in LEO/Mil?
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Oddly just last weekend I saw a box with their name on it in the trash at the range. Not that I was dumpster diving, I just needed something to jot some chronograph numbers on and I forgot my notepad. The true irony was I was testing 10mm and the box was.... 10mm. Whoever it was even tossed all the brass.... which I then had to grab. :)

Mixed headstamps so I'm assuming reman.

Nice gloss and matte black finish on the box though, looked well done.
 
JohnFreeman said:
Ship to Stock, Poke-Yoke, Lean , Right Size, Globalize, Synergistic, Fail Fast, Agile, Customer Journey, Core competency, on and on and on.....
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I'm not one to quickly call for someone to be banned, but putting all that in one post, I might have to make an exception.
 
Maybe they could just stick to producing ammo.

but hey a shortage leads to enough funds to purchase more companies that don’t produce ammo that leads to a shortage.
 
Jayne said:
I'm not one to quickly call for someone to be banned, but putting all that in one post, I might have to make an exception.
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And remember, to play the game effectively, one has to nod enthusiastically at the unveiling of these new "initiatives" all the while thinking to yourself : What do they think we are, 9 years old?.

It was really liberating to get close enough to retirement to know one has the cloak of un-fire-ability, to be able to respond " Oh Great Heavenly Days, a new corporate buzz phrase" when these were announced dramatically in my directors staff meeting.
 
Jayne said:
?

I'll bring to the front a new initiative where you focus on your core synergies to prioritize customer enablement and success while green lighting innovation and reinvesting in process.
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Mods, can we ban @Jayne ?
 
Jayne said:
?

I'll bring to the front a new initiative where you focus on your core synergies to prioritize customer enablement and success while green lighting innovation and reinvesting in process; propelling the entire enterprise to a whole new level.
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FIFY, in case you wanna play in the big leagues. 🤓
 
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Boy, this reminds me of sitting through meetings before I went self-employed.
 
blewis3 said:
Read the article, I do not see any vertical integration between the two companies. Ammo inc is a relatively new company, founded in 2016. The CEO was formerly in the motor sports industry and purchased a ammo manufacturing facility and wpgraded their production. Unless they are going to use gunbroker as a channel to increase the margin on their ammo bypassing the retail sales channel, I do not see the integration. But $240 million seems an awful lot for a sales channel.
But since it is a stock transaction, no cash changing hands, probably a good way for gunbrokers owners to get rid on some of the regulation risk by obtaining a hard asset based business. Ammo inc, seems like they are taking a flyer in order to get some cash flow(have not looked at their financials.
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From https://www.company-histories.com/Action-Performance-Companies-Inc-Company-History.html

"While he was doing business as Action Products, Wagenhals got an idea for a new venture. In 1989 he came across an article on the baseball card collectibles market, and decided it might be lucrative to sell stock car racing collectibles. Because of his familiarity with the racing world, he was in a good position to know it had not been done before. The popular miniature cars that children collected, such as Hot Wheels and Matchbox, offered race cars, but they were not modeled on specific vehicles. Wagenhals decided to make premium collectible miniatures with a wealth of detail, and to market them directly to members of a racing club.


To get the rights to reproduce one well-known car, driver Dale Earnhardt's black number three, Wagenhals paid Earnhardt $300,000. It seemed a big investment at the time, yet Wagenhals knew that he had a corner on what could be a burgeoning market. He proceeded to produce die-cast miniatures of Earnhardt's car and sold them through a Georgia-based fan club called the Racing Collectables Club of America. Interested consumers paid a membership fee to join the club, and then were offered Wagenhals' collectibles as well as other merchandise licensed from the National Association of Stock Car Automobile Racing (NASCAR). Even though he was still president of Action Products, Wagenhals ran this new venture through another company he formed with different partners, called Racing Champions. This new company took off, while Action Products continued to flounder. With some acrimonious jostling among the partners, Action Products went out of business in 1992, Wagenhals took his share of the assets, and formed a new company, Action Performance. (His former partners in Action Products sued Wagenhals, and the breach of contract suit was settled in 1997 for $4.9 million.)"


Action / Racing Collectibles used to have a warehouse on Harris Blvd in Charlotte.

Richard Childress is some sort of officer with Ammo, Inc, listed as an independent director.

.
 
Since we’ve deviated into a biniss discussion, I have a story to share.

Before retiring, I was a consultant in the furnishings industry. On my first trip to Moldova, I was meeting with an entitled young brat whose father owned a furniture plant and retail store. I was interviewing him in order to learn about his business and understand how to assist. One of my canned questions (mostly a trick question, designed more to discover how much an entrepreneur knows about what he/she is doing than anything else) was “What’s your competitive advantage?”.

His answer was, “We specialize in a little bit of everything”.

I wasn’t able to help. 😂
 
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I hate buzzword speak. Military briefings & pre-briefings & the meetings to schedule & plan the briefing were the worst for that. Speak English, MFer. Tell me what I need know, so I can do my job & stop wasting my time.
 
Crazy Carl said:
I hate buzzword speak. Military briefings & pre-briefings & the meetings to schedule & plan the briefing were the worst for that. Speak English, MFer. Tell me what I need know, so I can do my job & stop wasting my time.
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10-4 😂
 
clay_fv said:
"I'll have to circle back on that"
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For the uninitiated, this is current White House speak for...

“Even thought you provided that question in advance, I’m either too stupid or too lazy to find an answer.”
 
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