I don’t know, it seems like you’re dismantling the business anyway to get rid of it.
Does it cost less to not look for a buyer and all that’s involved? Absolutely. But does the sale price more than pay for those additional costs? I would think so.
If you’re throwing it in the dumpster anyway, is it that much harder to put it on the curb with a sign that says “slightly used consumer electronics business, $10 million OBO”. I think the highly recognizable brand alone would be worth more than that. Depending on how you define their “market”, you could argue that they are #1 in their space.
Let’s say they assigned a team of 5 to finding a buyer, handling the contract and negotiations, and getting final ok. Even if it takes them a year, how much would they need to get for the business for it to be profitable? 5 people, even at $200k a piece for a full year would still be pretty easy to get a return on. Or hire an outside firm to sell it for a percentage, I simply can’t see that it’s worth nothing.
The terms could be anything from a full handover to “as is, you pick up, never call us again”.
I think there’s more at work here and someone will come out of it with some of the key components. Maybe it was done this way due to some internal power struggle that was causing more damage, but so far this is the sort of thing that will kick off just the sort of reorg the linked article is calling for.
On the other hand, if it was a ploy to get massive media coverage that Flip was available for cheap as long it wasn’t too much trouble, it was pure genius and they probably have dozens of interested parties getting in touch.
btw – not arguing with @Jeruba, just sharing thoughts