Directors from the old Leisure Tech Group who now trade as LeisureTech Electronics are back trying to flog A Bus technology in the US and European market under the Forte Electronics brand name despite earlier versions of A Bus being described as “old hat”.
George Dexter, the CEO of European technology company Armour Group claimed back in 2009 after a major patent win in the UK Courts that “A-Bus technology will be obsolete within two years”. The Comments came after Goldfinch and Leisure Tech Group lost an A Bus patent battle in the UK High Court.
Shortly after losing the patent fight in Europe Mr Goldfinch was accused, along with his accountant, of deliberately placing the original LeisureTech Company into administration in an effort to avoid paying legal and damages costs associated with his A Bus patent fight in Europe.
Armour Group claimed at the time that this action was fraudulently and done to avoid paying legal bills.
Armour Group has always said LeisureTech’s A-Bus patent lacked substance and was “an obvious solution using standard audio integrated circuits and industry standard Cat 5 cable”. Its contention is that nobody “could claim a monopoly” on this technology, said Mr Dexter.
Five years on Sydney based CEO Andrew Goldfinch is back trying to convince customers to invest in his Forte Electronics brand and his A Bus technology despite his questionable past.
Goldfinch once tried to claim that assets in the old Leisure Tech were only worth $2M when he tried to strip them out of the Company a second valuation at the time valued them at over $5M.
In placing the original LeisureTech into voluntary administration Andrew Goldfinch the CEO of LeisureTech and his fellow directors Mr Jonathan Ritchie an accountant with connections in Vanuatu and Mrs Elisabeth Goldfinch used an independent Company to value the assets of LeisureTech before they were asset stripped into a new company called AC & EM G Pty Limited, that Company is today called LeisureTech Electronics the same Company that is using the Forte Electronics brand name to try and resurrect their A Bus fortunes in the USA and Europe.
The value placed on the entire LeisureTech entity at the time by Goldfinch was $2M dollars, this was despite the Company having the potential of 5 year revenue streams from A Bus patents. Armour Group of the UK who were one of the Creditors said in 2009 that the assets were worth a minimum of $5M dollars.
In his latest marketing exercise Goldfinch has appointed Steren Electronics in the USA, to import and distribute the Forte line in the U.S. and Canada, the new technology including intercom and IR products.
Overnight LeisureTech which is Sydney based, announced to US trade media and not Australian media where is past actions are well known that they have appointed an international sales rep for South America, Asia and Oceania and, in a joint venture with its U.K. distributor Aldous Systems Europe, the company is trying to expand its current European distribution to Eastern Europe as well as Middle East and Africa.
Goldfinch claims that A-BUS systems, analogue audio, control signals and power are sent from centralized audio sources over a single CAT-5 cable to in-wall amplified keypads, which in turn connect to passive in-ceiling or in-wall speakers. In some cases, audio is sent directly from central source to amplified speakers.
The Forte line-up feature a “somewhat broader range than current A-BUS partners offer since it has both structured-wiring products and custom surface-mount configurations for non-structured wiring installations,” said Scott Sylvester, LeisureTech’s U.S. manager.
LeisureTech managing director Andrew Goldfinch said its partners “market a limited range of A-BUS SKUs pertinent to their customer base,” but with the Forte brand, “we have a very wide range of A-BUS modular components”.
