I read somewhere, can't remember by who, that Twinlab basically lost the value of the company when ephedra was banned. Products containing ephedra were like 80% of the sales or something like that. Twinlab campaigned like crazy through MD mag to keep it legal.
I wouldn't doubt that. What do guys say when they hear the name Twinlab? Ephedrine! Ripped Fuel!
That came a bit later, but was a huge thing too, they actually kept producing Ephedra products up till close to the end though. The outright Ephedra bans didn't happen in the States till 2002 - 2004ish.
The start of it was the IPO. The stock was at like $12 and shot up to like $50, and while it was at the big number, the family pulled out a ton of money, and borrowed against it a ton. They took the borrowed money and bought up a bunch of things to grow the business (I think there was another vitamin factory purchase, etc....). One of the brothers wanted to really push into regular sports (like EAS and Met-Rx), and the elderly markets too, so they threw a bunch of money at that too. I don't think they had success in the sports market(besides Andro), but they did ok with the elderly with some wins selling CoEnzyme Q10 and shark cartilage.
Anyway, the slowdown happens, investors start looking at the real numbers and the stock drops huge, it think it lost all its gains and then a bunch extra, but they still have to pay the debt. They cost cut and restructure some, and that keeps them afloat for a while, but then they get hit with more and more ephedra and andro lawsuits. And that was it.
I looked up some articles around the bankruptcy sale, sold for $65ish million against $100+ million in debts.
