There's no value in the intellectual property such as the brand and the patents. The only value at all would be the ability to prevent the franchisees who are currently operating from making use of the IP, but that value is purely a function of threats of being shut down, not true business advantage.
And I doubt there is any value in any of the physical assets.
What is tempting, however, is the value in the franchise agreements. That 12% royalty on the machines that are still up and running (and, RoBo's claims notwithstanding, it sounds like lots of them aren't in light of the many offers to sell kiosks at dirt-cheap prices) is worth something. It's just hard to say how much. My previous estimate was that it might be as much as $65,000 per month in cash flow. The problem is that franchisees will start dropping out, and remaining franchisees may start challenging the royalty in light of VEND's defaults. Besides, if someone were to try to step into VEND's shoes in order to collect the royalties, he might run the risk of being sued over the breaches under the franchise agreements, including the failure to deliver working machines.
I think there's enough value in the franchises for Chessler to want them, but maybe he's keeping his distance from them in the hope that the bankruptcy estate collects the royalties on his behalf. That only works if the administrative fees of the bankruptcy don't gobble up his royalties. He is probably claiming that they are his and his alone, but he has yet to take that legal position in a pleading in the case. It remains a mystery to me.
AI
