As The Coin Grading World Turns

As reported in Coin World issues 1/14/08 & 1/21/08:

James Taylor, the former president and CEO of ICG submitted his resignation at the end of November during a managerial dispute. Taylor left ICG on Dec. 3 (reportedly by leaving his resignation letter on his desk - this may be in addition to his earlier resignation letter)

On Dec. 9, 2007 ICG was sold to an offshore investment group. Taylor bought rival ANACS a couple of weeks later. The day after Christmas the ANACS staff were informed of the sale and that most of them would be losing their jobs. It was also announced that ANACS would be moving from Austin, TX to Englewood, CO - within walking distance of ICG.

Most of the ICG staff resigned and accepted jobs with ANACS including JP Martin (Senior Numismatist and former part owner of ICG). Some former ANACS employees have accepted jobs at ICG.

ICG has threatened to sue three former employees (including Taylor and Martin) who had three-year non-compete clauses in their contracts. The contracts were signed in mid-February 2003. ICG claims the non-compete provision began upon termination of their employment. The former employees seem to be claiming that the three-year non-compete provision began when the contracts were signed and have long since expired.

Now we learn that the December ICG purchase agreement included a provision that the sale can be rescinded "if conditions arise that would affect the operation of the grading service" within 90 days. It has been reported that the new owners of ICG plan to exercise that provision and rescind the sale.

Where this is all headed nobody knows. The big winner (as usual) will be the lawyers. Things don't look so good for ICG and their once and future owners at this point.

 

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You're certainly not kidding here Hobo. It is a Soap Opera.

 

I hope ANACS will still be around, lol.
As they are the only ones that will slab and grade damaged/cleaned coins (or so I hear from this forum)

 

Sounds like ANACS is more likely to survive this than ICG. Talylor certaintly thought so, apparently.

 

It's going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. Musical chairs, anyone?

 

I like that point about the lawyers. How true that is.

 

Very interesting, have my thoughts, but I'll keep them to myself for now and watch how this plays out. Thanks for the info Hobo. :thumb:

Phoenix