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Quirky files for bankruptcy and announces plans to sell Wink

Quirky files for bankruptcy and announces plans to sell Wink

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Quirky is filing for bankruptcy and making plans to sell off Wink, its smart home platform. The inventive hardware startup has been publicly struggling over the last year, pivoting away from its original — and unprofitable — model of building products suggested by its community and focusing instead on making partnerships with established companies like GE. But at that point, Quirky still had a lot to recover from. As described in a Verge report earlier this year, Quirky was mismanaged and burning through its remaining funds. As of July, Quirky said that it had run out of cash. Layoffs followed, and the company's CEO and founder was replaced by its finance chief.

Quirky is now voluntarily filing for restructuring under Chapter 11, with the intention of selling "substantially all of its assets." That suggests this is probably the end of Quirky, although its spinoff initiative Wink, a smart home company, is being sold separately and hopes to continue operating. Quirky is accepting bids for Wink, with the manufacturer Flextronics already committing to pay at least $15 million. Wink products will remain on sale and functioning, according to Quirky, so anyone automating their house with it won't suddenly find themselves with a broken smart home.