Months after being bought by a wealthy businessman, it’s been revealed that Vertu is being liquidated.
Vertu will be wound up and 200 jobs are expected to be lost. This comes after an attempt at saving the business by slashing the cost of devices from £10,000 ($12,923 USD) and up to between £4,000 ($5,168 USD) and £7,000 ($9,044 USD).
Murat Hakan Uzan bought Vertu back in March 2017, and it’s said that he later found out that the company had an accounting deficit of £128 million. Mr. Uzan tried to buy back the business before it went into administration, but that fell through.
While Vertu’s business is being liquidated, Mr. Uzan will retain the Vertu brand, technology, and design licenses. A source tells the Financial Times that he wants to try and rebuild Vertu.
Vertu began life in 1998 as a part of Nokia that solid super luxury mobile phones. We regularly saw Vertu offer phones that were clad in leather and jewels and cost thousands and thousands of dollars. It’s said that around half a million phones were sold throughout Vertu’s history as a company. Now we’ll have to wait and see if Mr. Uzan will follow through with a plan to revive Vertu and continue selling devices.