British smartphone maker Wileyfox is dead. A company employee took to their verified Reddit account to make the announcement on February 6, stating that the firm had gone into administration.
Writing on Reddit, user Wileyfox-Jack said "Wileyfox Europe Limited is in Administration. Andrew Andronikou and Andrew Hosking are appointed joint administrators and act jointly and severely without personal liability."
Update: We've now been sent an official statement from Wileyfox on the news.
"On the 5th February 2018 Smartphone manufacturer, Wileyfox (‘Wileyfox Group’) placed one of it’s European subsidiaries, Wileyfox Europe Limited (‘WFE’) into administration and appointed Andrew Andronikou and Andrew Hosking of Quantuma LLP as joint administrators.
"The purpose of the administration is to restructure the Wileyfox Group, reduce its cost base in Europe and to ensure its long term future across all the markets it operates in. Regretfully, as a result of this, certain redundancies have been inevitable in WFE and the Wileyfox Group is working with those affected to ensure they have the support needed to find alternative employment.
"The Wileyfox Group is committed to working with partners, distributors and customers in Europe to ensure, as far as possible, uninterrupted support and service for Wileyfox mobile handsets in the market, as well as outline the Group’s future plans in this core market.
"All other subsidiaries of the Wileyfox Group continue to operate as normal and their operations remain unaffected by the WFE administration.
"The Wileyfox Group will make further announcements regarding its restructure and future plans in the near future."
Wileyfox launched in August 2015, and TechRadar was there to witness the introduction of the exciting new brand, offering well-built, 4G enabled smartphones at affordable price points.
Over the years it had a mix of success and failure with its smartphone range, but ultimately it appears its low cost, low margins approach wasn't enough to keep it afloat.
What does it mean for current owners?
For now, it's not clear what this means for owners of Wileyfox handsets, but it's likely not good.
Jack writes "I'm afraid I won't be able to answer such questions as 'What will happen to my phone that's off for repair'", but he notes "for phone updates this won't happen anymore I'm afraid unless something drastically changes" and "for repairs and warranties that's up to the administrator now so I can't and won't comment on that."
We have contacted Wileyfox for more information on this news, and will update this article when we know more.
- Wileyfox phone reviews: Swift 2 | Swift 2 Plus | Swift 2 X | Spark Plus | Spark X
