Burke's go quiet.

This announcement has appeared on the on-line website of Burke's Peerage & Gentry (UK) Ltd:

A search of Companies House shows that what used to be Burke's Peerage & Gentry (UK) Limited has changed its name to Jacks Hill Ltd.

I have no direct information and am not privy to any of the business activities of Burke’s Peerage & Gentry but I can speculate. It may be that the owners of Burke’s have not sold the company itself (as the head office address still appears to be the same residential property and it still has at least one of the original directors) but may have simply sold the rights to the name along with all publishing rights and trading rights in that brand to a third party with an agreement that once the rights to the name had been transferred away the original company would immediately cease to use the name of Burke’s Peerage and Gentry (UK) Ltd. It now hardly matters what the original company is called and the name of Jacks Hill Limited is as good as any other; in effect the company which used to be Burke’s Peerage & Gentry (UK) Limited is now no more than a shell.

I have seen this tactic used before when a company has debts which outweigh the value of its brand. The brand is sold off to another company and then the original company goes into liquidation. The brand lives on but is now clear of debt. I may of course be entirely mistaken but if I am wrong, I find it hard to fathom why else a company would shed its valuable brand.

I do hope that we see a re-emergence of the Burke's brand.