Your fellow keyboard player is right.
As far as the demise of GEM, If you can read French or Italian, there are a couple of related European based forums, and from what I can gather, GEM has shut down 2 of 5 factories. No one knows for sure if they are just down-sizing as per conditions of bankruptcy, or closing all together. Hopefully, one of our Europe based members can shed more light on this.
Ciao,
Jerry