Totally out of my scope, I invested too much in Steinberg products when I could have knocked on some other door. I 'try to’protect my investment.
It is just realism, you can’t announce any delay, which I understand if the situation is totally new to you, but some other infos here let think the actual issue is not directly falling from deep space.
In this situation I just propose a logical solution to fix the actual version 12 bugs, those bugs we were expecting to be fixed buying version 13.
And concerning my previous suggestion of 2 companies, one being Steinberg, the idea is to keep business running even when one of the web shop providers stops its business. This simply could be a participation in company capital, just to keep sure it doesn’t let you without any direct source of revenues.
But nobody invests without a return on that investment, so either SB would get a cut of the profits from Asknet, or worse, become liable for debts. It would be a net drag on SB’s finances if Asknet isn’t doing well because at that point clearly SB would have enough insight to just move business elsewhere instead, without investment. Know what I mean? Just doesn’t seem like a logical alternative to me.
Also, in general; the sky isn’t falling. We’re just seeing a delay. I think it would make sense to see just how long it takes before getting all worked up about it (not pointing any fingers).
Well, this is just bad luck and out of Steinberg’s control.
Now from reading the news, it seems the parent company of AskNet was involved in some sketchy payment processing for tech scammers, should we worry about our details stored with them (if any)?
It seems AskNet themselves are based in Germany, hopefully because of GDPR etc we won’t have to, then again, I am not sure.
haha, you must be joking
Out of curiosity can’t Yamaha be a big help is this situation?
They’re on it and all will be well soon.
Yamaha is doing a ton of things, but somehow software distribution doesn’t seem to be among those…
They are by fully supporting our decision to find a new eCommerce partner as soon as possible.
I have a Yamaha motor cycle 
store not far away from me. Would be willing to buy the C13 update there. 
I still dont get it. Why can’t Yamaha sell ST products? They are in the music software/hardware market, are they not?
Please Steinberg, pick anyone but Square. They are highly invasive and disrespectful of their customer’s privacy.
Yamaha do of course sell software, but these days the majority of the software products they sell are sold via the Apple and Android app stores. In any case, it would be a comparable effort to set up our products on a putative Yamaha online shop as it would be to set up a new provider, and the advantage of choosing a new provider is that we will be able to set things up to satisfy our own business requirements, rather than another company’s existing requirements, which would undoubtedly be different.
Square is not one of the providers we are currently talking to.
That’s a very unfortunate timing for me. I was going to buy the Upgrade from Absolute 5 to Absolute 6 TODAY! And I was looking forward to it for weeks… 
What can I do now? Are there test versions of this upgrade available? Or all single test versions of the new features, i.e. Halion 7, FM Lab, Tales, and would they last long enough until a new web shop is established?
@pschneider1968 You can still buy the upgrade from some other online shops, like Sweetwater, for example.
The upgrade might be available from Sweetwater in the US. I’ve never used them (heard of them, though) so I can’t recommend them.
Alternatively, there’s this post from elsewhere on the Steinberg Forum.
Thank you very much, @David_Tee and @Martin90 for your hints! 
I have found it:
Absolute 5 to 6 Update at Sweetwater
@dspreadbury Will this work, if I buy this upgrade at Sweetwater, a US based online shop? I’m in Germany… Will this really be “Software in Minutes” as they say? Will immediate activation with Steinberg Licensing work then, or is this also affected by the Asknet shop being down?
Oh dear, what a strange and f*cked up situation… I wish you all of the luck needed @Steinberg to handle this difficult transition period well! Did you already talk to Thomann? I mean, they are big, really big, sell world wide (AFAIK) and have the infrastructure in place, they already carry most of your products and some of your crossgrades. I guess if you could agree with them on a more close partnership, this might be the fastest solution to implement. Probably only 3-5 weeks, I would guess (I’m a software developer, so I tend to be on the pessimistic side)
What do you think? Or maybe, as a temporary solution, you could implement an Amazon shop? They’d handle the billing and taxes and payment processing for you, and your shop must only send out the download access codes via email. Good idea or bad?
@pschneider1968, thank you for your suggestions and your kind words!
We will evaluate potential alternatives in the future, but for now, we are confident that we have found the best and quickest solution to make our products available again.
Sweetwater is one of our official dealers in the US and the update offer should work well if an Absolute 5 license is available. The online shop being down has no effect on a license activation and product download. This is all part of our infrastructure.
Thanks @Ed_Doll !
My Absolute 5 license is still on the E-Licenser. So if I order the Abs6 Upgrade now at Sweetwater, I guess I’ll get a voucher code that transfers the license from E-Licenser to Steinberg Licensing, right? Like all the other software that I already upgraded or where I redeemed grace period voucher?
Thanks again for your help and advice!
No worries, activating the Absolute 6 license using a Download Access Code purchased from Sweetwater is completely independent of Asknet and the former online shop. Both required license transactions - turning the old license on the USB-eLicenser into a final (not upgradeable) Absolute 5 license and activating the new Steinberg Licensing-based license for Absolute 6 - are performed as usual. The license servers are operated by ourselves. This has always been the case and will not change after we established a new online shop.