There has been a bunch of tin foil hat conspiracy stuff floating around for a while. Gun sales are at the highest point in our history, it's possible management is incompetent enough to bankrupt a brand as old as Marlin during record industry sales, but I don't think it'll happen.
The big issue right now is Remington threatening to leave New York if they pass the microstamping bill that is being proposed. For H&R and Marlin fans this possibly leads to a perfect storm of bad news. If the president loses reelection the firearms industry sales are going to fall dramatically. Remington would face a tough decision if the president loses and NY passes the microstamping law. Moving production during an industry downturn is tricky at best. I don't see Marlin or H&R going away, but I can see much leaner operations and less products offered.