I know Serpent quite well from racing 1:8 TR since 1995. I know the founder Pieter Bervoets quite well, and I also visited the factory many years ago.
This rumour about Serpent going bankrupt started already many years ago, so most likely it's not any more valid now than before... of course it's hard to compete against Mugen and Kyosho, with low producton costs. Furthermore many drivers see Serpent as "Microsoft" and kinda hate them for some strange reason... At some point more or less everybody drove a Serpent, but then "rebels" started using PB, Picco, Mugen, Kyosho...
Pieter sold his company to Ronald and Michael. He also founded Virtual RC, which is run by his son. Himself he's retired. A shame really, he really did so much good for RC. And always had so many good points at EFRA AGMs!
As to moving production to Asia, this is something all manufacturers have to do, it's simply a matter of cost. And they can produce exactly the quality you ask them to. Actually rumours had it that they alrady moved it MANY years ago!
Btw. I really miss myTSN! That was oOple web #1... and now it's all gone, what a waste! It was really ahead of it's time!