Current status of Ten Tec... as I understand it... Correct me as necessary...
- Mike Dishop, or his company Dishtronix, acquired the remaining assets of Ten Tec.
- That would indicate that the original Ten Tec was not making a go of it anymore or just wanted to get out of the business.
- Now the new owner, in attempt to get a return on his investment, is trying to salvage what they can from the remaining assets...
- Which I would guess are the Ten Tec name/trade-mark, Intellectual Property, Product Design documentation and maybe some remaining inventory of parts and/or products.
- Important to understand here that an asset buyout does not mean that the buyer is buying the company... they are just buying all of the companies assets.
- With the original Ten Tec organization closing the doors they probably had to lay off all their staff, including the product support group.
- Unsure if the new asset owner elected to hire any of the previous Ten Tec staff...
- But from the sound of things they opt'd not to pick up the immediate expense of hiring the original design and support team.
- I'm unsure if Mike/Dishtronix restarted production on any of the Ten Tec products. Likely it may not have been profitable to do so.
- Sounds like they want to come out with a new design and try to get the demand ramped up again...
- But that takes time and money to implement... and in the current market may be quite risky.
- In the interim would it be a wise investment to hire a support staff... when little or no money was coming in? Likely not.
If this is about right, I understand the new owners situation.
And, I understand the former customers situation.
Tough on both ends...
But this is what often happens when someone comes in and tries to pick up the pieces and put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
All that said... I'm unsure if Mike/Dishtronix bought a going concern or the remnants of a business not really producing a return on investment anymore... or worse.
Almost.
One of the founders of Ten Tec passed. The other wished to retire. They sold the company to the owner of Alpha Amplifiers, AA6DY, who merged the two companies together under the RF Concepts banner.
Within a year, ownership of the company passes to another firm, RKR Designs. Little is publicly known about why this happened when it did. Little was known about RKR, although two of the principals were involved with a company called QSC Systems, who built circuit boards (and allegedly other things) for Alpha.
See:
http://www.arrl.org/news/ten-tec-and-alpha-purchased-from-rf-concepts for one.
RKR... well, they didn't seemed attuned to the Amateur Radio business. It was under them that the "fire sale" of Eagle and Omni VII rigs took place, basically inventory sold off below cost to (apparently) raise cash. It was under them that parts of Ten Tec started being sold off, and it was under them that the company was being liquidated.
Mike Dishop via Dishtronix bought what was left of Ten Tec from RKR. He and partners also eventually bought what was left of Alpha from RKR. But at the time of the purchases, neither company was an intact, functioning manufacturer.
Mike promised to put both companies back together and eventually return them to the Amateur Radio market. (He also said that he would do so without borrowing money, but in a bootstrap fashion so that he would always pay cash, not borrow).
He has actually succeeded in restarting both companies, although not to the level that they had been prior to the RKR acquisition. He has had setbacks and unanticipated difficulties... for example, RFC did not get the Ten Tec factory building with the company (story is that the grounds were sold to Wal Mart, who built a new superstore there, and that the previous owners of Ten Tec netted $1 million from that sale -- more than they had ever made in profits from the company in 40 years, total)... so things have gone much slower than he had planned.
But they have progressed. He may not succeed... I for one hope he does, but it's a tough business to be in these days... but they are, slowly, progressing.