Colt goes bankrupt

[Frank]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/17/dropped-by-the-u-s-military-colt-goes-bankrupt.html

Most of you guys are for more in the know than I am here, but I get the impression Colt continued to lay back arrogantly and just assume because of its long history with the military that it was invincible. That maybe they greased the right paws thinking they'd never be bumped. It didn't seem to take serious steps to redesign and repair long standing issues with some of their guns. Then it sounds like their whole marketing was lazy too. Is that about the gist of it? Are some of them really junk?

[dee]

No surprise. FN took a large part of the m4 contract plus little to no innovation in new product design.

[phaux]

“Law enforcement officers are increasingly turning to Glock pistols as a sidearm,” Francis writes, “as opposed to Colt’s 1911 gun.”

Lol

[soap]

The only thing Colt has is Heritage, that's it.

[Trip McNeely]

Will this affect the value of their guns out there?

[Moose242]

Will this affect the value of their guns out there?

No. The Colt name will never go away. Just like Armalite, Springfield Armory, Winchester, Ithaca, and so on. This happens more than it should with gun companies (what with all the examples and precedent set).

But Colt has been in the shitter for a long time.









Lack of innovation, high priced products, putting all your eggs in one basket (US Military) equals loss of money and bankruptcy. All in all who cares. Just a mid-level manufacturer and overpriced retailer of AR15's and 1911's is falling by the wayside.

[BlackGT]

Colt builds (mostly) decent guns, but have survived (and put too much faith into) their name/roll mark. The biggest problem is the price of the guns that they make. There are other mfgs out there turning out products as good or better than Colt for less money. Also, as stated above, they haven't introduced anything innovative or new in a long time. They arrogantly thought they could survive on their .gov contract for m4s and what little sales they had in the civilian market with AR-15s and 1911's...

Lack of forward thinking and initiative killed Colt...

[YALE]

The real shame is that USFA is out of business. Quality 1911's and AR's abound, but not even Colt can match what they were turning out for a quality single action revolver.

[Broncojohnny]

Another bullshit story about PE firms saddling gun companies with debt.

This story has about as much to do with the reality of operating the company as any fairy tale does. They buy these companies and load up their balance sheets with debt, robbing the money by sending it up the food chain. Then when the company can't service the debt the go bankrupt and start over.

Does anyone here really think they needed $350 million in capital to make fucking rifles?

[FunFordCobra]

My delta elite is not overpriced you jew!!!

[YALE]

Another bullshit story about PE firms saddling gun companies with debt.

This story has about as much to do with the reality of operating the company as any fairy tale does. They buy these companies and load up their balance sheets with debt, robbing the money by sending it up the food chain. Then when the company can't service the debt the go bankrupt and start over.

Does anyone here really think they needed $350 million in capital to make fucking rifles?

Preach it! They were making rifles on a government contract. They had a blank check.

[AnthonyS]

Preach it! They were making rifles on a government contract. They had a blank check.

And they cashed it and bankrupted the company and are going to file and walk away..... sheer genius if you think about it from a selfish investor's point of view. How many million dollar bonuses do you think they gave themselves for thinking this plan out?

[Gasser64]

See 'em in hell. After seeing that "smart gun" crap, I piss on their grave.