Quote:
Originally Posted by jr_tech
I suspect that newer companies such as HP and Tektronix took much of the instrument market away from Dumont with modern designs of more capable instruments during the same time period. This also was likely a contributing factor to the decline of DuMont.
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It was not until the mid 1950s, when DuMont was being dismantled by Paramount, that HP and Tektronix were finally able to match DuMont's quality at its price point. But it was all over for DuMont by then. The TV network was sold to Metromedia, the TV division to Emerson, and the remainder to Fairchild Camera.
The TV business costs, and potential, were huge compared to the tiny equipment business, and DuMont was losing piles of money creating its own programming because it couldn't make the ad dollars and Paramount wouldn't provide any movies or talent (which were under contract).
Remember: if DuMont can't raise capital because of (a) obstruction by its business partner, and (b) bribery of the FCC to keep DuMont out of the profitable VHF TV sector, it won't be able to compete in ANY market sector, and that's what happened. So it wasn't the small upstarts of HP and Tek that ate its lunch and smashed its ricebowl.
The cause of DuMont's demise is Paramount's attempt to slow down the introduction of TV and bribery of the FCC by CBS/NBC/ABC, not what DuMont was able to do with its limited resources to compete against much smaller business rivals in the small test-equipment market.