Colt buys H&K

Correct All.

Colts was financially and still is managerially bankrupt.

Enter the "Investments Firm" headed by the democrat Zihlka and backed by who knows? (I think I know exactly who!) then you have the groundwork laid for carrying out your primary objective: Work the big mfgs. into giving up civillian sales, give them un-reported kickbacks, etc etc and slowly but surely begin the process which will end in the civillian not being able to arm himself as before. A conspiracy? Who's middle name out there is NAIVE?

All part of the plan my friend.

"WHEN GUNS ARE OUTLAWED, I WILL BE AN OUTLAW."
 
Don't rush out to buy an HK. There is nothing in the line you can't get elsewhere.

Let their rifles sit. They won't be worth
squat as collectibles. Look at the Browning
BDM - out of production and cheap.

If the guns are sold at cost - maybe, help a dealer get his or her money back. But I be
damned if I paid scalper prices for them.

Stop buying anything from Colt if this is true. Let them fold. Sorry, Jeff.
 
While I dislike the policies of Colt and that dual-citizenship joik at their helm, it makes perfectly good business sense if Colt is pursuing the military market.

Per the Jan 2000 issue of the American Rifleman, H&K makes the firing components of the new SABR rifle. That's the wierd looking spacegun with the 20mm grenade launcher on top and a highly modified HK36 .223 lower on the bottom. Purchasing H&K gives Colt the right to manufacture the SABR and also gives them access to the G11 with its caseless ammunition technology. Acquiring this suggests that Colt earnestly wants to become the premier military small arms builder of the 21st Century (and resecure that niche in the marketplace).

------------------
Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt
 
X-KILL,

I think you're on the right track. It would be very interesting to know how colt is financing a $100 million deal. I hear the Fed has low interest rates... for scummy gun manufacturers that sell out!

Odds on whose next?
glock? sig? beretta? british owned smith and wesson??

Who will be left when the dust settles?
 
Amazing they can be bankrupt one day and buying another company the next. Smells a little fishy to me. But if H&K is stupid enough to get involved with Colt they should get what they deserve. And I'm sure Colt will drag them down the toilet with them.
If management smells of antigunism and is crawling up Klintons backside I'll never buy or have anything more to do with a Colt product again. Just my pure American thoughts.

Happy New Year One and All :)

------------------
Help Stamp Out Gun Ignorance.
 
Excuse me while i vomit...
It's bad enough I have occasional hemmoroidal flare-up...now it's time to grab the ankles again, boys.

:(

Thank you Colt! May I have another?
 
Well, as someone on HK-L put it, it makes no sense to buy a cash cow, then take it out back and shoot it.

Colt discontinued/cut back civillian sales because their current products suck, and they can't seem to turn things around.

HK's current (pistol) products definitley don't suck, and seem to be gaining in popularity. If Colt pulls this off (I'd think H&K to be worth more than $100 million) I wouldn't be surprised to see the USP line remaining available. The P7, rifles, etc., would probably go, though.

I don't think prices would skyrocket if the worst comes to pass, but I think comparing them with the Browning BDM isn't a fair comparison. Nobody I know likes the BDM (come to think of it, nobody I know owns one), while all my shooting friends either like or respect the USP (and many own them).

I sure hope all this comes to naught.
 
A friend of mine that works for HK/LE Training just told me that they received a FAX today advising them of the deal. He was sent a copy of the FAX also.

British Aerospace has NOT yet, as of 1600 hrs., contacted HK/USA, Sterling, VA officially as far as he knows.

This deal has been in the works for a time now. It should come as no surprise to HK that the deal finally went through.

------------------
Did you ever stop to think...
And then forget to start over again?

Jim

www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lake/3887/home.html
 
JMC,

Since you have a contact at HK, do you know how well the USP is selling in the U.S.? If the line is profitable, it does not make sense for Colt to kill it.
 
Zilkha would like to control ALL of the worlds small arms companies H&K, S&W, FN, Steyr, Beretta, and CZ. The H&K deal has been going on for awhile, though I am surprised that the German govt would approve the sale. What puzzles me more is that it is POSSIBLE that Colt Holding went into receivorship on Monday. THIS IS A RUMOR AT THIS TIME, I HOPE TO KNOW MORE BY THE END OF THE WEEK. Dr. Silwa was fired and iColt, the smart gun part of Colt Holding, is now defunct. The details of the RUMOR are juicey and include embezzlement of funds and Zilkha paying BIG dollars to keep one of his big shots out of jail. If the RUMOR is true it would be hard for Colt Holding to acquire funding to complete the H&K acquisition.
 
Hey, this is not a done deal yet! Although Donald Zilkha's investment firm has agreed to come up with the 100 million, on paper anyway, to purchase HK. Money has not yet exchanged hands, nor does this exclude any other company from starting a bidding war. All they did was sign a letter of intent, that's it. The devil is in the detail and they still have to work those out. The investment firm does not have the money. Think for a moment, what dumb ass investor is going to give his money to invest in a bankrupt company, that is about to buy a profitable company, that will no longer be able to engage in those things that make it profitable. And, jump into a venture that is high risk, with no guaranty.

Why don't we buy RJR and tell them that they can no longer sell cigarettes. Just sell Oero's instead.

it is all political.........

Robert
 
Glen Meyer: Sorry about the confusion. I wasn't thinking in terms of stopping the sale of handguns in the civilian market. Rather, I was thinking about acquisition of a competitor as a means of acquiring technology and expanding one's own production capabilities.

------------------
Vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subveniunt
 
There are possibilities there.
Colt wants the military market bad.
HK has the military market. This Could save Colts Butt. Pull it out of the fire at least for awhile.
Colt may push the G11 project again. In my opinion that was a huge failing of HK. HK should have driven the G11 home. So what if it didn't get an instant Mil Contract. It will come along. The FN P-90 is a weird weopn that has been around for years actually before it won acceptance - and now it walks on water according to the Swat Pups who get to play with it.
Lets think about the future...

Think: G11 in production. Furthering Caseless ammo.

Think: Caseless ammo for your Pistol

Think: 10mm caseless conversion for your 1911.

Think: HK made 1911.

Think: HK made AR.

And all the HK stuff that gets to wear a Colt logo...

You guys are right about poor Colt leadership. But there is some good HK leadership too. They get to mix. Improvements can be made.

Of course they could ruin eachother and mutate into an ungodly mess and produce nuthin but crap.
In that case - Hey - Steyer is pretty dang good.

------------------
"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." - Sigmund Freud
 
Whoever thinks HK is a "profitable" company:
HK went bust, couldn't compete, dollar-wise. The overhead was too high, read about the G11 in Small Arms of the World by Ezell. That's why the guns sold for so much, not that they were some super gun.

The british bought the bankrupt company. HK is still not a moneymaker, as I understand it. HTH

------------------
Be mentally deliberate but muscularly fast. Aim for just above the belt buckle Wyatt Earp
45 ACP: Give 'em a new navel! BigG
"It is error alone that needs government support; truth can stand by itself." Tom Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1785
We don't have a chaplain here, but I don't view that as any major problem... You can rest assured
that you will not go in that bag until I've said a few appropriate words over you
R. Lee Ermy as Sgt Major Haffner, from The Siege of Firebase Gloria
If you have to shoot a man, shoot him in the guts. It may not kill him... sometimes they die slow, but it'll paralyze his brain and arm and the fight is all but over Wild Bill Hickok
 
BIG G,

You are absolutely right HK is not a big money maker. And, they did almost go bust at one time. Before the USP, what did HK market to civilians that retailed for less than $1k? Off-hand I cannot think of anything. Then some marketing genius thought...

Hey lets make a cheap plastic gun and put the letters HK on the slide and sell it for $600-$1000+.

And the consumer bought it. Hook, line, and sinker...

It saved them a little time, but know there time has come.

Oh well everything comes to an end.
 
Gee, this sounds more like a obituary. Come on guys, if it were not for the UPS series pistol, most of us would never be able to afford a HK. It is still only one gun from a gun company who's knowledge of customer service is about zero. This is a company that gets most of its money from civilian sale. No civilian sales, the company is a looser. Now, here comes Colt with a offer to buy HK. That's right, offer, that is what a letter of intent is, a offer. CNNfn is calling it as it is, "Colt is trying to buy HK". No money has exchanged hands and it is far from over. CNN concluded that this deal may take as much as a year to get done.
Reality check number two, Colt is broke. They can't even come up with the money to pay vendors, in order to satisfy government obligations. Who in their right mind is going to give Zilkha 100 million dollars? How is Colt going to even pay the interest on that debt, about 4.5 million per year? They can't even make a payroll. If they can't meet the time tables to those government contract, they are done. They are back ordered as of right now. No one even wants to give then terms for raw materials. This company has both feet in the grave and all that is happening here is that they are making a last attempt to get out. Bad thing is, they make take another company with them.

Robert
 
Hey George, Why would I get excited about caseless ammo, caseless conversions for handguns, etc if none of it will be available for me to own. Sure, there are a lot of cool new applications of cutting edge technology in the firearms market, but almost none of it is available outside the military and LE communities. We're all still fighting to keep our so-called AW's that were designed in the 40's, 50's, & 60's, and handguns designed even earlier than that. All of this is just so disappointing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top