Michael A. Terrell wrote:
"David G. Nagel" wrote:

No. They were very succussful until another company who's name starts
with a "Z" bought them out so that they could get a foothold in the home
computer business. They ("Z") left Heathkit to flounder without proper
finances until Heath closed. With proper finance and control a company
could succeed with out much trouble. There are several "kit" companies
out there that seem to be doing very well.

Dave WD9BDZ



According to trade journals at the time Zenith wanted to bid on a
large computer contract with the US government, but they were not
building computers yet. So, they bought Heathkit to get their existing
government business, and to get the contract.

I've scrapped some of the "XT clones" from that contract and they
were a joke. Both the regular and the "Tempest" hardware. I still have
some of their "Z DOS" manuals and the printed source code for the BIOS
used in the computers. Zenith put the non Tempest version in the
Heathkit stores, and a board was sold by a third party to let you run
MSDOS software on the system. The I/O ports were in different locations
from the standard "XT" design and some of the BIOS calls were different
so that the software written for regular "XT" computers wouldn't run on
their design.

But it wasn't Zenith that killed Heathkit. Zenith liked the computer
business, and also liked selling TV's, both kit and non kit through the
Heath distribution system. For them, the kit division was like a stock
that pays dividends... money for no effort.

The death knell for Heath was sounded when Group Bull, a french conglomerate,
proffered a takeover bid for Zenith. Bull was interested in the highly
regarded Zenith laptop computers. Bull had absolutely no interest in the
kit company, so they stripped it of everything that wasn't bolted to the
floor, and sold it to itself, and mere shell without any solid assets...
Lots of IP, but no money, or stock, or supplies, or fixtures to use in
manufacturing.

Given that Heath was essentially gutted, fileted, and hung from a hook in
the meat locker, it is pretty amazing what they have done with themselves.
They still sell manuals for all of the gear that was sold before, and they
are making kits and educational trainers. Plus they have a fairly highly
regarded business in the home security and lighting industry. You can even
buy their products at Home Depot.... it takes more than a little bit of
"juice" to get shelf space in Home Depot.

-Chuck