escorts 'r' us

[fjbauer@dsavm.e-mail.com]

Frank J. Bauer                                    (818)295-4108                 
dassault systemes of America     email:fjbauer@dsavm.e-mail.com                 
Subject: escorts 'r' us                                                         
shef sez:                                                                       
>   It is my belief that Cinncinnati Microwave was bought out by Cobra, and     
>that is why Valentine, one of CM's founders, started his own company making th 
e
>V1. The flyer the new CM sent out last year at Christmas about their 900mhz    
>spread spectrum phones also offered what they called the state-of-the-art      
>answering machine; upon close observation with a magnifying glass it had Cobra 
>in nice letters across it...go figure. The original CM didn't do phones, Cobra 
>always has...                                                                  

i don't dispute that cobra owns CM, but i doubt cobra bought out mike v.        
otherwise we would have seen the cross marketing much sooner.  keep in mind     
valentine signed the standard 5 year non-competitive agreement when he bailed   
out of CM.  how long has the V1 been on the market? at least 3-5 years?         
that means m.v. has been out of CM 8-10 years.  if you remember, his first      
product from valentine research was the g-analyst and that was mid to late      
80's.  btw, i thought CM was marketing an early (and very un-cobra-like)        
900 MHz (or cell?) phone in the late 80's at very (at the time) CM-like prices. 
too bad!  i remember when CM was a respectable name and escort was the industry 
benchmark.  now it's just "which sticker should we slap on it before we put     
it in the box."                                                                 
frank