Escort/Cincinnnatti Microwave?

[ben721364]

Update and clarification requested.

Someone please bring me up to date by confirming the following or set me straight. Thanks.

Escort was the lead brand built and sold by Cincinnatti(sp?) Microwave and Mike Valentine was the lead engineer and a principal of the company, way back when. In the '80s (?) Valentine and the other principal elected to split the sheet whereupon Valentine formed Valentine Research. Some time later Cincinnatti Microwave went bankrupt and a new company was formed which now owns the Escort brand name (and the radar detector patents(?). Valentine Research has aggressively protected it's product/patents from false and/or misleading claims and continues to have a one-price-fits-all price policy for individuals and would be resellers.

[polak]

Yes,you got that right,the Escort company was bought by the Beltronics and now it operates under name Escort Radar/Beltronics,even the phisical adress is the same.
The Beltronics company is mainly known internationally wheras the EscortRadar is well know in the U.S market.

[nine_c1]

Yes,you got that right,the Escort company was bought by the Beltronics and now it operates under name Escort Radar/Beltronics,even the phisical adress is the same.
The Beltronics company is mainly known internationally wheras the EscortRadar is well know in the U.S market.

Actually........it was Escort that bought Beltronics.

[GreenRadar]

The following information was given to me from a VERY reliable source:

Mike Valentine left early in CMI's history, after the first CMI detector the "Escort" was produced and before the very successful original "Passport" and "Solo" were launched.

CMI's demise was due entirely to mis-management, bad decisions from the top. Their detector business was always very good and profitable however CMI branched out into various other markets. Wireless telephones, cellular data modems (in the early to mid 1990s!), and Guardian house arrest bracelets (you read that correctly).

The wireless phones were great, they invented consumer digital spread spectrum phones that are now the industry norm. The problem was that they spent more getting them to work properly than they could sell them for. People wouldn't spend the money they needed to produce them, they were a loss leader on a huge scale.

The cellular data packet (CDPD) modems were also way ahead of their time. Most people were using pagers at that time due to the high cost of the new cell phones and their service. They were another loss leader plus they didn't sell.

Going public on the stock market was another bad decision. The public then learned just how much profit CMI was making and the market got flooded with cheap foreign knockoff detectors. Interestingly they produced some detector models for Cobra in the early to mid-90s.

Finally in 1997 the camel's back was broken and CMI went into liquidation bankruptcy. One of CMI's employees and an investor bought all the detector business immediately and created "Escort Inc".

In around 1999 Escort Inc purchased the then struggling Beltronics. Beltronics had some excellent antenna designs but their marketing and user friendliness were very sub-par (engineer driven company). Beltronics also owned all of their own production machinery (CMI leased their's) which is why still to this day we manufacture in Canada.

The first detector they released with Beltronics technology was the Passport 8500 and at that time it was equal to or better V1 detection ranges but in a modern design with good anti-falsing programming. The 8500 sold extremely well and won many awards. Since then they have grown into what you are familiar with.

Their expertise in integrating GPS into a detector is what will keep them going strong. They are working on more products utilizing this integration and from the sales of our current gen GPS detectors they expect that many will never go back to a non-GPS detector. The 9500 series has sold very very well, even at $500 MSRP.

All of this info is in the public domain so it wouldn't be considered it confidential. Note that Escort Inc is, and hopefully will stay, an entirely private company and not a publicly held stock.

[ben721364]

Is this from a press release? <BBG>

The following information was given to me from a VERY reliable source:

Mike Valentine left early in CMI's history, after the first CMI detector the "Escort" was produced and before the very successful original "Passport" and "Solo" were launched.

CMI's demise was due entirely to mis-management, bad decisions from the top. Their detector business was always very good and profitable however CMI branched out into various other markets. Wireless telephones, cellular data modems (in the early to mid 1990s!), and Guardian house arrest bracelets (you read that correctly).

The wireless phones were great, they invented consumer digital spread spectrum phones that are now the industry norm. The problem was that they spent more getting them to work properly than they could sell them for. People wouldn't spend the money they needed to produce them, they were a loss leader on a huge scale.

The cellular data packet (CDPD) modems were also way ahead of their time. Most people were using pagers at that time due to the high cost of the new cell phones and their service. They were another loss leader plus they didn't sell.

Going public on the stock market was another bad decision. The public then learned just how much profit CMI was making and the market got flooded with cheap foreign knockoff detectors. Interestingly they produced some detector models for Cobra in the early to mid-90s.

Finally in 1997 the camel's back was broken and CMI went into liquidation bankruptcy. One of CMI's employees and an investor bought all the detector business immediately and created "Escort Inc".

In around 1999 Escort Inc purchased the then struggling Beltronics. Beltronics had some excellent antenna designs but their marketing and user friendliness were very sub-par (engineer driven company). Beltronics also owned all of their own production machinery (CMI leased their's) which is why still to this day we manufacture in Canada.

The first detector they released with Beltronics technology was the Passport 8500 and at that time it was equal to or better V1 detection ranges but in a modern design with good anti-falsing programming. The 8500 sold extremely well and won many awards. Since then they have grown into what you are familiar with.

Their expertise in integrating GPS into a detector is what will keep them going strong. They are working on more products utilizing this integration and from the sales of our current gen GPS detectors they expect that many will never go back to a non-GPS detector. The 9500 series has sold very very well, even at $500 MSRP.

All of this info is in the public domain so it wouldn't be considered it confidential. Note that Escort Inc is, and hopefully will stay, an entirely private company and not a publicly held stock.

[GreenRadar]

Is this from a press release? <BBG>

The following information was given to me from a VERY reliable source:

Mike Valentine left early in CMI's history, after the first CMI detector the "Escort" was produced and before the very successful original "Passport" and "Solo" were launched.

CMI's demise was due entirely to mis-management, bad decisions from the top. Their detector business was always very good and profitable however CMI branched out into various other markets. Wireless telephones, cellular data modems (in the early to mid 1990s!), and Guardian house arrest bracelets (you read that correctly).

The wireless phones were great, they invented consumer digital spread spectrum phones that are now the industry norm. The problem was that they spent more getting them to work properly than they could sell them for. People wouldn't spend the money they needed to produce them, they were a loss leader on a huge scale.

The cellular data packet (CDPD) modems were also way ahead of their time. Most people were using pagers at that time due to the high cost of the new cell phones and their service. They were another loss leader plus they didn't sell.

Going public on the stock market was another bad decision. The public then learned just how much profit CMI was making and the market got flooded with cheap foreign knockoff detectors. Interestingly they produced some detector models for Cobra in the early to mid-90s.

Finally in 1997 the camel's back was broken and CMI went into liquidation bankruptcy. One of CMI's employees and an investor bought all the detector business immediately and created "Escort Inc".

In around 1999 Escort Inc purchased the then struggling Beltronics. Beltronics had some excellent antenna designs but their marketing and user friendliness were very sub-par (engineer driven company). Beltronics also owned all of their own production machinery (CMI leased their's) which is why still to this day we manufacture in Canada.

The first detector they released with Beltronics technology was the Passport 8500 and at that time it was equal to or better V1 detection ranges but in a modern design with good anti-falsing programming. The 8500 sold extremely well and won many awards. Since then they have grown into what you are familiar with.

Their expertise in integrating GPS into a detector is what will keep them going strong. They are working on more products utilizing this integration and from the sales of our current gen GPS detectors they expect that many will never go back to a non-GPS detector. The 9500 series has sold very very well, even at $500 MSRP.

All of this info is in the public domain so it wouldn't be considered it confidential. Note that Escort Inc is, and hopefully will stay, an entirely private company and not a publicly held stock.

this information came from one of my contacts at Escort, i did edit the wording a little bit but it is not a press release that i am aware of

[ben721364]

Thanks. What caused me to raise my eyebrows was the comment about of the success of the original Solo. Only a freshman pr type could come up with that!

He/she evidently never spoke with an owner of an original Solo...

Is this from a press release? <BBG>

The following information was given to me from a VERY reliable source:

Mike Valentine left early in CMI's history, after the first CMI detector the "Escort" was produced and before the very successful original "Passport" and "Solo" were launched.

CMI's demise was due entirely to mis-management, bad decisions from the top. Their detector business was always very good and profitable however CMI branched out into various other markets. Wireless telephones, cellular data modems (in the early to mid 1990s!), and Guardian house arrest bracelets (you read that correctly).

The wireless phones were great, they invented consumer digital spread spectrum phones that are now the industry norm. The problem was that they spent more getting them to work properly than they could sell them for. People wouldn't spend the money they needed to produce them, they were a loss leader on a huge scale.

The cellular data packet (CDPD) modems were also way ahead of their time. Most people were using pagers at that time due to the high cost of the new cell phones and their service. They were another loss leader plus they didn't sell.

Going public on the stock market was another bad decision. The public then learned just how much profit CMI was making and the market got flooded with cheap foreign knockoff detectors. Interestingly they produced some detector models for Cobra in the early to mid-90s.

Finally in 1997 the camel's back was broken and CMI went into liquidation bankruptcy. One of CMI's employees and an investor bought all the detector business immediately and created "Escort Inc".

In around 1999 Escort Inc purchased the then struggling Beltronics. Beltronics had some excellent antenna designs but their marketing and user friendliness were very sub-par (engineer driven company). Beltronics also owned all of their own production machinery (CMI leased their's) which is why still to this day we manufacture in Canada.

The first detector they released with Beltronics technology was the Passport 8500 and at that time it was equal to or better V1 detection ranges but in a modern design with good anti-falsing programming. The 8500 sold extremely well and won many awards. Since then they have grown into what you are familiar with.

Their expertise in integrating GPS into a detector is what will keep them going strong. They are working on more products utilizing this integration and from the sales of our current gen GPS detectors they expect that many will never go back to a non-GPS detector. The 9500 series has sold very very well, even at $500 MSRP.

All of this info is in the public domain so it wouldn't be considered it confidential. Note that Escort Inc is, and hopefully will stay, an entirely private company and not a publicly held stock.

this information came from one of my contacts at Escort, i did edit the wording a little bit but it is not a press release that i am aware of