Could they be the people who ran Chrysler into the ground? Not that I'm dialed into the world of high finance but I've worked for companies acquired by investment groups. They shop for companies the way you shop for a used car. They fix 'em up a little and sell them for a profit. By fix them up, I mean improve the profitability on paper which usually means combining work forces, distribution, purchasing power, and so on. They often sell of the rights to a product made by that company. Said company is then sold to somebody else who thinks they can run it better. Eventually every last drop of blood is squeezed out of the company until it no longer resembles it's original mission and has been purged of it's culture.
Per former Chrysler engineers and some other well placed folks in the industry: The part to blame was Mercedes! They came into the operation with a hard headed idea that wouldn't work in the real world, and 80% of their ideas were unusable. They took proven product lines and literally destroyed them. Scrapped engineering concept designs that were way ahead of the rest of the industry for their Nazi junk. They even tried to scrap the Cummins deisel engine program for their own engines (known to be junk). One of the very first things they scrapped was the heavyduty transmission program after it was 70% tooled up. This unit was proven to hold up under most any medium duty deisel engine out there. Mercedes came into the place with the idea in the back of their heads that U.S. engineering was second class, and were amongst the most hard headed folks I've ever been around. (the worst is also based in Michigan)
I once heard a story about the guy who started Honda in Japan. You could never find the guy because he was always on the floor of his plants. Point being, he was a car guy and that's where his passion was. Compare that to the principals of an investment group who may take the occasional guided tour of their own facilities and retreat into their offices. Not that they don't work hard, I'm sure they do but their passion can't be held in their hands but rather is on paper.
Honda is a very employee friendly company. They kinda make you part of the family when you get in there. But don't think they were without problems. Still over the last ten years or so they've seriously cleaned up much of their act.
My experience is, it doesn't end well for anyone but the investment group.
My thoughts are that if Marlin wasn't in trouble anyway, they would not have been an attractive acquisition. If they were well run and had a bright future, they would have been sold to someone who loved making guns and wanted to do it for the next 40 years. Often times a newly acquired company is infused with much needed capital and cancerous, self serving management is cut out quickly which can be a good thing. I completely agree with Marlin's production stoppage but lets not mistake that decision with intelligence. By knowingly releasing all those poorly produced firearms onto a loyal customer base, they have effectively run the ship into the iceberg and stopping the engines won't fix the leak. Still... a Phoenix may arise from the ashes. Marlin's outcome is not yet pre-determined but the stench of failure is ripe.