In May 2002, Tasco, the parent company of Celestron International,
defaulted on its business loans and entered into an assignment of assets for
the benefit of creditors. That meant Celestron was up for sale.
Meade had tried earlier to purchase Celestron from Tasco, and in
anticipation, the Federal Trade Commission filed an injunction to prevent
Meade from another attempt. Shortly after the news of Tasco's
liquidation, senior management at Celestron put together a proposal to
purchase and privatize the company. On June 28th, they were
successful. The new company is now in the hands of passionate amateur
astronomers who have been making the decisions that brought the NexStar line
to market.
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