Tasco

Last updated
Tasco
Type Corporation
Industry Technology
Founded1954;69 years ago (1954)
FounderGeorge Rosenfield
Headquarters
Miami, FL
,
United States
Website www.tasco.com

Tasco (also known as Tasco Worldwide) sells consumer telescopes. Tasco mainly imports telescopes for amateur astronomers but has expanded into other optical products, such as spotting scopes, microscopes, binoculars, telescopic sights, and other rifle accessories. Tasco sells via retail stores, catalogs, and online retailers. Tasco is based in Miramar, Florida. George Rosenfield founded the firm as the Tanross Supply Company in 1954. It started as a distributor of fishing tackle and hardware. The name was later shortened to Tasco as its offerings expanded to include binoculars and eyepieces. [1]

Contents

Products

Telescopes

Department store 50 mm Tasco Specialty Refractor on modified mount (lower left) and a 114mm Sky-Watcher reflector. Tasco SkyWatcher Telescopes.jpg
Department store 50 mm Tasco Specialty Refractor on modified mount (lower left) and a 114mm Sky-Watcher reflector.

Tasco's telescopes have a reputation as entry-level equipment. [2] [3] It is one of several companies advertising their products based on claims of high magnification, far beyond any attainable usable magnification. [2] Tasco's telescopes tend to be referred to as "department store telescopes." They are generally considered low-cost instruments that appeal to impulse buyers. [2] [4] [5]

Binoculars

Tasco imports binoculars with magnifications ranging between seven and ten power. They also offer Snapshot series binoculars, which include an ability to record video and capture still pictures as seen through the binoculars. Users can transfer images to a computer via a USB cable. Tasco provides software for viewing and printing photographs taken on its devices. [6]

Gun sights

Tasco imports telescopic sights for rifles, and handguns featuring magnifications of 1 to 40 power. They also import non-magnifying red dot sights. [7]

Spotting scopes

Tasco offers several spotting scopes. These scopes are designed for rugged outdoor use and feature rubber armor protection as well as optional camouflage. Models have magnifications between 12 and 45 times, and feature panoramic view finding. [8]

History

Tasco was founded by George Rosenfield in 1954. In March 1996, Rosenfield sold the business. At that time, Tasco employed 160 people at its Florida headquarters, and maintained a location in the state of Washington, which employed another 40. [1]

In June 1998, Tasco purchased Celestron, another telescope manufacturer which focused on performance optical equipment and the more serious observer. Celestron was second only to Meade Instruments Corporation in sales of telescopes. [9]

Early in 2001, Tasco began searching for a buyer as profits sank. Meade Corporation began negotiations for a merger, but the Federal Trade Commission blocked the attempt.

By June 2002, Wind Point Partners, then the parent company of Bushnell Performance Optics purchased the Tasco brand and all the company's intellectual property.

In July 2007, Wind Point Partners sold Bushnell Performance Optics along with Tasco property and sales rights to MidOcean Partners, a private equity firm based in New York and London. [10]

On September 5, 2013, Alliant Techsystems announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Bushnell. Under the terms of the transaction, ATK paid $985 million in cash, subject to customary post-closing adjustments. [11]

ATK spun-off Vista Outdoor upon closing its merger with Orbital Sciences and became Orbital ATK on February 9, 2015. Anyone holding ATK common stock at the end of the business day on February 2, 2015 received two shares of Vista Outdoor common stock. Eligible shareholders had their brokerage account credited or received a book-entry account statement reflecting their ownership. Vista Outdoor was thus initially 100% owned by ATK shareholders. Vista Outdoor stock traded on a "when-issued" basis from January 29, 2015 to February 9, 2015. It began "regular way" trading on the New York Stock Exchange on February 10, 2015 under the ticker symbol "VSTO." No payment or action of any kind was required of shareholders. This transaction was conducted on a tax-free basis. Shareholders subject to American taxes generally did not have to recognize a gain or loss for federal tax purposes. [12] [13] [14]

Litigation

On May 29, 2002, Tasco Worldwide initiated liquidation of all its assets. [15] after defaulting on nearly $30 million in loans. [16] The company had been searching for a buyer for several months, but after much interest by Meade Corporation, the Federal Trade Commission, on this day, sanctioned a temporary restraining order in federal district court to preempt any attempt by Meade Instruments Corporation, the leading manufacturer of performance telescopes in the United States, to purchase all, or certain assets, of Tasco Holdings, Inc. including Celestron, a subsidiary, and number two performance telescope provider in the U.S. The FTC argued that an acquisition by Meade of Celestron would negatively impact the performance telescope market by eliminating significant competition between the two companies and by creating a monopoly in the market for Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, which were currently only being sold in the U.S. by Celestron and Meade. [9]

Later in 2002, Tasco and Celestron, then under the ownership of Bushnell Performance Optics, filed suits also in the District Court of California, alleging Meade products infringed on a United States patent entitled "Tripod Structure for Telescopes." Both companies sought injunctive relief and compensatory damages in an unspecified amount, and attorneys' fees and costs. In December 2002, the District Court denied the motions of both parties. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Binoculars</span> Pair of telescopes mounted side-by-side

Binoculars or field glasses are two refracting telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes when viewing distant objects. Most binoculars are sized to be held using both hands, although sizes vary widely from opera glasses to large pedestal-mounted military models.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monocular</span> Optical device

A monocular is a compact refracting telescope used to magnify images of distant objects, typically using an optical prism to ensure an erect image, instead of using relay lenses like most telescopic sights. The volume and weight of a monocular are typically less than half of a pair of binoculars with similar optical properties, making it more portable and also less expensive. This is because binoculars are essentially a pair of monoculars packed together — one for each eye. As a result, monoculars only produce two-dimensional images, while binoculars can use two parallaxed images to produce binocular vision, which allows stereopsis and depth perception.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical telescope</span> Telescope for observations with visible light

An optical telescope is a telescope that gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, to create a magnified image for direct visual inspection, to make a photograph, or to collect data through electronic image sensors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alliant Techsystems</span> American industrial company

Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) was an American aerospace, defense, and sporting goods company with its headquarters in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. The company operated in 22 states, Puerto Rico, and other countries. ATK's revenue in the 2014 fiscal year was about US$4.78 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentax</span> Japanese optics company and brand owned by Ricoh

Pentax is a brand name used primarily by the Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company Ricoh for DSLR cameras, lenses, sport optics, and CCTV optics. The Pentax brand is also used by Hoya Corporation for medical products & services, TI Asahi for surveying instruments, and Seiko Optical Products for certain optical lenses.

The Meade Instruments is an American multinational company headquartered in Watsonville, California, that manufactures, imports, and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, CCD cameras, and telescope accessories for the consumer market. It is the world's largest manufacturer of telescopes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exit pupil</span>

In optics, the exit pupil is a virtual aperture in an optical system. Only rays which pass through this virtual aperture can exit the system. The exit pupil is the image of the aperture stop in the optics that follow it. In a telescope or compound microscope, this image is the image of the objective element(s) as produced by the eyepiece. The size and shape of this disc is crucial to the instrument's performance, because the observer's eye can see light only if it passes through this tiny aperture. The term exit pupil is also sometimes used to refer to the diameter of the virtual aperture. Older literature on optics sometimes refers to the exit pupil as the Ramsden disc, named after English instrument-maker Jesse Ramsden.

The eye relief of an optical instrument is the distance from the last surface of an eyepiece within which the user's eye can obtain the full viewing angle. If a viewer's eye is outside this distance, a reduced field of view will be obtained. The calculation of eye relief is complex, though generally, the higher the magnification and the larger the intended field of view, the shorter the eye relief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David P. Bushnell</span>

David Pearsall Bushnell (1913–2005) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Bushnell optics company in 1948. Bushnell made precision binoculars affordable to middle-class Americans for the first time through a strategy of importing from manufacturers who provided optics to his patented specifications.

Celestron is an American company based in Torrance, California, United States, that manufactures telescopes and distributes telescopes, binoculars, spotting scopes, microscopes, and accessories manufactured by its parent company, the Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finderscope</span>

A finderscope is an accessory sighting device used in astronomy and stargazing, typically a small auxiliary refracting telescope/monocular mounted parallelly on a larger astronomical telescope along the same line of sight. The finderscope usually has a much smaller magnification than the main telescope, thus providing a larger field of view, useful for manually pointing the main telescope into a roughly correct direction that can easily place a desired astronomical object in view when zooming in. Some finderscopes have sophisticated reticles to more accurately aim the main telescope and/or even perform stadiometric measurements.

Orion Telescopes & Binoculars is an American retail company that sells telescopes, binoculars and accessories online and in-store for astronomy and birdwatching. It was founded in 1975 and has corporate offices in Watsonville, California. A large proportion of its products are manufactured by the Chinese company Synta for the Orion brand name. Orion Telescopes & Binoculars ships its products to the United States and over 20 other countries. Orion puts out a semi-quarterly mail-order catalog as well as email catalogs. The company is a prominent advertiser in North American astronomy magazines, such as Sky & Telescope and Astronomy.

Bushnell Corporation is an American firm that specializes in sporting optics and outdoor products. It is based in Overland Park, Kansas and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vista Outdoor. Bushnell makes binoculars, telescopes, spotting scopes, riflescopes, red dot sights, GPS devices, laser rangefinders, game cameras, night-vision devices and other optical equipments.

Explore Scientific is a company founded by former Meade Instruments Vice President of Brand Community Scott W. Roberts in 2008. Headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, the company designs and manufactures telescopes, spotting scopes, binoculars, microscopes and other scientific devices. Products are manufactured in China by JOC and imported. For Europe the Explore Scientific GmbH is responsible for the distribution of these products.

Suzhou Synta Optical Technology Co., Ltd. is a Chinese company located in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, the primary manufacturing subsidiary of Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan. It produces telescopes and astronomical equipment like mounts and eyepieces for the amateur astronomical market.

Synta Technology Corporation of Taiwan, also known as Synta, is a manufacturer of telescopes and optical components headquartered in Taoyuan, Taiwan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bresser</span>

The Bresser Corporation is a Germany-based manufacturer of binoculars, telescopes and microscopes.

Vista Outdoor Inc. is an American designer, manufacturer, and marketer of outdoor sports and recreation products. It operates in two markets: shooting sports and outdoor products. It is a "house of brands" with more than 40 labels and subsidiaries. It trades under "VSTO" on the New York Stock Exchange. Vista Outdoor is the parent company to many ammunition makers, including Federal, CCI, and Remington. In mid 2022, Vista Outdoor announced its intent to split into different companies with new names and stock symbol; One company will focus on sporting goods while the other will focus on ammunition and firearms accessories.

Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems in 2015. Orbital ATK was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2018. Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems designed, built, and delivered space, defense, and aviation-related systems to customers around the world both as a prime contractor and as a merchant supplier. It had a workforce of approximately 12,000 employees dedicated to aerospace and defense including about 4,000 engineers and scientists; 7,000 manufacturing and operations specialists; and 1,000 management and administration personnel. With Northrop Grumman's reorganization of its divisions effective January 1, 2020, NGIS was split, with most of the sector merging with other Northrop Grumman businesses into a new Space Systems sector.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prism sight</span>

A prism sight or prismatic sight, sometimes also called prism scope or prismatic scope, is a type telescopic sight which uses a roof prism for its image-erecting system, instead of the series of relay lenses found in traditional telescopic sights. The use of prisms makes it possible to construct a shorter and lighter sight, or with an offset between the eyepiece and objective axes.

References

  1. 1 2 "Company Seven | Celestron News: June 1998 - Acquired by Tasco, Inc". www.company7.com. Retrieved September 17, 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 Philip S. Harrington, Star Ware: The Amateur Astronomer's Guide to Choosing, Buying, and Using Telescopes and Accessories, John Wiley & Sons - 2011, page 80
  3. ↑ Rod Mollise, The Good Tasco, Uncle Rod's Astro Blog. Sunday, July 13, 2008
  4. ↑ Michael Borgia, Human Vision and The Night Sky: How to Improve Your Observing Skills, Springer Science & Business Media - 2006, page 1
  5. ↑ NIGHTWATCH: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe, Terence Dickinson, ISBN   1-55209-302-6 , Third Edition, pg 65: "Trash-Scope Blues"
  6. ↑ Cristline, Linda (27 April 2019). "Global Binoculars Market 2019 Major Players are Bushnell, Nikon, Tasco, Pulsar, Steiner, Zeiss, Olympus, Simmons, Leica, Canon, Ricoh, Meade Instruments, Kowa". Canyon Tribune. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  7. ↑ "RIFLESCOPES". Tasco. Tasco. 20 February 2019.
  8. ↑ "Spotting Scopes". Tasco. Tasco. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  9. 1 2 "Meade Instruments Corporation". Archived from the original on 2007-10-23. Retrieved 2007-09-19. accessed Sept 15, 2007
  10. ↑ MidOcean Partners and Management Announce Acquisition Of Bushnell Outdoor Products, Inc. from Wind Point Partners Archived 2007-11-11 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ↑ ATK Completes Acquisition of Bushnell Group Holdings, Inc Archived November 4, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ↑ Clabaugh, Jeff (9 February 2015). "Orbital, ATK complete aerospace merger". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  13. ↑ Depass, Dee Dee (9 February 2015). "Alliant spinoff, merger completed". StarTribune. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
  14. ↑ Lee, Jackson (13 January 2015). "3 Top Defense Stocks That May Benefit From New Congress". 24/7 Wall St. New York, New York. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  15. ↑ Miramar, Fla.-Based Binocular, Telescope Distributor Starts to Liquidate. The Miami Herald (FL), May 29, 2002.
  16. ↑ Di Cicco, Dennis (23 July 2003). "Celestron, Tasco Out of Business?". Sky & Telescope. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  17. ↑ "MEADE INSTRUMENTS CORP, Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date May 29, 2003". secdatabase.com. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
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