White’s Electronics Done After 70 Years

[2Valen]

Sad to see them go, but I believe that they will be bought out by someone else for the reasons that so  many have already stated.

Last year I almost bought a Whites, but decided on the 800 because of things it will do.

 

[flakmagnet]

17 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The story of White's the last 15 years is the story of missed opportunities and undue faith in big box machines.

I completely agree Steve, the opportunities and possibilities were there - begging them to progress and so were the customers.

 

[Desert Dawg]

Wow, a sad day for sure, I owned a passle of Whites detectors over the yrs and did well with  the flagship models, I know for a fact they have some very valuable patents that would be worth taking the business over to get, its a totally  self contained little business ready to build detectors,  and is sitting there ready to go with the right people involved. Nice area too.  I think it would work for someone well heeled to take over if they know the business well.

[Sourdough Scott]

Just saw this on Facebook. This is a changing of the guard moment in American metal detectors. 

[ROCKINGCM]

Hi all,  I have lurked on here for a while and finally signed up to post.. I have 2 dead GMT detectors, any idea where I can get them repaired now?  I was trying to send them in but no replies to voice or emails. I have had them for years and don't want to just toss them.  I would appreciate any info..  Thanks to Steve for the forum, it's a nice place to look around. 

[Mike C...]

Im sure glad I was able to get a 4X6 shooter coil for my 24 K before this went down-IMO-I think theyll stay in buisness and deal direct with the public cutting out the middle men [Dealers] and pocket all the money  Mike C...

[Geotech]

2 hours ago, Glenn in CO said:

Steve, I totally agree with you and would add that they didn't listen to there dealers and distributors in what the consumer and market was asking for and was riding on what they had built on in the past.

Actually, a big problem was that they hung onto the distributor/dealer model for too long, and when they finally decided to go online & big-box they just didn't have the people and structure to do it right. Same with Tesoro. The USA survivors (FTP, Garrett) embraced online & big-box. The issue with "not listening to what the market wanted" was really "not having the people to execute it."

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

For the same reason some funny fellows in Texas bought Bounty Hunter, Fisher, and Teknetics. The White’s name has quite substantial value if somebody out there wanted to bootstrap into the industry. The half sine patent has real potential, or would have if the engineers that could develop it had been retained. Bottom line is solvent companies buy failed companies all the time. It’s all about the price - my partner and I used to call it “picking the bones”, every time one of our competitors went out of business, and we’d buy stuff for 10 cents on the dollar. Having lived through a few of these down times, we came to see them as opportunities. Good companies plan for bad times, and have sufficient resources to take advantage of opportunities that arise during bad times to not only survive but to thrive.

White's has exceptionally little value for FTP. None of their models except maybe the GM-24k would be of any interest. The truncated half-sine patent I wrote is the only one I consider to have value, others either have little value, are easily circumvented, or are near expiration.

[Dances With Doves]

I don't know if I want to take my Gmx in the water now.What if it leaks then what  do I do?    I wonder if my 4by 6 coil also  has problems.I did not fix my  Tesoro tiger  shark when I had the chance.I buy 2 whites in a month after 20 years and this happens. I hope a American company buys the 24k  design.

[Steve Herschbach]

1 hour ago, Geotech said:

Actually, a big problem was that they hung onto the distributor/dealer model for too long, and when they finally decided to go online & big-box they just didn't have the people and structure to do it right. Same with Tesoro. The USA survivors (FTP, Garrett) embraced online & big-box. The issue with "not listening to what the market wanted" was really "not having the people to execute it."

White's has exceptionally little value for FTP. None of their models except maybe the GM-24k would be of any interest. The truncated half-sine patent I wrote is the only one I consider to have value, others either have little value, are easily circumvented, or are near expiration.

I agree less value for FT than most anyone. I was just making the example that companies buy dead companies. I can think of some possibilities that people would hate to hear about, so I’ll just let that subject be. Again, best wishes to the folks at White’s going forward.

As far as service, I doubt we will see White’s pull a Tesoro and simply abandon their customers without a word. They will probably put out some kind of statement in the coming days or weeks explaining what will happen as far as outstanding warranty, etc.

See Carls’s thoughts here