Downfall
Hoffmann had invested heavily in developing the Gouverneur motorcycle, the Auto-Kabine microcar, and a more powerful version of the Vespa. None of these investments turned out to be profitable. The Governeur initially had quality control problems due to an inexperienced workforce and was later affected by a decrease in the motorcycle market as the German public increasingly turned to cars. Hoffmann was forced to end production of its Auto-Kabine microcar when BMW, holder of the licence to build Isetta microcars, won its infringement lawsuit against Hoffmann. Worst of all, the marketing of Hoffmann's more powerful version of the Vespa caused Piaggio to withdraw the licence. With Hoffmann's Vespa licence gone, the creditors lost faith in the company and called in their loans, forcing them into bankruptcy.
Read more about this topic: Hoffmann (motorcycle)
Famous quotes containing the word downfall:
“Children demand that their heroes should be fleckless, and easily believe them so: perhaps a first discovery to the contrary is less revolutionary shock to a passionate child than the threatened downfall of habitual beliefs which makes the world seem to totter for us in maturer life.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Show me one thing here on earth which has begun well and not ended badly. The proudest palpitations are engulfed in a sewer, where they cease throbbing, as though having reached their natural term: this downfall constitutes the heart’s drama and the negative meaning of history.”
—E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)