Dave Balderstone wrote:
In article , Art
wrote:

FYI -

quote
The investment firm that owns Tecumseh Power has determined that it will
close their small engine business. Tecumseh‚s manufacturing facility
will close on December 15, 2008.
snip
Tecumseh will continue to support service parts, technical service and
warranty from their Grafton, Wisconsin facility until the end of the
year. After that time, we anticipate that these services will be
provided by a third party that has not yet been named.
/quote

(Sorry I can't name the source.)

Platinum Equity just bought it for $51 million in cash. Now they're
closing it?


They are closing the small engine division. No mention was made of the
Peerless division that essentially owns the market for rider and garden
tractor transmissions. It's just a guess on my part but I think the
engine side is not nearly as profitable. The emissions standards have
been steadily tightened which forces current engines off the market
after just a few years. That requires a pretty big on-going r&d expense
to stay in the engine business. Gone are the days of designing an engine
and building the same thing for 20 years with only minor changes.

--
Art