Colt's has been victim of corporate buyouts that just raped the company of anything great and left a shell of what they once were. I would love to see Colt build up their civilian market to its former greatness, but the seem to still be 99.9% focused on the military. The dumb part of that is, everyone knows the M16/M4 will eventually be replaced, and since Colt's is not an innovative company, it won't be a Colt that replaces the M16/M4.
No, Colt was a victim of its own Holding Company, Colt Industries, who sucked the life out of Colt Firearms, and also Fairbanks Morse engines and Holley Carburetor (and probably others).
Colt had union problems in the 80's, and went bankrupt in the 90's, and new investors stepped in - they hired General Keys to run it in 2002, where most people agree they have turned things around.
