More abut the Fidelity make:
Fidelity Radio Ltd., founded by Jack Dickman in 1946, head office in Blechynden Street, North Kensington, London. First radio was model 2546 "Caravan Set" (nickname). They made
turntables and tape recorders (Argyll Major and Minor, Playmatic, Playmaster and Braemar), and cheap portable TV sets. Their products were generally pitched at the cheaper end of the market.
Taken over by
Caparo Industries in the mid 1980’s and closed down in the late 1980’s. Alan Sugar’s Amstrad plc bought the rights to the Fidelity brand name.
"A company called Fidelity plc, manufacturers of electrical equipment, was the target of a takeover by Caparo Industries plc. Fidelity was not doing well. In March 1984 Fidelity had issued a profit warning, which had halved its share price. In May 1984 Fidelity's directors made a preliminary announcement in its annual profits for the year up to March. This confirmed the position was bad. The share price fell again. At this point Caparo had begun buying up shares in large numbers. In June 1984 the annual accounts, which were done with the help of the accountant Dickman, were issued to the shareholders, which now included Caparo. Caparo reached a shareholding of 29.9% of the company, at which point it made a general offer for the remaining shares, as the City Code's rules on takeovers required. But once it had control, Caparo found that Fidelity's accounts were in an even worse state than had been revealed by the directors or the auditors. It sued Dickman for negligence in preparing the accounts and sought to recover its losses. This was the difference in value between the company as it had and what it would have had if the accounts had been accurate."
The "funny" aspect of this is that in the 80's Amstrad was already client from Fidelity through an intermediary, L&N. It can be read on page 61 of a
book written by Alan Sugar Himself.
