The Double Deck Woes Of Go Video

You've got to hand it to R. Terren Dunlap: The man isn't afraid to create a stir. In 1987, the brash chairman of tiny Go-Video Inc. dragged 17 of Asia's consumer electronics giants--including Sony, Matsushita, and Samsung--into court. He charged them with conspiring to keep Go-Video's fancy dual-deck videocassette recorders off the market by refusing to manufacture the product on a contractual basis. Why? This powerful Asian cartel wanted to snuff out Go-Video's Yankee ingenuity, Dunlap argued.

Unfortunately for Dunlap and Go-Video investors, the company recently lost its $750 million antitrust suit against three Japanese electronics companies--Sony, Matsushita, and JVC--that hadn't yet settled with Go-Video or been dropped from the lawsuit. Now, Go-Video's VCR marvel is on the market. And the former trial attorney must prove that his claims of Yankee innovation weren't so much hot air.