Part 6/8:
In a bitter twist of fate, RCA faced a corporate buyout by General Electric in 1985, which effectively dismantled the company and its remaining operations, including CED. The company was unable to fulfill its promise of continued disk production, leading to the system's official demise by 1986.
This abrupt end demonstrated how corporate decisions and market competition can drive failing technology into extinction, despite the possibility of a different trajectory had the product been launched at an earlier point in time.