[Utah-astronomy] Meade's "once bitter rival Celestron"?

Hi all, I heard off list from another SLAS member about Meade's stock being really cheap. That got me poking around the web where I came across this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meade_Instruments Note how in the "Origins and history" section it refers to Celestron as being Meade's "once bitter rival". Huh? I remember that at one point they attempted to merge but I don't think that ever happened. Aren't the two companies still rivals? ??? patrick