Raymarine started out as a subsidiary of Raytheon, the US aerospace and military electronics giant. Quite a few years ago it was spun off and eventually owned by a British Company and known as Raymarine. Last year they went through a financial crisis, were cut off by their bank(s) and nearly went into bankruptcy. The Brit firm had been in financial trouble for quite some time and shopping the company for purchase. Garmin was rumored to be a serious contender to buy the company. I personally didn't understand that as it didn't seem to offer any advantage to Garmin except to knock a competitor out of the market. Apparently they came to the same conclusion as they dropped out of contention just before the FLIR purchase. Last summer, they were bought by FLIR industries, a multi billion electronics firm based in Oregon and specializing in thermal imaging. That seemed a good fit as it gave FLIR an entry into the marine electronics business with an already competitive line of products. More importantly, it gave Raymarine the capital they desparately needed to forge ahead with new research and development and weather the economic downturn.

People who had difficulty with Raymarine warranty and service might have been caught by the financial squeeze that Raymarine was in more than a year ago. Know it was before the purchase by FLIR that they summarily stopped supporting the 4000+ wheel pilot, possibly as a cost cutting measure. I've only been dealing with Raymarine in the last year and have found their service excellent. Now that they are no longer on the verge of bankruptcy and have the financial backing of FLIR, they've improved their warranty and repair service. FWIW, Raymarine are now flush enough with cash that they were able to purchase TackTick, another company that was having problems backing up their products, from what I heard.