The French did not know the peril they were in until it was too late. The Spidel group and the STC association was an attempt, but they were too weak and not ready to spend the cash on design and manufacturing technology to compete. TA and Stronglight continued, but were bit players in the OEM spec world. Shimano did its part by pushing complete ensembles on the OEM's, a US restraint of trade lawsuit eventually curtailed that, but the damage had been done. Shimano was ruthless, and for that I stay clear of them.

Unfortunately for Campagnolo, the changing of the top management came at the wrong time, they almost went the same way as the French. They were prior to the sunset of the Suntour slant parallelogram patent almost desperate to find an alternative derailleur design that was patentable. This can be seen form patent applications from the time. Campagnolo was a proud company and in the past was the company to collect royalties, not pay them. If they had lees ego they would have bought the Suntour design, not bothered with the SGR pedal and paid Look for the right to make a Look compatible clipless pedal. Shimano did when they had to early on, even going so far as having Look manufacture the early Shimano clipless pedals for them.