Tower /Great Planes /Hobbico died due to piss poor management. Acquired by Horizon.
After Hobbico went out of business I was discussing this with a friend of mine.
He is an R/C flier (gliders, planes (electric and glow engine), drones, helicopters). He drives R/C cars and we would fly rockets together.
He also had worked in a hobby shop.
He broke down Hobbico's fall to three issues:
1) Changes in R/C equipment. Hobbico had locked up an exclusive sales program with Futaba R/C radios. Futaba made excellent R/C equipment but rested on it laurels and was slow to get into digital spread spectrum systems. Other R/C equipment suppliers had embarced the new technology and were getting sold through Horizon and other hobby distributors. Hobbico was locked into selling Futaba and was at their mercy.
2) Drones. Hobbico was slow to recognize this category and it's staggering growth. Not only did Horizon get involved with drones earlier, they were able to have their own drones made that could be sold for higher profit than reselling another manufacturer's drones.
3) Electric. Electric powered R/C airplanes became a growing category in the 2000s. Horizon saw the trend and invested in electric powered R/C airplanes and even had their own line of kits made. Hobbico had an exclusive deal it OS Engines and continued to promote glow engine powered R/C aircraft when the electric 'Park Fliers' became a major category and Hobbico was forced to play catch up.
Hobbico had $200 million in yearly sales in the 1990s. I visited Hobbico/Great Planes in 1992 and was given the backstage tour by none other than Rick Piester (Lee Piester's son). It was a huge enterprise and a very impressive operation. Their shipping area featured 18 loading docks each able to support a full size UPS tractor trailer.
It still boggles my mind that such a huge hobby player could seemingly fail after being so successful for over forty years.