After World War II NEC was a shambles. All their foreign owned business interests had been seized, their association with Western Electric was severed and their factories were mostly destroyed from allied bombing. But they survived, regrouped, found investors and participated in "The Miracle of Japan" by manufacturing component parts, ICs and circuit boards. Once again they became a large and prosperous electronics giant. When Beta came along they decided joining forces with Sony would be good way to venture into the new home video market. Like Sanyo they licensed the Beta format and then designed, manufactured and distributed their own machines; obtaining few parts from Sony. NEC machines were always feature packed and slightly ahead of their time. Unfortunately this made them only marginally profitable. So around the time Betahi-fi hit the scene they decided to discontinue manufacturing Beta due to poor sales and pressure from the opposition.