[3] DAK Industries was founded in 1966 and during the 1980s became a mail-order electronics firm based in Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California.
Kaplan spent five years at UCLA, but never earned a degree, then went into business full-time, setting up shop in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, to sell recording tapes.
The Los Angeles Times once called DAK "the L.L.Bean of consumer electronics", adding though that Kaplan was reclusive and rarely granted interviews, and refused to be photographed.
It was selling everything from radar detectors and stereo speakers to security lighting systems, hand-held photocopiers, and televisions with two-inch screens.
DAK's catalog mailing list and customer database was valuable and was sold during the bankruptcy proceedings to VentureDirect Worldwide.
Microsoft had sought to obtain payment from DAK for a non-exclusive software licensing agreement covering mostly its Word product.
But if that applied to all debts, no one would extend further credit to the company and it would be less able to administer the bankruptcy and ensure fair payment to its existing creditors.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held, however, that DAK's bankruptcy case was not entitled to priority as administrative expenses, and would instead be treated as non-priority general unsecured claims.