The first years of post-reunification were not good years for innovative companies from the former GDR. There was lack of money for investments unless you got

The first years of post-reunification were not good years for innovative companies from the former GDR. There was lack of money for investments unless you got sold to Western investors who might or might not have understood the value of your product. Eastern companies notoriously had old machines and low productivity and no experience in sales & marketing. Wages had to be paid in hard currency all of a sudden while traditional markets in the East did not have this hard currency. Western markets usually were already very competitive (as mentioned in the article where they tried to sell to Western Germany a couple of years before). Additionally, there was no internet back then, so crowdfunding wasn't available, direct selling to consumers was very hard, and sophisticated market places did not exist. I know those glasses, they were indeed very good, but kind of out of fashion in the early 90's.