Hey Joe. Check out http://www.force5sailboats.com/history.htm
According to this history of the Force 5 on the current manufacturer's website it was actually Pearson who stopped making Force 5's when they acquired the rights to make the Laser. So when Pearson sold out to SLI the Force 5 as a viable product was already "dead". No wonder SLI decided to concentrate on the Laser.
Oh the agony, oh the horror, to be betrayed by one's own kith and kin is the deepest cut. And for what? The Laser?
Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones:
Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so
That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever!
I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking-glass;
If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
Why, then she lives.
"A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!"
Pearson sailboats went out of business in 1991.