Ridgeback are a very well established (1983) brand, doing lots of innovative work in early mountain bike days.
en.wikipedia.org
Many top brand names have been completely diluted since then, cycling and other (Bush, Grundig, Dawes, Claud Butler etc etc etc). I do not know if this is the case with Ridgeback.
That said, Raleigh is another diluted brand, but our Motus is still an excellent bike.