Blaupunkt

Blaupunkt GmbH

Type	electronic equipment manufacturer
Founded	1923 (1923)
Headquarters	Hildesheim, Germany
Key people	Lars Placke, CEO
Number of employees	8,700 (2007)
Parent	Aurelius AG
Website	www.blaupunkt.com

 Blaupunkt  GmbH is a German manufacturer of electronics equipment, noted for its home and car audio equipment. It was a 100% subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH until 1 March 2009, when its Aftermarket and Accessories branch including the brand name were sold to Aurelius AG of Germany for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 1923 in Berlin as "Ideal", the company was acquired by Robert Bosch AG in 1933. In 1938 it changed its name to "Blaupunkt", German for "blue point" or "blue dot", after the blue dot painted onto its headphones that had passed quality control.

After the Second World War, Blaupunkt moved its headquarters and production to the city of Hildesheim. More recently, the majority of Blaupunkt products are manufactured overseas, with large manufacturing centres in Tunisia (speakers) and Malaysia (speakers and electronics). Since 2011 however, the entire lineup is Chinese sourced.

By the 1960 and 1970s, Blaupunkt had become one of the leading German manufacturer for car radios and car audio equipment.

The 2011 take-over effectively left Blaupunkt as a managed brand name with all production outsourced to China, with virtually no 'Bosch era' products still under production. The original Blaupunkt factories within the EU are now owned and operated by Bosch, used exclusively to produce 24 V AV equipment for coach.

Blaupunkt was involved in the development of the Autofahrer-Rundfunk-Informationssystem traffic-information system for car radios, and provided this feature on their German-market car radios from the late 1970s. The company attempted to have ARI used in the USA but had only a few radio stations per major city involved.