Tandberg
 |
|
| Division | |
| Industry | Telecommunication |
| Fate | Acquired by Cisco Systems |
| Founded | 1933 |
| Founder | Vebjørn Tandberg |
| Defunct | April 19, 2010 |
| Headquarters | Lysaker, Norway |
|
Key people
|
Jan Chr. Opsahl (CEO, Chairman) |
| Products | Videoconference and telecommunications equipment |
| Revenue | US$808.8 million (2008) |
 US $176.7 million (2008)
|
|
| Profit |
US $140.8 million (2008)
|
|
Number of employees
|
1,450 (2008) |
| Parent | Cisco Systems |
| Website | www.tandberg.com |
Tandberg was an electronics manufacturer located in Oslo, Norway (production, sales and distribution) and New York City, United States (sales and distribution). The company began in the radio field, but became more widely known for their reel-to-reel tape recorders and televisions. The original company went bankrupt in 1978 after a sharp financial downturn. The following year, the company re-formed whilst their data division was split off as Tandberg Data, including the tape recording division, which reduced its scope to data recording.
Over time the original Tandberg company became increasingly involved in the teleconferencing systems, and became a leader in that field. The company's main competitor was Polycom and other competitors were HP, Sony, Radvision, VTEL and Aethra.
Cisco Systems acquired Tandberg on 19 April 2010. Tandberg Data is now officially a German company, and continues to make computer tape storage systems.
The company was founded by Vebjørn Tandberg as Tandbergs Radiofabrikk (the Tandberg Radio Factory) in Oslo in 1933. The company's first radio was named "Tommeliten" (Tom Thumb), and used only earphones. This was followed by the "Corona" with a loudspeaker. In 1934, the first "Huldra" radio was launched, followed in 1936 by the "Sølvsuper". During the early years, radios, loudspeakers and microphones were the main output from the factory. The Sølvsuper and the Huldra radios became the foundation for Tandberg's success.
In the early 1950s, Tandberg opened a branch plant at Kjelsås (in Oslo) to produce reel-to-reel tape recorders. Their first model was the TB 1, introduced to the market in 1952. Over the next decade, Tandberg quickly incorporated a number of leading-edge concepts; the TB 2 Hi Fi of 1956 had three tape transport speeds, allowing improved high-frequency response. The TB 3 Stereo from 1957 was Tandberg's first stereo system. In the 1960s Tandberg introduced the cross-field recording technique in the TB-6X model, allowing their recorders to handle higher frequencies than competing models. Tandberg licensed the concept to Akai, who used it widely in the 1970s and 80s in their Akai and Roberts recorders.
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Wikipedia