Type Brand Website memorex-ce.com Founded 1961 Parent organization Glassbridge Enterprises | Industry consumer electronics Founder Laurence Spitters CEO Mark E. Lucas (May 2010–) | |
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Headquarters Cerritos, California, United States | ||
Memorex is a consumer electronics brand specializing in disk recordable media for CD and DVD drives, flash memory, computer accessories and other electronics. It began as a computer tape producer and expanded to become a major IBM plug compatible peripheral supplier. It was broken up and ceased to exist after the 1990s other than as a brand.
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History and evolution
Established in 1961 in Silicon Valley, Memorex started by selling computer tapes, then added other media such as disk packs. The company then expanded into disk drives and other peripheral equipment for IBM mainframes. During the 1970s and into the early 1980s Memorex was worldwide one of the largest independent suppliers of disk drives and communications controllers to users of IBM-compatible mainframes, as well as media for computer uses and consumers.
Memorex entered the consumer media business in 1971 and started the ad campaign, first with its "shattering glass" advertisements and then with a series of famous television commercials featuring Ella Fitzgerald. In the commercials she would sing a note that shattered a glass while being recorded to a Memorex audio cassette. The tape was played back and the recording also broke the glass, asking "Is it live, or is it Memorex?" This would become the company slogan which was used in a series of advertisements released through 1970s and 1980s.
In 1982 Memorex was bought by Burroughs. Over the next six years, Burroughs and its successor Unisys shut down, sold off or spun out the various parts of Memorex.
The computer media, communications and IBM end user sales and service organization were spun out as Memorex International. In 1988 Memorex acquired the Telex Corporation becoming Memorex Telex NV, a corporation based in the Netherlands, which survived as an entity until the middle 1990s. The company evolved into a provider of information technology solutions including the distribution and integration of data network and storage products and the provision of related services in 18 countries worldwide. As late as 2006, several pieces existed as subsidiaries of other companies, see e.g., Memorex Telex Japan Ltd a subsidiary of Kanematsu or Memorex Telex (UK) Ltd. a subsidiary of EDS Global Field Services.
Over time the Memorex consumer brand has been owned by Tandy, Handy Holdings, Imation and as of 2016 Digital Products International (DPI).
Today, Memorex is a brand for consumer electronics and accessories such as portable audio players, iPod accessories, flat panel TVs, Blu-ray Disc players, flash drives, CDs and DVDs. These products are actually manufactured for the Memorex brand by a variety of manufacturers; for example, CD-Rs have been made by CMC Magnetics of Taiwan, Ritek of Taiwan and Moser Baer of India. Memorex storage products are sold and supported by PNY Technologies, while its consumer products are sold and supported by MEM-CE.