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Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Topic: Company

 From HandWiki - Reading time: 4 min
Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (Verbatim)
三菱化学メディア株式会社
TypePublic kabushiki gaisha
IndustryElectronics
FoundedApril 28, 1969 as Information Terminals Corporation (North Carolina, United States)
1978 as Verbatim Corporation
1982 as Kasei Verbatim (former joint venture)
February 23, 1994 as Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (Tokyo, Japan)
FounderReid Anderson (Verbatim, 1969)
Headquarters3-20 Kanda Ogawa-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0052, Japan
Key people
Masahiro Taguchi (CEO and President)
BrandsVerbatim
Freecom
Mitsubishi (formerly)
Number of employees
510 (consolidated)
ParentMitsubishi Chemical Holdings
WebsiteOfficial website

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd. (三菱化学メディア株式会社, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Kabushiki-gaisha, abbreviated as MKM) is a Japanese company that markets storage media and flash memory products mostly under the Verbatim (バーベイタム, Bābeitamu) brand name. It is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, based in Tokyo, and was founded on February 23, 1994.

Originally an American company and well known for its floppy disks in the 1970s and 1980s, Verbatim has been part of Japanese Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation since 1990, with the current company founded in 1994 reusing the brand name. Verbatim is today one of the best-known brand names for recordable optical media. It was named the leading brand globally in the market in 2005, and are known for their patented azo dye, which is regarded as being high in quality.[1]

History

The original Verbatim first started in Mountain View, California in 1969, under the name Information Terminals Corporation, founded by Reid Anderson. It grew and became a leading manufacturer of floppy disks by the end of the 1970s, and was soon renamed Verbatim. In 1982 it formed a floppy disk joint venture with Japanese company Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation (forerunner of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation), with the joint venture called Kasei Verbatim.

Verbatim mostly struggled in the decade and was purchased by Eastman Kodak in 1985, while its floppy partnership with Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation was still intact. It was eventually purchased fully by Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation in March 1990, after eight years in a joint venture. Many new products were launched under the new Japanese ownership, and the brand saw immense growth in the decade.[2] Mitsubishi Kagaku Media was founded in October 1994 as a subsidiary through the merger of Mitsubishi Kasei and Mitsubishi Petrochemical, resulting in Mitsubishi Chemical. The new company absorbed the former American company and created a new Japanese entity, whilst the old Verbatim brand lived on.

In addition, Mitubishi Kagaku Media sell products under the Freecom brand. Freecom was founded in Berlin, Germany in 1989 and had been based in the Netherlands when it was purchased by Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings in September 2009.

The company was selling products under the Mitsubishi brand in Japan from 1994 to 2010, when Verbatim fully replaced it.

Key dates
Former Verbatim logo, 1978–2007
  • 1969: Information Terminals Corporation (ITC), the predecessor to Verbatim, is founded in Mountain View, California, U.S.
  • 1978: ITC is officially renamed Verbatim.[3]
  • 1979: Verbatim goes public; sales grow to $36 million.
  • 1985: Eastman Kodak announces its $174 million bid for Verbatim.
  • 1990: Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation acquires Verbatim.
  • 1992: The company buys Carlisle Memory Products.
  • 1994: Mitsubishi Kasei Corporation and Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co., Ltd merge to create Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. End of the original Verbatim Corporation as it is turned into a new subsidiary, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM). Verbatim brand replaced by Mitsubishi in Japan.
  • 1994: Verbatim enters a joint venture with Sanyo Laser Products.
  • 1995: Acquires Laser Technologies and Ecotone.
  • 2005: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation merges with Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation to form Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation.
  • 2007: Acquires SmartDisk.
  • 2009: Acquires Freecom.
  • 2009: Verbatim brand returns to the Japanese market for the first time since 1994.
  • 2010: Mitsubishi Kagaku Media unifies all recordable discs products under one umbrella Verbatim brand in the Japanese market.

Products

A standard 700MB CD-R from the 2000s.
A pair of 5.25" floppy disks from 1978.
A 1984 5.25" DataLife floppy.
Current and former products
Notable info about historical products
  • 8" diskettes were first released in 1974.
  • In 1991, Verbatim released the world's first 3.5" magneto-optical disk.
  • Verbatim started its successful foray into the optical disc market in 1993 with CD-R media.
  • In 1997, Verbatim released the world's first CD-RW format media.
  • In 2001, Verbatim released the world's first DVD+R format media.
  • Introduced the first 8.5 GB DVD+R DL products in 2004, followed by DVD-R DL in 2005.
  • Verbatim launched a new product range of LED lights in 2010.

  • Minidata Cartridge formatted for Iomega Tape 250, 1999.

  • Verbatim ST 600 XD High Density Streamer Cassette.

  • An external HDD, 2015.

Manufacturing and marketing

These products are partly produced in Verbatim/Mitsubishi's own plants in Singapore and Japan, and partly under license by Taiwanese and Indian manufacturers.

Their early floppies were manufactured at a factory in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, starting 1979.

Verbatim also resells relabeled products from Japanese, Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese, Malaysian and Indian factories (Pearl White DVD series in Europe, some CD-R not labeled Super Azo), including but not limited to products by Taiyo Yuden, Ritek Corporation, CMC Magnetics, Prodisc, Moser Baer, Daxon/BenQ.

Technologies
  • Teflon coating for floppy disks.
  • Advanced Azo Dye Technology (patented Azo-Color technology), first developed 1994.
  • SERL Super Eutectic Recording Layer technology for rewritable media (after deleting the medium it regenerates).
  • TERL (Tellurium Alloy Recording Layer) technology for special Audio CD-RWs.
  • MABL for Blu-ray discs.

See also

  • Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings

References

  1. ↑ "Verbatim/MKM Named No. 1 in Global Recordable CD and DVD Media Markets; Technology Leadership Enhances Media Appeal for Quality-Seeking Consumers, Businesses". Business Wire. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20050331005242/en/VerbatimMKM-Named-No.-1-Global-Recordable-CD. 
  2. ↑ "History of Verbatim Corporation – FundingUniverse". http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/verbatim-corporation-history/. 
  3. ↑ "40 years of Verbatim – Verbatim Europe – Data Storage, Computer & Imaging Consumables". http://www.verbatim-europe.co.uk/en_1/article_40-years-of-verbatim_5154_0.html. 

External links




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