Verbatim (brand)

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For other uses, see Verbatim (disambiguation).
Verbatim
Formerly1978 as Verbatim Corporation
1982 as Kasei Verbatim (former joint venture)
February 23, 1994 as Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (Tokyo, Japan)
TypePublic kabushiki gaisha
IndustryElectronics Technology
FoundedApril 28, 1969; 52 years ago (1969-04-28) as Information Terminals Corporation (North Carolina, United States)
FounderReid Anderson (Verbatim, 1969)
Key people
Takuya Fujiwara (CEO and President)
BrandsVerbatim
Freecom
Mitsubishi
Number of employees
510 (consolidated)
ParentCMC Magnetics (2020-present)
Mitsubishi (1990-2020)
Eastman Kodak (1985-1990)
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata

Verbatim is a brand for storage media and flash memory products currently owned by CMC Magnetics Corporation (CMC), a Taiwanese company that is known for optical disc manufacturing. An agreement was announced in 2019 to sell the global business and assets of Verbatim to CMC Magnetics at an estimated price of $32 million USD.[1][2]

Originally an American company and well known for its floppy disks in the 1970s and 1980s, 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.[3]

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.[4] 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.
  • 1975: ITC begins manufacturing magnetic tape for use in its cassettes and floppy disks.[5]
  • 1978: ITC is officially renamed Verbatim.[6]
  • 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 .
  • 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 and Ecotone.
  • 2005: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) merges with Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation to form Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation.
  • 2007: Acquires .
  • 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.
  • 2019: Agreement to be bought by CMC.
  • 2020: CMC acquires Verbatim/Mitsubishi Kagaku Media.

Notable info about historical products[]

A pair of 5.25" floppy disks from 1978
  • In 1969, the first digital grade tape cassettes[citation needed]
  • 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

Products[]

A standard 700 MB CD-R from the 2000s
A 5.25" DataLife floppy from 1984
A small blue memory card, not much larger than a postage stamp, with "Verbatim 4 GB 2 hours" printed on it
A 4 GB Verbatim SDHC card with from 2012

Current and former products[]

Manufacturing and marketing[]

These products are partly produced in Verbatim and 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, , Moser Baer, /BenQ.

Technologies[]

  • Teflon coating for floppy disks
  • (patented Azo-Color technology), first developed 1994
  • 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[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Mitsubishi Chemical to Transfer its Storage Media Business to CMC Magnetics of Taiwan" (PDF). Mitsubishi Chemical. June 14, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  2. ^ "CMC Magnetics to acquire Verbatim". June 17, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  3. ^ "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.
  4. ^ "History of Verbatim Corporation – FundingUniverse".
  5. ^ "ITC Expects Improved Quality With In-House Media", Computerworld December 10, 1975, page 48
  6. ^ "40 Years of Verbatim".

External links[]

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