Verbatim is a brand for

storage media Data storage is the recording (storing) of information (data) in a storage medium. Handwriting, phonographic recording, magnetic tape, and optical discs are all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such as RNA and DNA are conside ...

and flash memory products currently owned by CMC Magnetics Corporation (CMC), a Taiwanese company that is known for optical disc manufacturing. Formerly a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical, the global business and assets of Verbatim were sold to CMC Magnetics in 2019 at an estimated price of $32 million USD. Originally an American company and known for its floppy disks in the 1970s and 1980s, Verbatim is now known for its recordable optical media.

History

The original Verbatim first started in Mountain View, California, in 1969, under the name Information Terminals Corporation, founded by Reid Anderson. It grew quickly and became a leading manufacturer of floppy disks by the end of the 1970s, and it 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. 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 FreeDOS (formerly Free-DOS and PD-DOS) is a free software operating system for IBM PC compatible computers. It intends to provide a complete MS-DOS-compatible environment for running legacy software and supporting embedded systems. FreeDOS ca ...

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

* 1969: Information Terminals Corporation (ITC), the predecessor to Verbatim, is founded in Mountain View, California, U.S. * 1976: ITC begins manufacturing magnetic tape for use in its cassettes and floppy disks. * 1978: ITC is officially renamed Verbatim. * 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 Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the Cit ...

. * 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 An ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and gras ...

. * 2005: Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) merges with

Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation is a Japanese pharmaceuticals company from Osaka, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation. was formed in 2001 from the merger of Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceuticals and Welfide Corporation. On ...

to form

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation is a Japanese company formed in October 2005 from the merger of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and Mitsubishi Pharma Corporation. The company is based in Tokyo and is one of the core Mitsubishi companies. History On December 4, 2021, the compan ...

. * 2007: Acquires SmartDisk. * 2009: Acquires

. * 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

* In 1969, the first digital-grade tape cassettes were released * 8" diskettes were first released in 1974. * In 1991, Verbatim released the world's first 3.5"

magneto-optical disk A magneto-optical drive is a kind of optical disc drive capable of writing and rewriting data upon a magneto-optical disc. Both 130 mm (5.25 in) and 90 mm (3.5 in) form factors exist. In 1983, just a year after the introduct ...

. * Verbatim started its successful foray into the optical disc market in 1993 with

CD-R CD-R (Compact disc-recordable) is a digital optical disc storage format. A CD-R disc is a compact disc that can be written once and read arbitrarily many times. CD-R discs (CD-Rs) are readable by most CD readers manufactured prior to the in ...

media. * In 1997, Verbatim released the world's first

CD-RW CD-RW (Compact Disc-Rewritable) is a digital optical disc storage format introduced in 1997. A CD-RW compact disc (CD-RWs) can be written, read, erased, and re-written. CD-RWs, as opposed to CDs, require specialized readers that have sens ...

format media. * In 2001, Verbatim released the world's first DVD+R format media. * Introduced the first 8.5 GB

DVD+R DL DVD+R DL (DL stands for Double Layer) also called DVD+R9, is a derivative of the DVD+R format created by the DVD+RW Alliance. Its use was first demonstrated in October 2003. DVD+R DL discs employ two recordable dye layers, each capable of stori ...

products in 2004, followed by

DVD-R DL DVD-R DL (DL stands for Dual Layer), also called DVD-R9, is a derivative of the DVD-R format standard. DVD-R DL discs hold 8.5 GB by utilizing two recordable dye layers, each capable of storing a little less than the 4.7 gigabyte (GB) of a single ...

in 2005. * Verbatim launched a new product range of LED lights in 2010. Minidata Cartridge Verbatim DC 2120 QIC 80 Iomega Tape 250.JPG , Minidata Cartridge formatted for Iomega Tape 250, 1999 Verbatim ST-600 XD 1.jpg , Verbatim ST 600 XD High Density Streamer Cassette 2015 Dysk zewnętrzny Verbatim.jpg , An external HDD, 2015

Products

Current and former products

* Solid-state drives (SSDs) * Floppy disks * Magnetic tapes *

MultiMediaCard The MultiMediaCard, officially abbreviated as MMC, is a memory card standard used for solid-state storage. Unveiled in 1997 by SanDisk and Siemens, MMC is based on a surface-contact low pin-count serial interface using a single memory stack s ...

s *

SD card Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between San ...

s * CompactFlash cards * CD-R * CD-RW *

DVD-R DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are optical disc recording technologies. Both terms describe DVD optical discs that can be written to by a DVD recorder, whereas only 'rewritable' discs are able to erase and rewrite data. Data is written ('bur ...

DVD-RW DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are optical disc recording technologies. Both terms describe DVD optical discs that can be written to by a DVD recorder, whereas only 'rewritable' discs are able to erase and rewrite data. Data is written ('bur ...

* DVD-R DL * DVD+R *

DVD+RW DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are optical disc recording technologies. Both terms describe DVD optical discs that can be written to by a DVD recorder, whereas only 'rewritable' discs are able to erase and rewrite data. Data is written ('burn ...

* DVD+R DL *

DVD-RAM DVD-RAM (DVD Random Access Memory) is a DVD-based disc specification presented in 1996 by the DVD Forum, which specifies rewritable DVD-RAM media and the appropriate DVD writers. DVD-RAM media have been used in computers as well as camcorders ...

BD-R Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BD-R) refers to two direct to disc optical disc recording technologies that can be recorded on to a Blu-ray-based optical disc with an optical disc recorder. BD-R discs can be written to once, whereas Blu-ray Disc Recorda ...

BD-RE Blu-ray Disc Recordable (BD-R) refers to two direct to disc optical disc recording technologies that can be recorded on to a Blu-ray-based optical disc with an optical disc recorder. BD-R discs can be written to once, whereas Blu-ray Disc Recorda ...

* HD-DVD-R *

USB flash drive A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since first ...

s * SIPRELAY Operators * LED light bulbs * Gaming Accessories *

Computer mouse A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, which allows a smooth ...

* Keyboards

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 Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

, Republic of Ireland, starting 1979. Verbatim also resells relabeled products from Japanese, Taiwanese, 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 is a Japanese materials and electronics company, situated in Kyobashi, Chuo, Tokyo, that helped pioneer recordable CD technology (CD-R) along with Sony and Philips in 1988. Founded 70 years ago, Taiyo Yuden currently operates factories in Japa ...

, Ritek Corporation, CMC Magnetics, Prodisc,

Moser Baer Moser Baer was an Indian multinational manufacturer of optical discs, storage devices, CDs, DVDs, based in New Delhi. The company was present in over 100 countries, serviced through 15 marketing offices and representatives, and had tie-ups ...

, Daxon/

BenQ BenQ Corporation (; ) is a Taiwanese multinational company that sells and markets technology products, consumer electronics, computing and communications devices under the "BenQ" brand name, which stands for the company slogan ''Bringing Enj ...

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

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1969 establishments in North Carolina Companies based in Charlotte, North Carolina Computer companies established in 1969 Computer companies disestablished in 1985 Defunct computer companies of the United States Computer storage companies Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings 1985 mergers and acquisitions 1990 mergers and acquisitions 2020 mergers and acquisitions