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The story
The company started in Mountain View, California, in 1969, under the name Information Terminals, 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 (forerunner of Mitsubishi Chemical), with the joint venture called Kasei Verbatim.
Verbatim was purchased by Kodak in 1985, while its floppy partnership with Mitsubishi Kasei was still intact. It was eventually purchased fully by Mitsubishi Kasei 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 company sold products under the Mitsubishi brand in Japan from 1994 to 2010, when Verbatim fully replaced it.
Key dates
1969: Information Terminals was founded in Mountain View, California, U.S.
1976: Information Terminals began manufacturing magnetic tape for use in its cassettes and floppy disks.
1978: Information Terminals was officially renamed Verbatim.
1979: Verbatim went public; sales grew to $36 million.
1985: Kodak announced its $174 million bid for Verbatim.
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1990: Mitsubishi Kasei acquired Verbatim.
1992: The company acquired Carlisle Memory Products.
1994: Mitsubishi Kasei and Mitsubishi Petrochemical merged to create Mitsubishi Chemical, and a new subsidiary, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media, was founded. Verbatim brand was replaced by Mitsubishi in Japan.
1994: Verbatim entered a joint venture with Sanyo Laser Products.
1995: Acquired Laser Technologies and Ecotone.
2007: Acquired SmartDisk.
2009: Acquired Freecom
2009: Verbatim brand returned to the Japanese market for the first time since 1994.
2010: Mitsubishi Kagaku Media unified all recordable discs products under one umbrella Verbatim brand in the Japanese market.
2019: Agreement to be bought by CMC Magnetics.
2020: CMC Magnetics acquired Verbatim.
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.
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.
From Wikipedia’s article on Verbatim (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5