Harman International Industries, Incorporated is an American company that
designs, manufactures and markets audio equipment for automotive, home, theater
and other applications — as well as electronics for audio professionals.
Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, HII maintains major operations in the
Americas, Europe, as well as Asia and markets its products under more than
twenty brands — prominently Harman Kardon, Becker, AKG Acoustics, JBL,
Crown Audio, dbx, Mark Levinson, Lexicon and Infinity.
HII's consumer group engineers and manufactures loudspeakers, CD and DVD
players, CD recorders, amplifiers. Its professional unit makes audio equipment,
such as studio monitors, amplifiers, microphones, and mixing consoles for
recording studios, cinemas, touring performers, and others.
Early history Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon founded
the predecessor to Harman International, Harman Kardon, in 1953. Both Harman and
Kardon were engineers by training and had worked at the Bogen Company, which
was then the top manufacturer of public address systems. Their collaboration
helped to create a new industry: high-fidelity audio.
Harman bought out his partner in 1956 and then expanded Harman Kardon into an
audio powerhouse, according to a biography written by the Consumer
Electronics Hall of Fame. Acquisitions and expansion
In the 1970s, Harman accepted an appointment in the Carter administration
as undersecretary of the Department of Commerce. When Harman took office in
1976, he sold his company to conglomerate Beatrice Foods to avoid a
conflict of interest. Beatrice promptly sold many portions of the company,
including the original Harman Kardon division, and by 1980 only 60% of the
original company remained. After he left government in 1978, he
created Harman International Industries and reacquired a number of businesses he
sold to Beatrice. The company continued its growth plan with a string of
acquisitions throughout the 1980s that pushed Harman International's sales from
about $80 million in 1981 to more than $200 million by 1986, and then to more
than $500 million by 1989. Harman International went public in 1986 with a
stock offering on the New York Stock Exchange. Cash from that sale was used
to, among many other purchases, buy Soundcraft, a U.K. producer of
professional mixing boards, in 1988 and later - Salt Lake City digital
electronics producer DOD Electronics Corp. By 1990, Harman International was
selling consumer audio gear under such brands as JBL, Harman Kardon, Infinity
and Epicure loudspeakers, as well as professional audio systems with such
brands as JBL Professional, UREI, Soundcraft, Allen & Heath, dbx Studer,
DOD, Lexicon, AKG, BSS, Orban, DBX, Quested and Turbosound).
In July 2011, Harman acquired MWM Acoustics, a privately held company that
specialized in speaker and microphone technology for consumer electronics and
enterprise telephony. The combination of MWM Acoustics, Branded Audio, and AKG
Automotive Microphones became the Embedded Audio Business Team.
In March 2015, Harman acquired the automotive division of Bang & Olufsen
for 145 million euros for the unit as well as technology license fees. The
purchase doesn’t include Bang & Olufsen’s consumer-electronics business.
In January 2015, Harman entered into an agreement to acquire Symphony Teleca, a
software services company based in Mountain View, CA for $780 million. The
transaction is expected to close by the end of Harman's 2015 fiscal year.
Closed the factory in Danmark, named Martin Professional, in August 2015, to
move the production to Hungary. They had bought Martin Professional a couple of
years earlier. Private equity attempt
Harman International Industries was to disappear from NYSE in Q3/2007 due to a
buy-out by KKR and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. However, as of mid September
2007, KKR announced they would back out of the deal. Harman shares plummeted by
more than 24% that day, on the news. Coincident with the buy-out deal, Dinesh
C. Paliwal was hired as company President and CEO in July 2007. Paliwal
was a veteran of the corporate turn-around. During his tenure as
president of U.S. operations for ABB, the heavyweight Swiss-based automation
provider, the company moved from a money-losing and siloed organization to
one with double digit growth, doubled its share price in one year, and saw its
bond ratings upgraded by Moody's and Standard & Poors.
On July 1, 2008, Harman was succeeded by Dinesh Paliwal as Chairman of the Board.
Brands AKG Acoustics - microphone/headphones
AMX - video switching and control devices
Audio Access - A/V controllers Bang & Olufsen Automotive
Becker - car infotainment BSS Audio - signal processing
Crown International - pro amplifiers dbx Professional Products - signal
processors DigiTech - guitar products
HardWire - guitar pedals HiQnet - audio digital network, based on
Ethernet harman/kardon - home/car audio
Infinity - home/car speakers iOnRoad - Personal driving assistance
app JBL - home/car speakers & amplifiers,
professional speakers Lexicon - digital processing
Mark Levinson Audio Systems - home/car audio
Martin Professional - stage and architectural lighting and effects
fixtures Revel - home speakers
Selenium - home, car and professional speakers, amplifiers, sound
tables/mixers Soundcraft - mixing consoles
Studer - mixing consoles References
External links Official website