ADI Corporation explained

ADI Corporation
Type:Public
Industry:Manufacturing
Founded: in Taiwan
Founder:Liao Jian-cheng

ADI Corporation (Advanced Data International) is a defunct Taiwanese manufacturing company active from 1979 to the 2000s. Its primary export was computer hardware—chiefly computer monitors—through its American subsidiary ADI Systems. For a time, it was the fifth largest monitor manufacturer in the world,[1] with major customers including Apple, Compaq, and Optiquest.

History

ADI Corporation (an initialism for Advanced Data International) was founded in Taiwan in March 1979 by Liao Jian-cheng. The company was originally a diversified concern, manufacturing a number of disparate products, including footwear for Nike, Inc.[2] [3] By the time the company entered the market for computer hardware in the 1980s, ADI still had a contract with Nike to produce shoes. Its first computer-related exports were data terminals and computer monitors.

In 1986, Liao Jian-cheng merged ADI with his other corporation Cheng Chang Enterprises Co., Ltd. In 1987, the company went public on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.[4] Around the same time, the company established Quimax Systems, an American subsidiary dedicated to importing the company's monitors and terminals manufactured in Taiwan. A major customer of Quimax in the 1980s was Esprit Systems, a seller of terminals that was spun off from Hazeltine Corporation within the decade.[5] In 1989, ADI became a major shareholder in Espirit, and in 1990 the year they led a group of other Taiwanese companies in a takeover of Espirit that transformed the public American company into a privately owned venture.[6] [7]

By the turn of the 1990s, ADI was a leading manufacturer of terminals and displays in Taiwan.[8] ADI began offering monitors under their own name starting in 1993, under the subbrand MicroScan.[9] Major customers of ADI soon included Apple Computer, Compaq, and Optiquest.[10] [11] Of these customers, Compaq was by far the largest, ADI producing nearly all of their monitors in the 1990s.[12] In November 1994, Compaq formed a joint venture with ADI to raise factories in Mexico, Brazil, and Europe to assemble and store ADI's monitors, helping reduce the travel time from Taiwan to ADI's major exports.[13] Unit shipments increased from 1.1 million in 1993 to 1.6 million in 1994.[14] Also in 1994, ADI piloted the production of an i486SX subnotebook, although it never came to fruition.[15]

In 1998, ADI obtained the rights from Sony to sell monitors with Trinitron picture tubes, starting with the MicroScan 5GT.[16] Around the turn of the millennium, the company began selling flat-panel monitors, chiefly LCDs.

ADI went defunct around the same time they let their American website domain name expire in December 2006.[17]

Notes and References

  1. Horne . Jackie . September 1, 1995 . Fears of Taiwanese equity flood ease . Euroweek . Euromoney Publications . 418 . 8 . ProQuest.
  2. Book: 1990 . Asian Company Handbook . 1990 . Tōyō Keizai Shinpōsha . 563 . Google Books.
  3. Book: Fang, Cindy . Frances Gao . David Liu . Christopher S. Tang . Weiwei Wang . Tony Wiu . 2007 . Supply Chain Analysis . Supply Chain Configurations of Foreign Cosmetics Companies . Springer . 3 . 978-0-387-75240-2 . Google Books.
  4. Book: 1999 . The Dow Jones Guide to the Global Stock Market: Asia/Pacific . Dow Jones & Company . 2 . 1-881944-13-1 . Google Books.
  5. Staff writer . May 12, 1989 . Other Financing . Computergram International . GlobalData . Gale . 1175.
  6. Staff writer . June 1, 1989 . Esprit Systems to move down from American Exchange to NASDAQ . Computergram International . GlobalData . 1189 . Gale.
  7. Staff writer . April 4, 1990 . Taiwanese, US investors offer 17 cents a share to take Esprit Systems private . Computergram International . GlobalData . 1399 . Gale.
  8. Book: Lim, Linda . 1991 . Foreign Direct Investment and Industrialisation in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand . Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development . 142 . 9789264134980 . the Internet Archive.
  9. Corcoran . Cate . November 1, 1993 . Energy-saving ADI monitors adaptable to chip sets, signals . InfoWorld . IDG Publications . 15 . 44 . 43 . Google Books.
  10. Dritsas . David . Grant Clauser . Janet Pinkerton . January 2000 . Comdex Wrap Up: New for 2000 . Dealerscope . North American Publishing Company . 42 . 1 . 72–74 . ProQuest.
  11. Stone . M. David . March 16, 1993 . ADI Systems Inc.: ADI MicroScan 3E, ADI MicroScan 3E+, ADI MicroScan 4A; Compaq Computer Corp.: Compaq 1024 Color Monitor; Optiquest Inc.: Optiquest 1500D, Optiquest 2000D . PC Magazine . Ziff-Davis . 12 . 5 . 118, 126 . Google Books.
  12. Staff writer . September 22, 1995 . Siliconware flies, ADI struggles as Taiwan list starts . Euroweek . Euromoney Publications . 421 . 9 . ProQuest.
  13. Kanellos . Michael . November 28, 1994 . ADI develops offshore sites with Compaq's aid . Computer Reseller News . CMP Publications . 607 . 26 . ProQuest.
  14. Brown . Jeanette . Bill Terdoslavich . April 24, 1995 . Monitors: A Race To Put Bigger, Greener, Sharper-Looking Images On Screens . Computer Reseller News . CMP Publications . 94 . ProQuest.
  15. Zimmerman . Micahel R. . June 6, 1994 . Subnotebooks, Pentium-based portables previewed in Taiwan . PC Week . Ziff-Davis . 11 . 22 . 11 . Gale.
  16. Robinson . Daniel . June 1998 . ADI MicroScan 5GT . PC Direct . ZDNet . 333 . Gale.
  17. Web site: December 8, 2006 . adiusa.com . Network Solutions . https://web.archive.org/web/20061216160638/http://www.adiusa.com:80/ . December 16, 2006 . dead.

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