Harman International Industries
Encyclopedia
Harman International Industries is an American-based international audio and infotainment
equipment company. The company designs, manufactures and markets audio and infotainment products for the car, the home, theatres and venues, as well as electronics for audio professionals. Harman International's consumer group makes loudspeaker
s, CD
and DVD player
s, CD recorders, and amplifier
s under several brand names such as Harman Kardon, JBL
, and Infinity. Harman's automotive division sells branded audio systems through several car makers, including Mercedes-Benz
, Toyota/Lexus
, BMW
, and General Motors
. Its professional unit makes audio equipment, such as studio monitor
s, amplifiers, microphone
s, and mixing console
s for recording studios, cinemas, touring performers, and others. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut
, and maintains major operations in the Americas, Europe
, and Asia
. Harman International includes many consumer and specialty brands targeting specific audio and electronics product categories.
Dr. 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. As early as 1954, the company simplified access to high-fidelity sound for the non technical consumer with the introduction of the world’s first true hi-fi receiver, the Festival D1000. This product incorporated a tuner, control unit and power amplifier in a single chassis. Four years later, Harman Kardon presented the world’s first stereo receiver.
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
. By the mid-1970s Harman-Kardon was a powerhouse in the U.S. stereo industry. The company profited by pioneering the concept of separate components; instead of selling stereo systems as integrated units, Harman-Kardon began selling separate receivers, speakers, amplifiers, and other pieces that buyers could purchase separately and wire together to tailor their own home sound system.
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, Studer, DOD, Lexicon, AKG, BSS, Orban, DBX, Quested and Turbosound.
Over the years, Harman’s portfolio of brands and technologies have led the way in many significant audio innovations. Many of the company’s audio technologies have become standards in the audio industry. In addition to the Festival D1000, the company’s legendary audio industry “firsts” include the TA230 stereo receiver (1958); the first ultrawide-bandwidth amplifier, the Citation II (1959); the first cassette deck with Dolby* B noise reduction, the CAD5 (1970); and the first high-current-capability amplifier, the Citation XX (1980).
Harman International has also developed a number of proprietary technologies, which are incorporated into a number of its branded products, including Logic 7 and VMAx Virtual Theater multichannel audio processing, and EzSet automatic speaker-level calibration.
The company has benefited from growing demand for increasingly sophisticated information and entertainment devices (WiFi, Televisions, MP3 players, and GPS) in cars. This market is still largely in its infancy with penetration rates of less than 20% in Europe and less than 10% in the United States. However, the company's high exposure to auto manufacturers makes it subject to the cyclicality of the auto industry.
. 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, Sidney Harman was succeeded by Dinesh Paliwal as Chairman of the Board.
Infotainment
Infotainment is "information-based media content or programming that also includes entertainment content in an effort to enhance popularity with audiences and consumers." It is a neologistic portmanteau of information and entertainment, referring to a type of media which provides a combination of...
equipment company. The company designs, manufactures and markets audio and infotainment products for the car, the home, theatres and venues, as well as electronics for audio professionals. Harman International's consumer group makes loudspeaker
Loudspeaker
A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...
s, CD
Compact disc player
A Compact Disc player , or CD player, is an electronic device that plays audio Compact Discs. CD players are often a part of home stereo systems, car audio systems, and personal computers. They are also manufactured as portable devices...
and DVD player
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
s, CD recorders, and amplifier
Amplifier
Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...
s under several brand names such as Harman Kardon, JBL
JBL
JBL is an American audio electronics company currently owned by Harman International. It was founded in 1946 by James Bullough Lansing. Their primary products are loudspeakers and associated electronics. There are two independent divisions within the company — JBL Consumer and JBL Professional...
, and Infinity. Harman's automotive division sells branded audio systems through several car makers, including Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
, Toyota/Lexus
Lexus
is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. First introduced in 1989 in the United States, Lexus is now sold globally and has become Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. The Lexus marque is marketed in over 70 countries and territories worldwide, and has...
, BMW
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
, and General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
. Its professional unit makes audio equipment, such as studio monitor
Studio monitor
Studio monitors, also called reference monitors, are loudspeakers specifically designed for audio production applications such as recording studios, filmmaking, television studios and radio studios where accurate audio reproduction is crucial....
s, amplifiers, microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
s, and mixing console
Mixing console
In professional audio, a mixing console, or audio mixer, also called a sound board, mixing desk, or mixer is an electronic device for combining , routing, and changing the level, timbre and/or dynamics of audio signals. A mixer can mix analog or digital signals, depending on the type of mixer...
s for recording studios, cinemas, touring performers, and others. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
, and maintains major operations in the Americas, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. Harman International includes many consumer and specialty brands targeting specific audio and electronics product categories.
Early history
Harman Kardon
harman/kardon is a division of Harman International Industries and manufactures home and car audio equipment.Founded in 1953 by Dr. Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon — two men with a deep interest in music and the arts — the company helped create the high-fidelity audio industry. Their first product...
, 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. As early as 1954, the company simplified access to high-fidelity sound for the non technical consumer with the introduction of the world’s first true hi-fi receiver, the Festival D1000. This product incorporated a tuner, control unit and power amplifier in a single chassis. Four years later, Harman Kardon presented the world’s first stereo receiver.
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
Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame
The Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame, founded by the Consumer Electronics Association , honors leaders whose creativity, persistence, determination and personal charisma helped to shape the industry and made the consumer electronics marketplace what it is today...
. By the mid-1970s Harman-Kardon was a powerhouse in the U.S. stereo industry. The company profited by pioneering the concept of separate components; instead of selling stereo systems as integrated units, Harman-Kardon began selling separate receivers, speakers, amplifiers, and other pieces that buyers could purchase separately and wire together to tailor their own home sound system.
Acquisitions and expansion
In the 1970s, Sidney 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 FoodsBeatrice Foods
Beatrice Foods Company was a major American food processing company. In 1987, its smaller international food operations were sold to Reginald Lewis, a corporate attorney creating TLC Beatrice International, after which the majority of its domestic brands and assets were acquired by Kohlberg,...
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, Studer, DOD, Lexicon, AKG, BSS, Orban, DBX, Quested and Turbosound.
Harman International has also developed a number of proprietary technologies, which are incorporated into a number of its branded products, including Logic 7 and VMAx Virtual Theater multichannel audio processing, and EzSet automatic speaker-level calibration.
Automotive systems
In 1995, Harman International moved aggressively into the automotive electronics business by acquiring Becker GmbH of Karlsbad, Germany for approximately US$60 million, winning a bidding war against Bose. Becker was formed in the late 1940s and produced some of the earliest car radios. By the 1990s, Becker was providing both aftermarket car audio systems as well as custom OEM in-dash systems to predominantly European automakers. After its acquisition, the Harman Becker Automotive Systems group, as it became known, provided automakers with both audio systems leveraging Harman's stable of consumer brands, as well as infotainment systems combining navigation, wireless connectivity, and multimedia capabilities. The automotive division grew quickly, and by the mid-2000s was Harman International's biggest business unit, contributing over US$2billion in revenues.Private equity attempt
Harman International Industries was to disappear from NYSE in Q3/2007 due to buy-out by KKR and Goldman Sachs Capital PartnersGoldman Sachs Capital Partners
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners is the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs, focused on leveraged buyout and growth capital investments globally....
. 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, Sidney Harman was succeeded by Dinesh Paliwal as Chairman of the Board.
Brands
- AKG AcousticsAKG AcousticsAKG Acoustics is an Austrian manufacturer of microphones, headphones, wireless audio systems and related accessories for professional and consumer markets...
- microphone/headphones - Audio Access - A/V controllers
- Becker - car infotainment
- BSS Audio - signal processing
- Crown InternationalCrown InternationalCrown International, or Crown Audio, is a manufacturer of audio electronics, and is a subsidiary of Harman International Industries. Today the company is known primarily for its power amplifiers, but has also manufactured microphones, a line of commercial audio products as well as digital audio...
- pro amplifiers - dbx Professional ProductsDbx, Inc.dbx, Inc. is an American producer of professional audio recording equipment. It was founded by David E. Blackmer in 1971. The original company goal was: "To get closer to the realism of a live performance." Its early products were based on the concept of using decibel expansion which gave the...
- signal processors - DigiTech - guitar products
- HardWire - guitar pedals
- harman/kardonHarman Kardonharman/kardon is a division of Harman International Industries and manufactures home and car audio equipment.Founded in 1953 by Dr. Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon — two men with a deep interest in music and the arts — the company helped create the high-fidelity audio industry. Their first product...
- home/car audio - InfinityInfinity (audio)Infinity Systems is an American manufacturer of loudspeakers founded by Arnie Nudell, John Ulrick and Cary Christie in 1968. Since 1983, Infinity has been part of the Harman International Industries group....
- home/car speakers - JBLJBLJBL is an American audio electronics company currently owned by Harman International. It was founded in 1946 by James Bullough Lansing. Their primary products are loudspeakers and associated electronics. There are two independent divisions within the company — JBL Consumer and JBL Professional...
- home/car speakers & amplifiers, professional speakers - LexiconLexicon (company)Lexicon is an American audio equipment manufacturing company founded in 1971 and owned by Harman International Industries. Lexicon's roots began in 1969 with the founding of American Data Sciences by MIT professor Dr...
- digital processing - Mark LevinsonMark LevinsonThe company Mark Levinson, now owned by Madrigal Audio Laboratories specializes in high-end digital audio processors, integrated amplifiers, power amplifiers, pre amplifiers, and CD players...
- home/car audio - Revel - home speakers
- Selenium - home, car and professional speakers, amplifiers, sound tables/mixers
- SoundcraftSoundcraftSoundcraft is a British manufacturer of mixing consoles and other professional audio equipment. It was founded by sound engineer Phil Dudderidge and electronics designer Graham Blyth in 1973.-History:...
- mixing consoles - StuderStuderStuder is a Swiss manufacturer of professional audio equipment, founded in Zurich in 1948 by Willi Studer. It is known primarily for the design and manufacture of analog tape recorders and mixing consoles. Studer also produce other technology solutions, such as telephony management systems and...
- mixing consoles