Tektronix
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tektronix is a United States corporation that is currently a major presence in the test, measurement, and measuring industry. It manufacturers oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and both video and mobile test protocol equipment. Tektronix is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TEK NYSE: TEK, the nickname by which Tektronix is known to its employees, customers, and neighbors.
Several charities are or were associated with Tektronix, including the Tektronix Foundation and the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust in Vancouver, Washington.
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[edit] History
The company traces its roots to the electronics revolution that immediately followed World War II. The company’s founders C. Howard Vollum and Jack Murdock invented the world’s first triggered oscilloscope in 1946, a significant technological breakthrough. They founded Tektronix in southeast Portland, Oregon, which they later moved to the suburb of Beaverton following an employee vote. Its IPO, when it publicly sold its first shares of stock, was on September 11, 1963.
For many years, Tektronix was the major electronics manufacturer in Oregon, and in 1981 U.S. payroll peaked at over 24,000 employees. Tektronix also had operations in Europe, South America and Asia. Tektronix European factories were located in St. Peter Port on the island of Guernsey (then in the European Free Trade Association), and Heerenveen, Holland (then in the European Common Market).
For many years, Tektronix operated in Japan as Sony-Tektronix, a 50-50 joint venture of Sony Corporation and Tektronix, Inc; this was due to Japanese trade restrictions at the time. Since then, Tektronix has bought out Sony's share and is now the sole owner of the Japanese operation.
Some Tektronix employees have gone on to create other successful Silicon Forest companies,include Mentor Graphics, Planar Systems, Floating Point Systems, Merix Corporation and Anthro Corporation. Many of these companies are in fact spin offs who were once part of Tektronix, like Planar Systems who spun of in 1983. Several of the spin offs have in turn spun off additional companies, such as Infocus
Tektronix instruments have enjoyed a leading position in the test and measurement market for decades, basically beginning with the firm's first cathode ray oscilloscopes. Much like Hewlett-Packard, Tektronix had a company policy of designing equipment of the very highest quality. Their equipment was quite expensive, but usually unmatched in performance, quality, and stability. Most test equipment manufacturers built their oscilloscopes with off-the-shelf, generally available components. But Tektronix, in order to get an extra measure of performance, used many custom-designed or specially-selected components. They even had their own factory for making ultra-bright and sharp CRT tubes. Later on they built their own integrated circuit design and manufacturing facility in order to make IC's with many times the performance of generally available ones.
Tektronix instruments contributed significantly to the development of computers and communications equipment and to the advancement of research and development in the high-technology electronics industry generally.
[edit] Employee relations
The early Tektronix was often described as exemplary in its employee relations practices. Rules were played down and trust and reliance on each individual's judgement were emphasized. Vacation and health benefits were unusually liberal, and a generous profit sharing plan returned 35% of corporate pre-tax profits to employees. This worked well for Tektronix employees during the years that profits were substantial.
[edit] 'Non test' products
Some important non-test equipment Tektronix had created and sold include:
- the Tektronix 4014 computer terminal and the related Tektronix 405x graphical microcomputers
- TekXPress X-terminals. This business was sold to Network Computing Devices
- A line of color computer printers which was sold to Xerox in 1999.
- Operational video gear manufactured by onetime Tek subsidiary Grass Valley Group, which was spun off as an independent company (and later bought by Thomson).
[edit] Slump
In the 1980s, Tektronix found itself distracted with too many divisions in too many markets. This led to decreasing earnings in almost every quarter. A period of lay-offs, top management changes and sell-offs followed. (In 1994, Tektronix spun off its printed circuit board manufacturing operation as a separate company, Merix Corp., headquartered in Forest Grove, Oregon.) Eventually, Tektronix was left with its original market of test and measurement equipment. Upon his promotion in 2000, the current CEO, Richard H. "Rick" Wills, carefully limited corporate spending in the face of the collapsing high-tech bubble. This led the way for Tektronix to emerge as one of the largest companies in its product niche, with a market capitalization of $3 billion as of April, 2006.
[edit] Notable people who worked for Tektronix
The following notable individuals currently work for Tektronix, or have previously worked for Tektronix in some capacity. This list includes persons who are notable for reasons unrelated to their careers at Tek.
- Jean Auel : technical writer; author
- Kent Beck : engineer; Extreme Programming developer
- Tom Bruggere : engineer; later founded Mentor Graphics in 1981. Was the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate in 1996, but was defeated in the general election by Senator Gordon Smith.
- James B. Castles : Tektronix General Counsel; original Trustee of the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust
- Ward Cunningham : engineer; Extreme Programming developer, inventor of the wiki
- Barrie Gilbert, who invented the Gilbert cell.
- Rodgers W. Jenkins : engineer; later, with Fred Tinker, founded Rodgers Instruments LLC.
- Gerry Langler : engineer; later co-founded Mentor Graphics in 1981.
- Steven McGeady : engineer; later Intel Vice-President and co-founder of Intel Architecture Labs
- Merrill A. McPeak : Director; former US Air Force chief of staff
- Dave Moffenbeier : engineer; later co-founded Mentor Graphics in 1981.
- Norm Winningstad : engineer; founder of Floating Point Systems, author
- Delbert Yocam : former Tektronix President, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Board Director; former COO of Apple Computer.
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- Winning with People: The First 40 Years of Tektronix by Marshall M. Lee. Published by Tektronix, Inc., October, 1986.
