Tandberg

Tandberg was founded in 1933 by Vebjørn Tandberg in Oslo, Norway, starting as Tandbergs Radiofabrikk. The company became internationally renowned for high-quality reel-to-reel tape recorders and cassette decks, with their TB 1 tape recorder gaining prestige when President Kennedy used Tandberg machines during the Cuban Missile Crisis. After Vebjørn Tandberg's suicide in 1978 and subsequent bankruptcy, the company split into multiple entities: Tandberg Audio (consumer equipment), Tandberg Data (computer storage), and Tandberg Television (video conferencing). The video conferencing division became a global leader in telepresence technology before being acquired by Cisco Systems in 2010 for $3.3 billion. The original audio equipment division ceased manufacturing, existing today only in the vintage collector market. The video conferencing technology was fully integrated into Cisco's collaboration portfolio.