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Zenith Data Systems
Zenith Data Systems Corporation (ZDS) was an American computer systems manufacturing company active from 1979 to 1996. It was originally a division of the Zenith Radio Company (later Zenith Electronics), after that company purchased the Heath Company and its Heathkit line of electronic kits and kit microcomputers, from Schlumberger in October 1979. ZDS originally operated from Heath's own headquarters in St. Joseph, Michigan. By the time Zenith acquired Heathkit, the Heathkit H8 kit computer already had an installed customer base of scientific engineers and computing enthusiasts. ZDS's first offerings were preassembled versions of existing Heathkit computers, but within a few years, the company began selling its own designs including the Zenith Z-100, a hybrid 8085- and 8088-based computer capable of running both CP/M and MS-DOS.
ZDS largely avoided the retail consumer market, instead focusing on selling directly to businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies. By the late 1980s, the company won several lucrative government contracts worth several hundreds of millions of dollars combined, including a US$242-million contract with the United States Department of Defense, the largest such computer-related government contract up to that date. In 1986 the company made headlines when it beat out IBM for a contract with the Internal Revenue Service to supply a portable computer. By the mid-1980s ZDS's profits offset losses in Zenith's television sales. Its Zenith SupersPort laptop was released in 1988 to high demand, composing a quarter of the entire American laptop market that year. The company reached a peak in terms of revenue in 1988, generating US$1.4 billion that year. The following year saw ZDS floundering in multiple ways, including a cancelled contract with the United States Navy and a failed attempt to increase consumer desktop sales. In late 1989, ZDS was purchased by Groupe Bull of France for between $511 million and $635 million.
Following the acquisition, ZDS moved from Michigan to Buffalo Grove, Illinois. In 1991, Enrico Pesatori took over ZDS and attempted to repair relations with dealers while diversifying the product lineup and modes of sales. ZDS slowly recovered during the early 1990s, winning a lucrative contract with the Pentagon in 1993. Pesatori was replaced that year with Jacques Noels of Nokia, who further diversified the company's lineup. ZDS's revenue steadily grew in the North American and European markets in the beginning of 1994. The company was acquired by Packard Bell in February 1996, in a three-way deal which saw Groupe Bull and Japanese electronics conglomerate NEC increasing their existing stakes in Packard Bell. Later, NEC announced that it would acquire Packard Bell, merging it with NEC's global personal computer operations. ZDS continued as a brand of computer systems under the resulting merger, Packard Bell NEC, from 1996 until 1999, when Packard Bell NEC announced that it would withdraw from the American computer market.
Zenith Data Systems Corporation (ZDS) was founded in October 1979 following the US$64.5-million acquisition of the Heath Company—the only consumer business at Schlumberger—by the Zenith Radio Company. The company's initial headquarters were located in Heath's own headquarters in St. Joseph, Michigan. Edward J. Roberts, who joined the Zenith Radio Company in 1971, was named ZDS's first president. Heath was a manufacturer of microcomputers and do-it-yourself electronics kits, the latter sold under the Heathkit brand; meanwhile, Zenith Radio Company (later Zenith Electronics) had long been a market leader in the American electronics industry, particularly with radios and television sets.
Heath had a loyal customer base of electronics enthusiasts and engineers, and briefly sold an analog computer kit starting in 1957. In 1974 Louis Frenzel and others within Heath suggested a digital computer kit. After the success of the Altair 8800 the company began planning the Heathkit H8, which began shipping in September 1977. When announcing its computers that year, Heath stated that they would soon provide more than 20% of revenue. The first two were H8 based on the Intel 8080 and Heathkit H11 based on the Digital Equipment Corporation LSI-11. H8 runs software on audiotape and punched tape with the H10 puncher–reader. The H8's disk operating system, HDOS, can only read hard-sectored 5.25-inch floppy diskettes.
Zenith's Jerry K. Pearlman said in 1981, "our product charter is, 'If it plugs into a wall in your house and is essentially electronic, Zenith should consider making it, and there should be a big Z on the top.'", with similar "Heathkit" branding for hobbyists. Zenith also expected its cable television hardware business to benefit from acquiring computer expertise, and wanted to gain engineering and software expertise to prepare for rivals that would encroach on Zenith's existing businesses. Acquiring Heath to enter the market for small computers, Zenith intended to sell Heath computers using the Zenith name, through Heath catalogs, Heathkit Electronic Centers, and computer dealers. ZDS's first computers such as the Zenith Z-89 were preassembled versions of Heathkit computers such as the Heath H89. Zenith also wanted to broaden its customer base and use excess capacity in television factories; the ZVM-121 video monitor was designed to match Apple II computers. As subsidiary of a television company, ZDS could obtain monitors at cost.
"Zenith's investment in the company has been greater than that of any prior ownership by a factor of four", Heath president Bill Johnson said in 1982. By fiscal year 1980 computers were 40% of Heath/Zenith sales or about $44 million, and by 1981 computer sales of $71 million grew by 60% annually on average. The company believed that its experience with both televisions and microcomputers was an advantage over IBM which, ZDS said, "has never mass-produced anything". Starting in 1977 with no in-house software expertise until hiring Gordon Letwin, by 1982 ZDS had 100 software developers, aid from the parent company's engineers, 35 salesmen and 24 distributors including ComputerLand, and a factory at Benton Harbor, Michigan with 1200 employees working in three shifts that produced 150 computers daily; represented by the United Steelworkers, they were reportedly the only unionized personal-computer builders in the world.
ZDS built almost 50,000 preassembled and kit computers annually by 1982. Various estimates ranked Heath/Zenith among the five largest personal computer vendors by unit volume in the early 1980s. Zenith stores sold ZDS products, and its network of television service centers repaired ZDS computers. By then preassembled products outsold kit versions four to one. ZDS continued selling computers in kit form under the Heath name as late as 1989; the equivalent of the ZDS Z-150 IBM PC compatible is the Heathkit H-150, for example. The company opened more Heathkit Electronic Centers, which offered Zenith and third-party products, while ZDS served corporate customers. Zenith also continued Heath's practice of publishing unusually clear product documentation, distributing schematics, and selling the source code to HDOS and other software in printed form. By 1981 ZDS supported the CP/M operating system as an alternative to HDOS.
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Zenith Data Systems
Zenith Data Systems Corporation (ZDS) was an American computer systems manufacturing company active from 1979 to 1996. It was originally a division of the Zenith Radio Company (later Zenith Electronics), after that company purchased the Heath Company and its Heathkit line of electronic kits and kit microcomputers, from Schlumberger in October 1979. ZDS originally operated from Heath's own headquarters in St. Joseph, Michigan. By the time Zenith acquired Heathkit, the Heathkit H8 kit computer already had an installed customer base of scientific engineers and computing enthusiasts. ZDS's first offerings were preassembled versions of existing Heathkit computers, but within a few years, the company began selling its own designs including the Zenith Z-100, a hybrid 8085- and 8088-based computer capable of running both CP/M and MS-DOS.
ZDS largely avoided the retail consumer market, instead focusing on selling directly to businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies. By the late 1980s, the company won several lucrative government contracts worth several hundreds of millions of dollars combined, including a US$242-million contract with the United States Department of Defense, the largest such computer-related government contract up to that date. In 1986 the company made headlines when it beat out IBM for a contract with the Internal Revenue Service to supply a portable computer. By the mid-1980s ZDS's profits offset losses in Zenith's television sales. Its Zenith SupersPort laptop was released in 1988 to high demand, composing a quarter of the entire American laptop market that year. The company reached a peak in terms of revenue in 1988, generating US$1.4 billion that year. The following year saw ZDS floundering in multiple ways, including a cancelled contract with the United States Navy and a failed attempt to increase consumer desktop sales. In late 1989, ZDS was purchased by Groupe Bull of France for between $511 million and $635 million.
Following the acquisition, ZDS moved from Michigan to Buffalo Grove, Illinois. In 1991, Enrico Pesatori took over ZDS and attempted to repair relations with dealers while diversifying the product lineup and modes of sales. ZDS slowly recovered during the early 1990s, winning a lucrative contract with the Pentagon in 1993. Pesatori was replaced that year with Jacques Noels of Nokia, who further diversified the company's lineup. ZDS's revenue steadily grew in the North American and European markets in the beginning of 1994. The company was acquired by Packard Bell in February 1996, in a three-way deal which saw Groupe Bull and Japanese electronics conglomerate NEC increasing their existing stakes in Packard Bell. Later, NEC announced that it would acquire Packard Bell, merging it with NEC's global personal computer operations. ZDS continued as a brand of computer systems under the resulting merger, Packard Bell NEC, from 1996 until 1999, when Packard Bell NEC announced that it would withdraw from the American computer market.
Zenith Data Systems Corporation (ZDS) was founded in October 1979 following the US$64.5-million acquisition of the Heath Company—the only consumer business at Schlumberger—by the Zenith Radio Company. The company's initial headquarters were located in Heath's own headquarters in St. Joseph, Michigan. Edward J. Roberts, who joined the Zenith Radio Company in 1971, was named ZDS's first president. Heath was a manufacturer of microcomputers and do-it-yourself electronics kits, the latter sold under the Heathkit brand; meanwhile, Zenith Radio Company (later Zenith Electronics) had long been a market leader in the American electronics industry, particularly with radios and television sets.
Heath had a loyal customer base of electronics enthusiasts and engineers, and briefly sold an analog computer kit starting in 1957. In 1974 Louis Frenzel and others within Heath suggested a digital computer kit. After the success of the Altair 8800 the company began planning the Heathkit H8, which began shipping in September 1977. When announcing its computers that year, Heath stated that they would soon provide more than 20% of revenue. The first two were H8 based on the Intel 8080 and Heathkit H11 based on the Digital Equipment Corporation LSI-11. H8 runs software on audiotape and punched tape with the H10 puncher–reader. The H8's disk operating system, HDOS, can only read hard-sectored 5.25-inch floppy diskettes.
Zenith's Jerry K. Pearlman said in 1981, "our product charter is, 'If it plugs into a wall in your house and is essentially electronic, Zenith should consider making it, and there should be a big Z on the top.'", with similar "Heathkit" branding for hobbyists. Zenith also expected its cable television hardware business to benefit from acquiring computer expertise, and wanted to gain engineering and software expertise to prepare for rivals that would encroach on Zenith's existing businesses. Acquiring Heath to enter the market for small computers, Zenith intended to sell Heath computers using the Zenith name, through Heath catalogs, Heathkit Electronic Centers, and computer dealers. ZDS's first computers such as the Zenith Z-89 were preassembled versions of Heathkit computers such as the Heath H89. Zenith also wanted to broaden its customer base and use excess capacity in television factories; the ZVM-121 video monitor was designed to match Apple II computers. As subsidiary of a television company, ZDS could obtain monitors at cost.
"Zenith's investment in the company has been greater than that of any prior ownership by a factor of four", Heath president Bill Johnson said in 1982. By fiscal year 1980 computers were 40% of Heath/Zenith sales or about $44 million, and by 1981 computer sales of $71 million grew by 60% annually on average. The company believed that its experience with both televisions and microcomputers was an advantage over IBM which, ZDS said, "has never mass-produced anything". Starting in 1977 with no in-house software expertise until hiring Gordon Letwin, by 1982 ZDS had 100 software developers, aid from the parent company's engineers, 35 salesmen and 24 distributors including ComputerLand, and a factory at Benton Harbor, Michigan with 1200 employees working in three shifts that produced 150 computers daily; represented by the United Steelworkers, they were reportedly the only unionized personal-computer builders in the world.
ZDS built almost 50,000 preassembled and kit computers annually by 1982. Various estimates ranked Heath/Zenith among the five largest personal computer vendors by unit volume in the early 1980s. Zenith stores sold ZDS products, and its network of television service centers repaired ZDS computers. By then preassembled products outsold kit versions four to one. ZDS continued selling computers in kit form under the Heath name as late as 1989; the equivalent of the ZDS Z-150 IBM PC compatible is the Heathkit H-150, for example. The company opened more Heathkit Electronic Centers, which offered Zenith and third-party products, while ZDS served corporate customers. Zenith also continued Heath's practice of publishing unusually clear product documentation, distributing schematics, and selling the source code to HDOS and other software in printed form. By 1981 ZDS supported the CP/M operating system as an alternative to HDOS.