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 Sugar Tower in Brentwood, England (pictured in 2005) | |
| Amstrad | |
| Formerly |
|
| Company type |
|
| LSE: AMS (1980-2007)FTSE 100 component (until 2007) | |
| Industry | Electronics |
| Founded | 1 November 1968[2] (original company) |
| Founder | Alan Sugar |
| Defunct | 2011 (2011) |
| Fate | Acquired bySky (2007) |
| Headquarters | Kings Road,Brentwood, Essex, United Kingdom |
Area served | UK and Ireland |
| Revenue |  £91.65 million (2006) |
| £26.94 million GBP (2006) | |
| £15.08 million GBP (2006) | |
Number of employees | 85 (2005) |
| Website | amstrad.com at theWayback Machine (archived January 25, 2019) |
Amstrad plc was a Britishconsumer electronics company, founded in 1968 byAlan Sugar. During the 1980s, the company was known for itshome computers beginning with theAmstrad CPC and later also theZX Spectrum range after theSinclair deal, which led it to have a substantial share of the home computer market in Britain. In the following decade it shifted focus towards communication technologies,[3] and its main business during the 2000s was the manufacture ofsatellite television set-top boxes forSky,[4] which Amstrad had started in 1989 as the then sole supplier of the emerging Sky TV service.[5]
Headquartered inBrentwood, the company was listed on theLondon Stock Exchange from 1980 to 2008, the year when Sugar stepped down after 40 years.[6] After acquiringBetacom andViglen, Amstrad was broken up in 1997 but the name was soon revived when successor Betacom plc renamed itself to Amstrad plc.[7] Amstrad was aFTSE 100 Index constituent up until the company was acquired byBSkyB in 2007 for £125 million.[4] In 2010, Sky integrated Amstrad's satellite division as part of Sky so they could make their own set-top boxes in-house.
Amstrad (also known as AMSTrad) was founded in 1968 byAlan Sugar at the age of 21, the name of the original company being AMS Trading (Amstrad) Limited, derived from its founder's initials (Alan Michael Sugar). Amstrad entered the market in the field ofconsumer electronics. During the 1970s they were at the forefront of low-priced hi-fi, TV and car stereocassette technologies. Lower prices were achieved byinjection moulding plastic hi-fi turntable covers, undercutting competitors who used thevacuum forming process.
Amstrad expanded to the marketing of low costamplifiers andtuners, imported fromEast Asia and badged with the Amstrad name for the UK market. Their first electrical product was the Amstrad 8000 amplifier.
In 1980, Amstrad went public trading on theLondon Stock Exchange, and doubled in size each year during the early '80s. Amstrad began marketing its ownhome computers in an attempt to capture the market fromCommodore andSinclair, with theAmstrad CPC range in 1984. TheCPC 464 was launched in the UK, Ireland, France, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Spain and Italy. It was followed by theCPC 664 andCPC 6128 models. Later "Plus" variants of the 464 and 6128, launched in 1990, increased their functionality slightly.
In 1985, the popularAmstrad PCW range was introduced, which were principallyword processors, complete with printer, running theLocoScript word processing program. They were also capable of running theCP/M operating system. TheAmsoft division of Amstrad was set up to provide in-house software and consumables.
On 7 April 1986 Amstrad announced it had bought from Sinclair Research "the worldwide rights to sell and manufacture all existing and future Sinclair computers and computer products, together with the Sinclair brand name and those intellectual property rights where they relate to computers and computer related products",[8] which included theZX Spectrum, for £5 million. This included Sinclair's unsold stock ofSinclair QLs and Spectrums. Amstrad made more than £5 million on selling these surplus machines alone. Amstrad launched two new variants of the Spectrum: theZX Spectrum +2, based on the ZX Spectrum 128, with a built-incassette tape drive (like the CPC 464) and, the following year, theZX Spectrum +3, with a built-infloppy disk drive (similar to the CPC 664 and 6128), taking the 3" disks that many Amstrad machines used.
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In 1986 Amstrad entered theIBM PC-compatible arena with thePC1512 system. In standard Amstrad livery and priced at £399 it was a success, capturing more than 25% of the European computer market.[citation needed] It wasMS-DOS-based, but with the GEM graphics interface, and laterWindows. In 1988 Amstrad attempted to make the first affordable portable personal computer with thePPC512 and 640 models, introduced a year before theMacintosh Portable. They ranMS-DOS on an 8 MHz processor, and the built-in screen could emulate theMonochrome Display Adapter orColor Graphics Adapter. Amstrad's final (and ill-fated) attempts to exploit the Sinclair brand were based on the company's own PCs; a compact desktop PC derived from the PPC 512, branded as theSinclair PC200, and the PC1512 rebadged as the Sinclair PC500.
Amstrad's second generation of PCs, the PC2000 series, were launched in 1989. However,due to a problem with theSeagate ST277R hard disk shipped with the PC2386 model, these had to be recalled and fitted withWestern Digital controllers. Amstrad later successfully sued Seagate, but following bad press over the hard disk problems, Amstrad lost its lead in the European PC market.[9]
Amstrad had been a major supplier ofset top boxes to UKsatellite television pay-TV providerSky since its launch in 1989 following the launch of the SESAstra 1A TV satellite. Amstrad was key to the introduction of Sky, as the company was responsible for finding methods to produce the requisite equipment at an attractive price for the consumer - Alan Sugar famously approached "someone who bashes out dustbin lids", to manufacture meshsatellite dishes cheaply. Ultimately, it was the only manufacturer producing receiver boxes and dishes at the system's launch, and continued to manufacture set top boxes for Sky, from analogue to digital including Sky'sSky+digital video recorder.
With the addition of theAstra 1B TV satellite in May 1991 even more TV programs were available in Central Europe. In former East Germany as well as in the parts of former West Germany that had no access to cable TV, the affordable Amstrad receiver with the typical black mesh minidish were sold in large numbers.
In the early 1990s, Amstrad began to focus on portable computers rather thandesktop computers. In 1990, Amstrad tried to enter thevideo game console market with theAmstrad GX4000, similar to whatCommodore did at the same time with theC64 GS. The console, based on the Amstrad 464 Plus hardware, was a commercial failure, because it used outdated technology, and most games available for it were straight ports of CPC games that could be purchased for much less in their original format.
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In 1993, Amstrad was licensed bySega to produce a system which was similar to theSega TeraDrive, going by the name of theAmstrad Mega PC, to try to regain their image in the gaming market. The system didn't succeed as well as expected, mostly due to its high initial retail price of £999. In that same year, Amstrad released thePenPad, aPDA similar to theApple Newton, and released only weeks before it. It was a commercial failure, and had several technical and usability problems. It lacked most features that the Apple Newton included, but had a lower price at $450.
As Amstrad began to concentrate less on computers and more in communication, they purchased several telecommunications businesses includingBetacom, Dancall Telecom,Viglen Computers, and modem manufacturer Dataflex Design Communications, bought out of liquidation, during the early 1990s. The company also established a direct marketing channel, Amstrad Direct, in late 1994 and announced 486- and Pentium-based products including an "All-in-One Multimedia PC" with built-in television tuner, infra-red remote control, amplifier and speakers. A pen-based personal digital assistant with support for a PCMCIA-based modem, the InfoPad, was also unveiled with a September 1995 launch scheduled.[10]
By 1996, Alan Sugar was reported as having been looking for a buyer for Amstrad "for some time". Amongst the group's assets, cumulatively valued at£200 million, the Dancall subsidiary was of particular interest to potential acquirerPsion, producer of handheld computer products, for its expertise in "GSM digital mobile phone functionality" and the potential to integrate such functionality into Psion's own product range. Despite "long drawn out negotiations", the parties failed to agree a price and a strategy to dispose of the group's other assets.[11] In 1997, Amstrad PLC was wound up, its shares being split into Viglen and Betacom instead. Betacom PLC was then renamed Amstrad PLC.
The same year, Amstrad supplied set top boxes to Australian broadcasterFoxtel, and in 2004 to Italian broadcasterSky Italia.
In 2000, Amstrad released the first of its combinedtelephony andemail devices, called theE-m@iler. This was followed by theE-m@iler Plus in 2002, and theE3 Videophone in 2004. Amstrad's UK E-m@iler business is operated through a separate company, Amserve Ltd which is 89.8% owned by Amstrad and 10.2% owned byDSG International plc (formerlyDixons plc).
Amstrad has also produced a variety of home entertainment products over their history, including hi-fi, televisions,VCRs, andDVD players.
In July 2007,British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) announced a takeover of Amstrad for £125m,[12] a 23.7% premium on its market capitalisation. BSkyB had been a major client of Amstrad, accounting for 75% of sales for its 'set top box' business. Having supplied BSkyB with hardware since its inception in 1988, market analysts had noted the two companies becoming increasingly close.
Sky bought Amstrad so they could have their own hardware development division to develop new satellite boxes (Sky Q) made in-house.[13] Under Sky, Amstrad only produced satellite receivers for Sky, as doing so allows them to reduce costs by cutting out the middleman.[13] Its main competitor in this space wasPace plc.[4]
Sugar commented that he wished to play a part in the business, saying: "I turn 60 this year and I have had 40 years of hustling in the business, but now I have to start thinking about my team of loyal staff, many of whom have been with me for many years."
It was announced on 2 July 2008 that Sugar had stepped down as Chairman of Amstrad, which had been planned since BSkyB took over in 2007.Amstrad was taken off the Stock Exchange on 9 October 2008.[14][15] Amstrad has ceased operations as a trading company, and now exists in name only.[16] Amstrad's former offices are now aPremier Inn Hotel.[17]
In 2024 Sugar announced he had bought back the rights to the Amstrad name fromSky UK. Amstrad now belongs to a digital marketing firm named Amstrad Digital headed by Sugar's grandson Joe Baron.[18]
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