| Company name | Tektronix, Inc. |
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| Company logo | |
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| Company type | Subsidiary |
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| Parent | Danaher Corporation |
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| Foundation | 1946, Oregon |
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| Location | Beaverton, Oregon USA |
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| Key people | Jim Lico, PresidentRichard Wills, ChairmanHoward Vollum, CofounderMelvin Murdock, Cofounder |
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| Industry | Electronic Equipment |
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| Products | Testing Equipment, Measurement Equipment |
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| Revenue | US$1.039.9 billion (FY 2006) |
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| Operating income | US$118.7 million (FY 2006) |
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| Net income | US$92.4 million (FY 2006) |
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| Num employees (globally) | 4,359 (2006) |
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| Slogan | Enabling Innovation |
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| Homepage | http://www.tek.com |
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| Footnotes | Financial data. |
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Tektronix, Inc. is a
North American company best known for its test and measurement equipment such as
oscilloscopes,
logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. As of November 2007, Tektronix is a subsidiary of
Danaher Corporation.
Several charities are or were associated with Tektronix, including the Tektronix Foundation and the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust in Vancouver, Washington.
The company was honored at the 2008 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for development of monitoring systems for ATSC & DVB transport streams.
History
The company traces its roots to the electronics revolution that immediately followed
World War II. The company’s founders
C. Howard Vollum and Melvin J. "Jack" Murdock invented the world’s first triggered
oscilloscope in 1946, a significant technological breakthrough. Tektronix was incorporated in 1946 with its headquarters at SE Foster Road and SE 59th Avenue in
Portland, Oregon. In 1947 there were 12 employees, and 250 in 1951. The company's
IPO, when it publicly sold its first shares of
stock, was on September 11, 1963. In 1974 the company acquired in
Wilsonville, Oregon where it built a facility for its imaging group., Hoddesdon (North London, UK) and
Heerenveen,
Netherlands (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 former Tektronix employees left to create other successful "Silicon Forest" companies. Spin-offs include Mentor Graphics, Planar Systems, Floating Point Systems, Merix Corporation, and Anthro Corporation. Even some of the spin-offs have created spin-offs, 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 manufacturing facility in order to make ICs of their own design with many times the performance of generally available components.
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.
On November 21, 2007, Tektronix was acquired by Danaher Corporation for $2.85 billion. Prior to the acquisition, Tektronix traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TEK, the nickname by which Tektronix is known to its employees, customers, and neighbors. On October 15, 2007, Danaher Corporation tendered an offer to acquire Tektronix for $38 cash a share, which equated to a valuation of approximately $2.8 billion. The deal closed five and a half weeks later, with 90 percent of TEK shares being sold in the tender offer.
Also, as part of its acquisition by Danaher, the Communications Business division of Tektronix was spun off into a separate business entity under Danaher, Tektronix Communications.
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 judgment were emphasized. Vacation and health benefits were unusually liberal, and a generous
profit sharing plan returned 35% of corporate pretax profits to employees. This worked well for Tektronix employees during the years that profits were substantial.
'Non test' products
Some important non-test equipment Tektronix created and sold include:
the Tektronix 4014 computer terminal
the Tektronix 405x graphical microcomputers
flatbed plotters used with Tektronix computers
TekXPress X-terminals, later sold to Network Computing Devices
Phaser -branded color computer printers, including their pioneering Solid Ink models, sold to Xerox in 1999
television studio and video production equipment manufactured by onetime Tek subsidiary Grass Valley Group, which was spun off as an independent company (and later bought by Thomson SA). Grassvalley is now a division of Thomson.
the TNIX Tektronix Unix
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
layoffs, 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 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 .
Notable employees
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 Tektronix careers.
Jean Auel: technical writer; author
Kent Beck: engineer; Extreme Programming developer
Tom Bruggere: engineer; later founded Mentor Graphics in 1981; 1996 candidate for United States Senate
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
Dick Erath: engineer; prominent Oregon winemaker
Barrie Gilbert: popularized the Gilbert cell, a type of electronic mixer
Rodgers W. Jenkins: engineer; later, with Fred Tinker, founded Rodgers Instruments LLC
Deane Kidd: engineer; helped instill "Tek Family" concept into new employees
Gerry Langler: engineer; later co-founded Mentor Graphics in 1981
Robert W. Lundeen: Director, CEO
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
Jerome J. Meyer: former Chairman and CEO; director of Enron Corporation
Dave Moffenbeier: engineer; later co-founded Mentor Graphics in 1981
William D. Walker: engineer; CEO of Tektronix, Inc.; CEO of Planar Industries
Norm Winningstad: engineer; founder of Floating Point Systems, author
Rebecca Wirfs-Brock: engineer; technical lead for first commercial Smalltalk implementation; author of books on object-oriented programming
Delbert Yocam: former President, COO; former COO of Apple Computer
Todd Brunhoff: wrote the original imake program
See also
Semiconductor curve tracer
Waveform monitor / Vectorscope
First Tech Credit Union, originally Tektronix Federal Credit Union
References
Further reading
Winning with People: The First 40 Years of Tektronix by Marshall M. Lee. Published by Tektronix, Inc., October, 1986.
External links
Corporate Home Page
Tektronix China (Simplified Chinese 简体中文)
Tektronix 60th Anniversary
Category:Companies based in Beaverton, Oregon
Category:Electronics companies of the United States
Category:Companies established in 1946
Category:Test equipment manufacturers
