electronic industry

Arrow Electronics – Story of a company from Radio Row to the Fortune 500 list.

Arrow Electronics is a very famous Fortune 500 company established in the electronics industry. The company mainly focuses on distribution and other value-added services of various electronic components. Currently, Arrow Electronics is the largest US company in terms of total revenue. The journey of this multinational conglomerate began with a retail store in Manhattan opened by Maurice Goldberg in 1935. Today, the headquarters of the company is based in Centennial, Colorado. It is a publicly traded company with more than 19,000 employees. Michael J. Long is the present CEO and President of the company.

The Founding Story Of Arrow Electronics

In 1935, Maurice Goldberg opened a retail store called Arrow Radio on Cortlandt Street. This place was situated in lower Manhattan and it was very famous for Radio Row where the distribution of various electronic components began. Maurice established Arrow Radio to sell radios and various radio parts to retail customers. The sale for both radio and its parts peaked during the 1940s and the company decided to seek a franchise to sell new parts. Apart from selling radios from companies like Philco, GE, and RCA, two companies including RCA and Cornell Dubilier first franchised Arrow. Finally, the organization, Arrow Electronics was incorporated in 1946.

Expansion Of Arrow Electronics

After Arrow Electronics was incorporated, the company received some additional franchises in the 1950s and started selling electronic components to industrial firms. Since the sales of the company were increasing it decided to open another office in Long Island in 1956. The company decided to file its first IPO in 1961 and thus it was able to list its share in the American Stock Exchange. During this time, the total sales of the company summed up to $4 million.

Gradually, the industrial division of the company started to dominate as industrial customers were more in number. The expansion continued as Arrow Electronics opened additional offices in New Jersey, Totowa, Norwalk, and Conneticut. In the 1960s, Company shifted its headquarters to Farmingdale, New York, and gain in 2011 shifted to Colorado.

In 1968, there was a change in the ownership of Arrow Electronics as three graduates from the Harvard Business School, Glenn, Green, and Waddell acquired the controlling interest of the company. These three investors led a private investor group and they acquired Arrow as they saw it as an opportunity to consolidate the fallen pieces of the electronics industry. In the early 1970s, Company ranked 12 in the list of US electronics distributors while Avnet topped the list.

This decade also witnessed the growth of Arrow’s electronics business as it won the semiconductor franchises led by Texas Instruments. During this time the company opened 20 new sales offices in the US. By the end of the decade, the electronics distribution business of Arrow was a big hit and the sales escalated to $177 million. From number 12, the company became the second-largest electronics distributor in the US.

Present Days

Through frequent public bond offerings, the company tried to fund its growth along with some acquisitions. Till the end of the 1960s, Arrow continued its retail operation and it ceased to operate in the 1970s. Arrow exclusively focused on the electronics business and established a real-time computer system to make the business more productive. In 1979, the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and by the end of the year, it made a major acquisition that helped it gain customers from the Western US. The acquisition of the company continued as it acquired Kierulff Electronics to adopt a new growth strategy.

During this time, Stephen Kaufman, a former partner of McKinsey & Company joined Arrow as the President of the Electronics Distribution Division. And, it was under his leadership that the company expanded into Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. It also completed acquiring more than 50 companies and reached global sales of $9 billion at the beginning of the 21st century.

Michael J. Long – CEO

Michael Long joined Arrow Electronics in 1991 when the company merged with Schweber Electronics. In 1994, Long became the President of Capstone Electronics, a company under Arrow and in May 2009 became the CEO of Arrow Electronics. Long has a business degree from the University of Wisconsin.

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Murata Manufacturing – A Japanese company famous for manufacturing Electronic Components.

Japan is one of the tech-driven nations that is growing in every aspect very rapidly. The country is not making impressive breakthroughs exclusively in the 21st century, as history is proof that Japan has always been a nation trying to uplift its economy. Many famous multinational conglomerates have their origin in Japan and one such company is Murata Manufacturing.

About Murata Manufacturing

Murata Manufacturing is a Japanese company established in 1944 in the electronic industry. The founder of the company is Akira Murata who started the company as a personal venture in Kyoto, Japan. Murata Manufacturing develops a wide range of electronic products from power supply equipment to communication modules. The company is famous for manufacturing ceramic passive electronic components and dominates the market when it comes to ceramic filters. Currently, Murata Manufacturing has expanded its market beyond Japan to other Asian countries and in America and Europe as well.

Founding History of the Company

The story of Murata Manufacturing began in 1944 when Akira Murata decided to go on a personal venture in the city of Kyoto. Akira started his business in a small factory of 150m2 where he manufactured titanium-oxide ceramic capacitors. The main use of these capacitors was in heterodyne radios. Since people had radio as the only source of entertainment and news back then, the superheterodyne radios became very popular.

In 1947, Akira started working with an assistant professor from Kyoto University and developed a practical barium titanate capacitor. This was a breakthrough for the company as it became the world’s first manufacturer to commercialize a practical barium titanate piezoelectric transducer for fishfinders. After some time, the market for Murata was going very slow as its AM radio ceramic filters took some time to gain demand in the market, and the quality of products also dropped due to compromise in raw materials after WWII. So, the company also started producing insulators and also built equipment for quality checks.

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In 1952, the headquarters of Murata Manufacturing was moved to another part of Kyoto City called Yamashina. The company started investing in research and development very early and its research division is called Murata Technology Research Laboratory Co. Murata’s research department introduced an electron microscope and spectrometer in 1956.

Growth and Expansion

The 1970s witnessed expansion in the international markets as Murata opened its business in Georgia, USA. Murata started expanding the range and production rate of its products and became the mass producer of SAW filter and dielectric filter for consumer products in 1975. In the 1980s, Murata introduced CERALOCK, a ceramic resonator for the PCs and it became a hit. In 1983, the company established Izumo Murata Manufacturing followed by a plant in Yasu-Cho in 1987 and the Yokohama R&D center in 1988. In 1988, the company also opened its business in Thailand.

In 1990, the company developed a very innovative design for gyro sensor technology to make it cos-effective and a comparatively smaller size for general customers. This new sensor was equipped with image stabilization and also detected travel directions in automobiles. Murata pitched this product using a small robot cyclist and the picture went viral all over the media. In 1994, Murata opened a sales and production company in Wuxi, China.

Murata in the 21st Century

Many new products came up in the 21st century and the company also evolved with time with the advent of the digital era. In the 2000s, Murata focused on developing equipment for wireless technology as the demand for communication through PCs was increasing rapidly. This was the time when the internet started ruling the digital market and everyone wanted an internet connection in their computers and smartphones.

In 2010, the company developed the world’s first smallest and thinnest pyroelectric infrared sensor and an ultra-thin piezoelectric speaker. The company acquired Peregrine Semiconductor Corp in 2014. Last year, the company announced the opening of a new R&D center in Yokohama. Currently, the company has more than 60,000 employees spread across the globe.

The Founder: Akira Murata

Born in 1921, Akira Murata is famous for establishing Murata Manufacturing and served as the President of the company from 1950 to 1991. From 1995, he served as the Honorary Chairman of the company until he passed away in 2006. Throughout his professional life, Murata was awarded many prestigious accolades including the Medal with Blue Ribbon of Japan (Ranju Hosho), Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany First Class, Order of the Sacred Treasure, etc.