multimedia

Creative Technology Limited is a Singaporean Multinational consumer Electronics firm. It was founded in 1981 by two childhood friends having its headquarters in Jurong, Singapore. Also, It has overseas offices in Shanghai, Tokyo, Dublin, and Silicon Valley. Its branch in the United States is known as Creative labs. Sim Woo Hong is the Chief Executive Officer of Creative Labs. Its Chief Financial Officer is Ng Kai Wa, who also played a Crucial role in its foundation.

Creative Labs provide services such as design, manufacture, and distribution of digitalized video and sound boards, computers, and related multimedia and personal digital entertainment products. It collaborates with mainboard manufacturer companies and renowned laptop brands to embed its Sound Blaster technology on its products.

History

Creative Technology Limited was founded 41 years ago, on 1st July 1981, by two childhood and Ngee Ann polytechnic schoolmates. It was first established in Jurong, Singapore. Then it expanded to various countries overseas. Initially, It was just a computer repair center located in Chinatown. The firm prepared an add-on memory board for the Apple II PC. After that, it spent nearly 500,000 USD on creating the Cubic CT, an IBM-compatible computer advanced for the Chinese language containing innovative features like enhanced colour graphics and a built-in audio board capable of generating speech and melodies. Since there was no demand for multilingual PCs and the availability of only a few multimedia software applications, it became a massive failure.

Sim decided to establish a creative technology subsidiary, Creative Labs in Silicon Valley united states. He convinced Many software Developers to offer their assistance in supporting their sound card, renamed game Blaster, marketed by RadioShack’s Tandy division. It became a huge success and resulted in the development of a Standalone Sound Blaster Sound Card.

In 1992, former Ashton-Tate CEO Ed Esber joined creative labs as Chief Executive Officer for the proper management and company’s rapid growth. He brought together a team of US executives consisting of talented personalities such as Rich Buchanan (graphics), Rich Sorkin (sound products, communication, OEM, and business development), and Gail Pomerantz (marketing). This team played a crucial role in lifting the shares market. Specifically, Rich Sorkin drastically enhanced the firm’s brand position via crisp licensing. However, the Esber team and the founders had some strategy and positioning-related opinion differences. So, they gave up their positions in 1995, except for Sorkin. He was promoted to general manager of audio communication products and afterward vice-president of business development and corporate investments. In 1996, He also left creative labs and went to work in Elon Musk’s first startup and internet explorer zip2.

Revenue

Due to the Sound Blaster’s massive success, there was an immense revenue increase. It increased from 5.4 million USD in 1989 to 650 million USD in 1994. By 1996, the firm’s revenue reached 1.6 billion USD. Currently, its annual revenue is 84 million USD (2021).

Renowned Products

It became famous for its sound blaster in the 1980s and creative X-fi Sonic carrier in 2016.

Court Cases

Creative technology sued Aureal claiming patent violation over a MIDI technology controlled by E-mu Systems on 5 march 1998 with Aureal filing a counterclaim for defamation and indulging in unfair competition to damage them. After the launch of sound Blaster, they filed another suit against Aureal which went bankrupt due to expenses and investor pressure in 1999. Creative technology acquired it in 2000.

Subsidiaries

It has many Divisions and brands overseas which are the following:

• Cambridge SoundWorks
• Creative MuVo
• Creative NOMAD
• Creative ZEN
• E-mu Systems/Ensoniq
• Sound Blaster
• SoundFont
• ZiiLABS (previously 3Dlabs)

Founder – Sim Wong Hoo (Weng fu Shen)

Sim Woo Hong is a Singaporean Inventor, a billionaire, and a great entrepreneur. He was born in 1955 and studied at Bukit Panjang Government High School. He graduated from Ngee Ann polytechnic university in Electrical and Electronic engineering. He has won many awards for his inventions which include, Singapore’s Public star medal and Asia’s Businessman of the year in 2001. He became the youngest billionaire at the age of 45. He also authored a book named “chaotic Thoughts from The Old Millennium”.