Syntrex
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Daniel Sinnott
- James Bruno
- Little Silver
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Founded | October 1979 |
| Founders |
|
| Defunct | March 1992 |
| Fate | Bankruptcy liquidation |
| Products | |
| Owner | Olivetti S.p.A. (25%) |
Number of employees | 900 (1990, peak) |
Syntrex Inc. was a public American computer systems company active from 1979 to 1992. The company had its heyday in the 1980s, when it was one of the largest manufacturers of word processing and data processing systems. Olivetti S.p.A., a major office equipment manufacturer based in Italy, was an early and important investor in Syntrex. Following a steady decline in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the company liquidated its assets after going bankrupt in 1992.
Syntrex was incorporated in October 1979 by Daniel Sinnott, James Bruno, and Little Silver in Eatontown, New Jersey, as an outgrowth of S&B Associates, another company founded by the trio based in Sayreville and founded earlier in 1979.[1] Sinnott was the principal founder of Syntrex; previously, he founded Interdata, a small but influential manufacturer of minicomputers acquired by Perkin-Elmer in 1975.[2] Olivetti S.p.A., an Italian manufacturer of typewriters and other office equipment, was an early investor of Syntrex, acquiring a 25-percent stake in the company in October 1980.[3]: F9 In 1981, Syntrex became a public company after filing its initial public offering.[4] In 1986, Syntrex signed a distribution agreement with U-BIX International (a joint venture between the Japanese conglomerates Konica and Mitsubishi, later known as Konica Business Machines International), based in Hamburg, for the distribution of all of Syntrex's systems in Europe.[5][6]
With the increasing market penetration of DOS-based computer systems, Syntrex was forced to reorient itself strategically. As an important element of Syntrex's PC product strategy was the Syntrex PC Connection, which was released in 1984. A special ISA plug-in card enabled the SOS (Syntrex Operating System; detailed in the next section) to run on IBM Personal Computers and compatibles.[7]: OS-16
Syntrex reached its peak in the early 1990s and had by then built up complete production, including hardware (from housing to component assembly), at its Eatontown site, with up to 900 employees at times.[8]: D8 [9] With the expiration of the existing licensing agreements with Olivetti and the discontinuation of European marketing by Konica Business Machines International in the late 1980s, sales plummeted dramatically.[9][10] Even American government agencies, among the company's most important customers, became unsettled and stopped placing orders.[9] In the late 1980s, Syntrex attempted to offset its losses by transforming itself into a network integration company.[4]: A10 In May 1991, Syntrex reduced its workforce from 900 to 550 and sought a buyer (its stock was trading at 50 cents at the time).[9] In March 1992, after having exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Syntrex had its assets sold off to Northcote Partners, a private equity company, and to Phoenix Technologies of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, a integrator of Quotron computer systems (not to be confused with the BIOS manufacturer of the same name). The Syntrex name soon after disappeared completely from the market.[4]: A8 [10]
