Olivetti

From Wikicompany

Olivetti Tecnost S.p.A. (or Olivetti) is an Italian manufacturer of computers, printers and other business machines.

The company employs about 2400 people.

History

The company was founded in 1908 in Ivrea, near Turin by Camillo Olivetti, as a typewriter manufacturer.

Olivetti opened its first overseas manufacturing plant in 1930.

Olivetti's Divisumma electric calculator was launched in 1948.

Olivetti produced Italy's first electronic computer, the transistorised Elea 9003, in 1959.

In 1964 the company sold its electronics division to the USA company General Electric, although it continued to develop new computing products. The TCV-250 video display terminal, designed by Mario Bellini in 1966, is in the Museum of Modern Art's design collection.

Olivetti's first personal computer, the M20, was released in 1982.

In 1985 Olivetti acquired a controlling share in the British computer manufacturer Acorn Computers Ltd. The company continued to develop personal computers until it sold its PC business in 1997.

The Luxembourg-based company Bell S.A. acquired a controlling stake in Olivetti in 1999, but sold it to a consortium including the Pirelli and Benetton groups two years later.

In 2003 Olivetti was absorbed into the Telecom Italia group, maintaining a separate identity as Olivetti Tecnost.