TDK

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This article is about a Japanese electronics & chemicals company. For other meanings of TDK, see TDK (disambiguation).

TDK PGM(TDK株式会社)

Type	Public (TYO: 6762 , NYSE: TDK, LSE: TDK)
Founded	December 1935
Headquarters	Japan
Key people	President: Hajime Sawabe
Industry	Data storage media
Products	CD, DVD, Blu-ray
Revenue	6.8 billion USD
Employees	53,923^[1]
Website	www.tdk.com

TDK Corporation (TDK株式会社, TDK Kabushiki-gaisha^?), formerly TDK Electronics Co., Ltd. (東京電気化学工業株式会社, Tōkyō Denkikagaku Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha^?) (TYO: 6762 , NYSE: TDK, LSE: TDK), is a Japanese company which manufactures electronic materials, electronic components, and recording and data-storage media, and markets them globally. Their motto is "Contribute to culture and industry through creativity".^[2]

[edit] History

Early 1980s era TDK "D" compact cassette

TDK was founded in Japan on 7 December 1935 to manufacture iron-based magnetic material ferrite, which had been recently invented by Yogoro Kato and Takeshi Takei^[3]. In 1952 they began production of magnetic tapes, with compact cassette tapes following in 1966; it is for these that the company is most widely noted. TDK also manufactures an extensive portfolio of magnetic and optical media, including several formats of videotape and blank CD-R and recordable DVD discs. TDK has also recently started manufacturing USB flash drives.

Industry trends see the company moving into new forms of media; in 2004 TDK was the first media-manufacturer to join the companies developing BD post-DVD technology.^[4]

Operations in the USA began in 1965 with a New York office^[5], and European operations began in 1970 with an office in Frankfurt, West Germany^[6].

The company operates a museum dedicated to the technologies with which it is involved, at its Hirasawa plant in Japan.

It sponsors activities and events such as those at The Cross nightclub in Central London, or Crystal Palace Football Club, which it sponsored between 1996 and 1999.

Since June 1998, Hajime Sawabe has been president, having been nominated by his predecessor, Hiroshi Sato, who retired.