Greg:
The finest company I worked for was Ampex. It was owned by Alexander M. Poniatoff and his family from 1944 until about 1980, when it was sold to Signal (Gene Autry and the Signal Oil Company). Allied bought Signal and we became a part of Allied-Signal around 1982. It was about 1989 when Mr. Bramson bought us.
Mr. Bramson was almost 30 at the time and made a statement that he was going to retire at age 30 but decided to buy Ampex. Mr. Bramson’s two companies were:
1. Supplying blue dye to Levi Strauss.
2. Sausage Casings.
The company produced the first commercial audio tape recorder, invented video tape recording and editing both analog and digital, with many additional accomplishments. Some well-known people worked there over the years including Dolby. It was a fun company to work for and like a big family – everyone knew everyone and we all helped each other and the company.
After providing the style of management which new owners invariable bring with them 16,000 of us were fired in one day. From a company of over 20,000 the company now has about 50 people. From a company with land and buildings all over the world they now own one small building in Redwood City, California, where it all began. There have been few startling inventions from Ampex during the last 12 years when the company “changed”.
I knew just about everyone who had anything to do with Ampex from the owner to the janitor. You would not believe how friendly everyone was. I met people who had worked there over 35 years and were eager to do his/her job. We had some of the finest professional I have ever met as well as state of the art photography and printing departments all run by “old timers” who knew how to do the finest work possible. The engineers I worked with were outstanding and contributed to the development of many technologies. They were leaders in many fields. That was my favorite engineering job. Imagine enjoying coming to work for 15 years and contributing to a great industry while working for the industry leader? That was my experience.
What a great experience that was and what a loss. An important source of income for Ampex these days is the royalties from its patents for VCR’s. Every company that builds VCR’s pays Ampex for its patents. Those patents were established before the 16,000 of us left. My Vice President, Mike Felix was the engineer who invented that technology.
Some background on Ampex.
http://www.ampex.com/03corp/03corp.htmlTom
