Endor AG was established in October 1997 by German businessman Thomas Jackermeier. As an active player of early
PC games, he very quickly recognised the decisive role that input devices would play in performance, reality, and fun. During the 1990s, Jackermeier argued that the stock of high quality sim racing devices was limited, so he decided to give up his wholesale biking store which was used to finance his educational degree during his time at the
University of Regensburg while obtaining his Masters of Business Administration. Following this, he bought AB-Union which later renamed to Endor Ltd. and later the current Endor AG legal name, as well as the establishment of Fanatec, the company's flagship brand. In the beginning, Endor sold a variety of PC peripherals, such as the Game Commander/Alpha Twin
joystick and the licensed
trackball for the
Command & Conquer franchise. Following the successful release of the Le Mans
wheel for PC, Endor began developing the first officially licensed wheel for the
PlayStation system, Speedster 2. It was marketed directly by
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) and gained major success. Endor later continued the relationship with SCEE with the development of the Speedster 3 wheel and the °G game controllers. On June 27, 2006, Endor went public and traded over-the-counter on the
Munich Stock Exchange, the
Stuttgart Stock Exchange and the
Hamburg Stock Exchange, while also restructured its corporate organization. On March 28, 2024, Endor's board dismissed CEO Thomas Jackermeier, effective at the end of March 30 "fulfilling a key condition set by the lending banks for the extension of the standstill agreement" according to their notice. On May 9, 2024, American manufacturer
Corsair Gaming intended to acquire Endor AG, which included the Fanatec brand, pending the approval of German regulators. By September 23, 2024, Corsair had acquired the company and all of its assets, and announced Endor AG would be wound up, with no jobs to be lost and the Fanatec brand name to continue. == Products ==