The company was formed in 1985 by Juan Rodriguez, Harry Hinz, and Kelly Beavers, and a group of ex-
StorageTek engineers who were interested in using consumer
videotape technology for data storage. The company advanced technology for computer
backups in 1987 when it introduced the
Data8 magnetic tape format along with the EXB-8200 8 mm cartridge tape subsystem. The company's follow-up technologies, including Mammoth and Mammoth-2, were less successful. Exabyte went public on the NASDAQ in 1989 under the symbol EXBT.
Acquisitions Exabyte's history of acquisitions includes: • 1992 -
R-Byte, Inc., a maker of
4mm tape systems. • 1993 -
Tallgrass Technologies of
Lenexa within
Johnson County, Kansas. Tallgrass manufactured 4mm
DDS drives, backup software, and had a significant distribution channel. • 1993 -
Everex's
Mass Storage Division (MSD). Everex did its research and development in
Ann Arbor, MI and manufactured its products in
Fremont, CA. Everex MSD made
QIC products. • October 1994 -
Grundig Data Scanner GmbH, for $2.9 million and renamed
Exabyte Magnetics GmbH. This subsidiary designed and manufactured
helical scan tape heads.
Ecrix merger '''''' was a
magnetic tape data storage company founded in 1996 in
Boulder, Colorado. The founders, Kelly Beavers and Juan Rodriguez, were two of the three founders of Exabyte. The research and development done by Ecrix focused on making a cheaper 8 mm tape drive. In 1999, Ecrix released its first product, the
VXA tape drive. In 2001, Ecrix and Exabyte merged, giving Exabyte access to Ecrix's VXA Packet Technology tape drive format.
Demise On 30 June 2006, Exabyte announced that it was looking for a buyer. On 30 August 2006,
Tandberg Data announced that it was buying Exabyte's assets for US$28 million. The acquisition was completed on 20 November 2006. == References ==