built by KYE and branded as Genius KYE Systems was founded in 1983 in
Taipei,
Taiwan, by James Jwo (born 1959) and Albert Chen. The company originally did not manufacture
peripherals but was instead a
systems integrator, assembling
IBM PC clones for international export, as part of the company's
start-up stage. KYE was founded with
US$40,000 in capital; Jwo described himself at first having "little money and few connections". for export. In 1985, they introduced their Genius brand of mice, In 1986, they established KYE International Corporation in the United States in
Walnut, California, filing its formal articles of incorporation in 1988. This acquisition expanded KYE's dealer network and allowed them to absorb Mouse Systems' patents on optical mice technology. The company held the American patents on scroll-wheel technology through to at least 2009. KYE by 2010 had an
OEM roster of
Hewlett-Packard (later
HP Inc.),
Samsung,
Acer,
Asus,
Best Buy,
Foxconn,
Microsoft, and
Logitech. Microsoft was KYE's largest client in 2010, accounting for 30 percent of KYE's output; KYE built some of Microsoft's
Xbox controllers and
webcams from their factory in Dongguan. An April 2010 report by the
National Labor Committee wrote of
sweatshop-like conditions at the Dongguan factory, which had been recruiting 16- to 18-year-old women for
summer jobs. According to the NCL's report, the students worked 15-hour shifts, six or seven days a week, and during breaks rested in cramped dormitories. Pay for the students was set to 65¢ per hour, with a 13¢ deduction for cafeteria services. Chinese government officials on April 19, 2010, cited KYE with failing to register nearly 326 workers between the ages of 16 and 18 and imposing excessive amounts of overtime—280 collective hours a week, over the allotted 196. Officials forced KYE to rectify the cited complaints within two weeks. Between 2008 and 2012, KYE's revenue share in computer peripherals dropped from 69 percent in 2008 to 43 percent, while its revenue share in optical imaging and
consumer electronics both grew, from 12 percent and 17 percent respectively in 2008 to roughly a quarter each in 2012. In the third quarter of 2013, the company reported an operating income of
NT$64 million. ==References==