It all began in 1969, under the Information Terminals Corporation (ITC) company name, with Anderson realising the market potential of computer storage media.  For its first product, the small company put tape into cassette cases, and later developed his own cassettes that featured an extremely stable and precise-running polycarbonate casing.  In 1973, the engineers at ITC further developed IBM’s first 8-inch floppy disk to create a special shell that would protect the disk from dirt and damage. The path to growth continued and in 1976 led to the construction of ITC’s first media factory in which disks were given a unique Teflon coating through an innovative production process.  Under the name “Verbatim” – Latin for “literally” – this floppy disk was launched onto the market and was later also available in the 5.25-inch format. 

The firm already had more than 1,000 staff when it rebranded itself “Verbatim”, in recognition of its top-selling product, and was floated on the stock market in 1979. With the launch of the DataLifePlus diskette two years later, the company continued to strengthen its international reputation as a manufacturer of high-quality storage media. To expand into the Japanese market, Verbatim entered into a joint venture with Mitsubishi Kasei. They merged in 1994 with Mitsubishi Petrochemical to form Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation.

Today, the parent company trades under the name of Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. In the 1990s, Verbatim achieved market leadership with floppy disks but the trend was already moving towards magneto-optical storage media and later CD media – a field in which Verbatim became the front-runner. Since 2003 the company has held the top international position for CD and DVD media, which has been proven by independent market reports and the numerous product test awards that it has won.

Over recent years, Verbatim has extended its portfolio with USB drives, flash cards and computer accessories, and is already very well established in the dynamic external hard drive market having only entered it in 2007.  Verbatim has also recently moved into the innovative flash memory-based solid state drive (SSD) business with its range of SSD ExpressCards.

Research and development as the driver of success – in the future, too
“Customers primarily want reliability and quality. We are addressing these wishes not only through our slogan, ‘Technology you can trust’ but also through meticulous development work combined with the best components and precise production processes,” says Gary Milner.  “We will always be a front-runner with our innovations in the storage media market.  With our four pillar product strategy, which comprises optical storage media, external hard drives, flash memory and associated accessories, we are offering a very attractive and broad selection of high-quality products.  We are also endeavouring to further expand our market leadership in the field of optical storage media, and are keen to enter the markets of all new storage media while continuing to strengthen our product mix,” says Milner.

Pictures can be found at:
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About Verbatim
Since 1969, Verbatim has been shaping the development of data storage technology – from Floppy Disks and Magneto-Optical storage media, CD and DVD formats to the latest High Definition media Blu-ray.  Moreover, Verbatim offers high quality products in the field of Portable USB Drives, Flash Memory Cards, SSD and External Hard Drives as well as a broad variety of computer Accessories. Verbatim is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Group and benefits from the outstanding research and development department. With these innovations Verbatim has played a key role in shaping the storage media market.  Ultra-strict quality controls during the manufacturing process ensure the high quality of Verbatim’s products, which have been the winners of numerous international comparative tests.  The company is the European market leader for Optical Media.  For more information, please visit www.verbatim-europe.com.

Press Contact: 
Maria Csilics
Verbatim GmbH
Frankfurter Straße 63-69
65760 Eschborn
Tel: +49 (0)6196-9001-30
mcsilics@verbatim-europe.com