please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message amstrad limited type subsidiary 1 industry electronics founded 1968 1968 headquarters brentwood essex united kingdom area served uk and ireland key people lord sugar founder alun webber managing director simon ball ceo revenue 91.65 million 2006 operating income 26.94 million gbp 2006 net income 15.08 million gbp 2006 owner sky plc number of employees 85 2005 parent sky plc website amstrad.com amstrad is a british electronics company . as of 2006 update amstrad s main business is manufacturing sky digital interactive boxes . amstrad was founded in 1968 by alan sugar at the age of 21 . the name is a contraction of alan michael sugar trading . it was first listed on the london stock exchange in 1980 . during the late 1980s amstrad had a substantial share of the pc market in the uk . amstrad was once a ftse 100 index constituent but since 2007 is wholly owned by bskyb . the company had offices in kings road brentwood essex . contents 1 history 1.1 1960s and 1970s 1.2 1980s 1.3 1990s 1.4 recent times 1.5 bskyb takeover 1.6 2008 2 computer product lines 2.1 home computers 2.2 word processors 2.3 notepad computers 2.4 pc compatibles 2.5 pc accessories 2.6 pda 2.7 set top box 3 see also 4 references 5 further reading 6 external links history edit amstrad 7070 tape deck 1960s and 1970s edit amstrad was founded in 1968 by alan sugar at the age of 21 the name of the original company being ams trading amstrad limited derived from its founder s initials alan michael sugar . amstrad entered the market in the field of consumer electronics . during the 1970s they were at the forefront of low priced hi fi tv and car stereo cassette technologies . lower prices were achieved by injection moulding plastic hi fi turntable covers undercutting competitors who used the vacuum forming process . amstrad expanded to the marketing of low cost low quality amplifiers and tuners imported from the far east and badged with the amstrad name for the uk market . their first electrical product was the amstrad 8000 amplifier which sugar would describe later as the biggest load of rubbish i ve ever seen in my life . 2 1980s edit the amstrad cpc 464 personal microcomputer in 1980 amstrad went public trading on the london stock exchange and doubled in size each year during the early 80s . amstrad began marketing its own home computers in an attempt to capture the market from commodore and sinclair with the amstrad cpc range in 1984 . the cpc 464 was launched in the uk france australia new zealand germany spain and italy . it was followed by the cpc 664 and cpc 6128 models . later plus variants of the 464 and 6128 launched in 1990 increased their functionality slightly . amstrad pcw8512 word processor in 1985 the popular amstrad pcw range was introduced which were principally word processors complete with printer running the locoscript word processing program . they were also capable of running the cp m operating system . the amsoft division of amstrad was set up to provide in house software and consumables . on 7 april 1986 amstrad announced it had bought from sinclair research ... the worldwide rights to sell and manufacture all existing and future sinclair computers and computer products together with the sinclair brand name and those intellectual property rights where they relate to computers and computer related products . 3 which included the zx spectrum for 5 million . this included sinclair s unsold stock of sinclair qls and spectrums . amstrad made more than 5 million on selling these surplus machines alone . amstrad launched two new variants of the spectrum the zx spectrum 2 based on the zx spectrum 128 with a built in tape drive like the cpc 464 and the following year the zx spectrum 3 with a built in floppy disk drive similar to the cpc 664 and 6128 taking the 3 disks that many amstrad machines used . the zx spectrum 2 . this was the first new spectrum model released by amstrad after their purchase of the range . the company produced a range of affordable ms dos based but with the gem graphics interface and later windows based personal computers the first of which was the pc1512 priced at 399 in 1986 . it was a success capturing more than 25 % of the european computer market . in 1988 amstrad attempted to make the first affordable portable personal computer with the ppc512 and 640 models introduced a year before the macintosh portable . they ran ms dos on an 8 mhz processor and the built in screen could emulate the monochrome display adapter or color graphics adapter . amstrad s final and ill fated attempts to exploit the sinclair brand were based on the company s own pcs ; a compact desktop pc derived from the ppc 512 branded as the sinclair pc200 and the pc1512 rebadged as the sinclair pc500 . amstrad ppc 512 portable pc amstrad s second generation of pcs the pc2000 series were launched in 1989 . however due to a problem with the seagate st277r hard disk shipped with the pc2386 model these had to be recalled and fitted with western digital controllers . amstrad later successfully sued seagate but following bad press over the hard disk problems amstrad lost its lead in the european pc market . 4 1990s edit in the early 1990s amstrad began to focus on portable computers rather than desktop computers . in 1990 amstrad tried to enter the video game console market with the amstrad gx4000 similar to what commodore did at the same time with the c64 gs . the console based on the amstrad 464 plus hardware was a complete commercial failure because it used outdated technology and most games available for it were straight ports of cpc games that could be purchased for much less in their original format . in 1993 amstrad was licensed by sega to produce a system which was similar to the sega teradrive going by the name of the amstrad mega pc to try to regain their image in the gaming market . the system didn t succeed as well as expected mostly due to its high initial retail price of 599 . in that same year amstrad released the penpad a pda similar to the apple newton and released only weeks before it . it was a commercial failure and had several technical and usability problems . it lacked most features that the apple newton included but had a lower price at 450 . as amstrad began to concentrate less on computers and more in communication they purchased several telecommunications businesses including betacom dancall telecom viglen computers and dataflex design communications during the early 1990s . amstrad has been a major supplier of set top boxes to uk satellite tv provider sky since its launch in 1989 . amstrad was key to the introduction of sky as the company was responsible for finding methods to produce the requisite equipment at an attractive price for the consumer alan sugar famously approached someone who bashes out dustbin lids to manufacture satellite dishes cheaply . ultimately it was the only manufacturer producing receiver boxes and dishes at the system s launch and has continued to manufacture set top boxes for sky from analogue to digital and now including sky s sky digital video recorder . in 1997 amstrad plc was wound up its shares being split into viglen and betacom instead . betacom plc was then renamed amstrad plc. the same year amstrad supplied set top boxes to australian broadcaster foxtel and in 2004 to italian broadcaster sky italia . recent times edit in 2000 amstrad released the first of its combined telephony and e mail devices called the e m iler . this was followed by the e m iler plus in 2002 and the e3 videophone in 2004 . amstrad s uk e m iler business is operated through a separate company amserve ltd which is 89.8 % owned by amstrad and 10.2 % owned by dsg international plc formerly dixons plc . amstrad has also produced a variety of home entertainment products over their history including hi fi televisions vcrs and dvd players . bskyb takeover edit in july 2007 bskyb announced a takeover of amstrad for 125m 5 a 23.7 % premium on its market capitalisation . bskyb had been a major client of amstrad accounting for 75 % of sales for its set top box business . having supplied bskyb with hardware since its inception in 1988 market analysts had noted the two companies becoming increasingly close . sugar commented that he wished to play a part in the business saying i turn 60 this year and i have had 40 years of hustling in the business but now i have to start thinking about my team of loyal staff many of whom have been with me for many years . 2008 edit it was announced on 2 july 2008 that sugar had stepped down as chairman of amstrad which had been planned since bskyb took over in 2007 . 6 7 computer product lines edit home computers edit cpc464 64 kb ram cassette drive cpc472 same as cpc464 but with 72 kb instead of 64 kb cpc664 3 inch internal disk variant of cpc464 cpc6128 128 kb version of the cpc664 with 3 inch disk 464 plus cpc464 with enhanced graphics and sound 6128 plus cpc6128 with enhanced graphics and sound gx4000 games console based on 464 plus sinclair zx spectrum 2 re engineered zx spectrum 128 with tape drive sinclair zx spectrum 3 as zx spectrum 2 but with 3 inch disk drive instead of tape drive word processors edit pcw8256 z80 3.5 mhz 256 kb ram single 180 kb 3 floppy drive dot matrix printer green screen pcw8512 same as pcw8256 but with 512 kb ram 180 kb 3 a drive 720 kb 3 b drive pcw9512 z80 3.5 mhz 512 kb ram single or dual 720 kb 3 floppy drives daisywheel printer paper white screen pcw9256 z80 3.5 mhz 256 kb ram single 720 kb 3.5 floppy drive dot matrix printer paper white screen pcw9512 same as pcw9512 but with single 3.5 720 kb floppy drive pcw10 same as pcw9256 but with 512 kb ram and a built in parallel port pcw16 z80 16 mhz single 1.44 mb 3.5 floppy drive new machine not directly compatible with old pcws notepad computers edit nc100 z80 64 kb ram 80 8 character lcd nc150 nc100 with 128 kb ram floppy disk interface and nc200 firmware sold in france and italy nc200 z80 128 kb ram adjustable 80 16 character lcd 3.5 in floppy disk drive pc compatibles edit pc1512 intel 8086 8 mhz 512 kb ram cga graphics marketed in the united states as the pc5120 pc1640 intel 8086 8 mhz 640 kb ram mda hercules cga ega colour graphics marketed in the united states as the pc6400 ppc512 portable using nec v30 processor 512 kb ram non backlit supertwist cga one or two 720 kb 3.5 floppy drives released around the same time as the pc1512 . ppc640 portable using nec v30 processor 640 kb ram non backlit supertwist cga one or two 720 kb 3.5 floppy drives internal modem released around the same time as the pc1640 . sinclair pc200 integral desktop pc for home computer market based on ppc512 pc 20 the australian version of the sinclair pc200 sinclair pc500 rebadged pc1512 pc1286 pc1386 intel 80386sx cpu 20 mhz 1 mb ram pc2086 intel 8086 cpu 8 mhz 640 kb ram vga graphics launched 1989 pc2286 intel 80286 cpu 12.5 mhz 1