type public traded as nyse har s & p 500 component industry electronics founded 1980 headquarters stamford connecticut key people dinesh paliwal chairman & ceo products audio electronic and infotainment systems for automotive oem s home and computer systems aha radio for in car entertainment from cloud loudspeakers and electronics for audio professionals concert halls stadiums airports recording broadcasting and cinema brands harman kardon becker jbl crown audio dbx martin professional akg acoustics lexicon infinity mark levinson revel revenue 7 billion 2016 1 operating income 1.2 billion 2015 net income 0.7 billion 2015 number of employees 29 000 2016 r & d 12 000 2 website harman.com harman international industries incorporated is an american company that designs and engineers connected products for automakers consumers and enterprises worldwide including connected car systems ; audio and visual products enterprise automation ; and connected services . 3 headquartered in stamford connecticut harman maintains major operations in the americas europe as well as asia and markets its products under more than twenty brands including akg acoustics amx crown audio harman kardon infinity jbl jbl professional lexicon mark levinson martin revel soundcraft and studer . contents 1 early history 2 acquisitions and expansion 3 private equity attempt 4 brands 5 number of employees 6 references 7 external links early history edit sidney harman and bernard kardon founded the predecessor to harman international harman kardon in 1953 . both harman and kardon were engineers by training and had worked at the bogen company which was then the top manufacturer of public address systems . their collaboration helped to create a new industry high fidelity audio . harman bought out his partner in 1956 and then expanded harman kardon into an audio powerhouse according to a biography written by the consumer electronics hall of fame . 4 acquisitions and expansion edit in the 1970s harman accepted an appointment in the carter administration as deputy secretary of the department of commerce . when harman took office in 1976 he sold his company to conglomerate beatrice foods to avoid a conflict of interest . beatrice promptly sold many portions of the company including the original harman kardon division and by 1980 only 60 % of the original company remained . after he left government in 1978 5 he created harman international industries and reacquired a number of businesses he sold to beatrice . the company continued its growth plan with a string of acquisitions throughout the 1980s that pushed harman international s sales from about 80 million in 1981 to more than 200 million by 1986 and then to more than 500 million by 1989 . harman international went public in 1986 with a stock offering on the new york stock exchange . cash from that sale was used to among many other purchases buy soundcraft a u.k. producer of professional mixing boards in 1988 and later salt lake city digital electronics producer dod electronics corp. by 1990 harman international was selling consumer audio gear under such brands as jbl harman kardon infinity and epicure loudspeakers as well as professional audio systems with such brands as jbl professional urei soundcraft allen & heath dbx studer dod lexicon akg bss orban quested and turbosound the last one now under the control of music group company 6 . in july 2011 harman acquired mwm acoustics a privately held company that specialized in speaker and microphone technology for consumer electronics and enterprise telephony . the combination of mwm acoustics branded audio and akg automotive microphones became the embedded audio business team . 7 harman expanded to include lighting in 2013 with the acquisition of martin professional . 8 in june 2014 harman completed the acquisition of amx llc from the duchossois group bringing enterprise control and automation systems as well as audio video switching and distributing to harman s offerings . 9 in march 2015 harman acquired the automotive division of bang & olufsen for 145 million euros 156 million for the unit as well as technology license fees . 10 the purchase didn t include bang & olufsen s consumer electronics business . 11 in 2015 recognizing the increasing role of software and services in the markets it served harman expanded its capabilities around cloud mobility and analytics with the acquisitions of symphony teleca a software services company based in mountain view ca 12 and redbend an israeli based provider of software management technology for connected devices and over the air ota software and firmware upgrading services . 13 with these additions harman announced the formation of a fourth division which they called connected services . in march 2016 harman acquired the automotive cyber security firm towersec . 14 this acquisition increased harman s competencies in the emerging automotive cyber security field . this was evidenced by the subsequent launch of the company s 5 1 security framework incorporating towersec s ecu shield technology . 15 this acquisition was notable for further demonstrating harman s desire to expand beyond its traditional business areas of in car audio and entertainment systems . 16 private equity attempt edit harman international industries was to disappear from nyse in q3 2007 due to a buy out by kkr and goldman sachs capital partners . 17 however as of mid september 2007 kkr announced they would back out of the deal . harman shares plummeted by more than 24 % that day on the news . coincident with the buy out deal dinesh c. paliwal was hired as company president and ceo in july 2007 . paliwal was a veteran of the corporate turn around . during his tenure as president of u.s. operations for abb the heavyweight swiss based automation provider the company moved from a money losing and siloed organization to one with double digit growth doubled its share price in one year and saw its bond ratings upgraded by moody s and standard & poors . 18 on july 1 2008 sidney harman was succeeded by dinesh paliwal as chairman of the board . 19 brands edit akg acoustics microphone headphones amx video switching and control devices bang & olufsen automotive becker car infotainment bss audio signal processing crown international pro amplifiers dbx professional products signal processors digitech guitar products hardwire guitar pedals hiqnet audio digital network based on ethernet harman kardon home car audio infinity home car speakers jbl home car speakers & amplifiers professional speakers lexicon digital processing mark levinson audio systems home car audio martin professional stage and architectural lighting and effects fixtures revel home speakers selenium home car and professional speakers amplifiers sound tables mixers soundcraft mixing consoles studer mixing consoles number of employees edit table 1 . number of full time employees approx . fiscal year total north america outside of na mar. 2016 20 29 000 feb. 2016 21 sep. 2015 22 28 000 2015 23 24 197 6 793 17 404 2014 24 14 202 5 599 8 603 2013 25 12 221 4 509 7 712 2012 26 11 386 4 169 7 197 2010 27 9 816 3 362 6 454 2008 28 11 694 4 834 6 860 2007 29 11 688 5 611 6 077 references edit harman reports third quarter fiscal 2016 results pdf . files.shareholder.com . retrieved 2016 08 18 . harman appoints henry tirri as chief technology officer . harman newsroom business wire . retrieved 2016 05 05 . harman unveils new logo signals brand evolution . harman newsroom . retrieved 2016 01 11 . 1 dead link jimmy carter department of commerce exchange of letters on the resignation of sidney l. harman as under secretary . presidency.ucsb.edu . retrieved 2016 08 28 . music group . turbosound.com . retrieved 2016 08 28 . high quality audio high quality audio about us . embedded.harman.com . retrieved 2016 08 28 . harman completes acquisition of entertainment lighting company martin professional . harman newsroom . retrieved 2016 01 11 . harman completes acquisition of amx . harman newsroom . retrieved 2016 01 11 . tom lavell 2015 03 31 . bang & olufsen to sell car audio unit to harman in focus shift . bloomberg . retrieved 2016 08 28 . harman kardon acquires bang & olufsen automotive . bmwblog.com . retrieved 2016 08 28 . harman to acquire software services company symphony teleca harman . news.harman.com . 2015 01 22 . retrieved 2016 08 28 . harman completes acquisition of redbend . harman newsroom . retrieved 2016 01 11 . harman completes acquisition of towersec automotive cyber security . harman newsroom . retrieved 2016 09 17 . harman automotive cyber security system . deep tread . retrieved 2016 09 17 . harman automotive cyber security system . deep tread . retrieved 2016 09 17 . khi parent inc. s 4 on 6 20 07 . sec info . retrieved 2016 08 28 . by on june 1 2006 2006 06 01 . abb celebrates turnaround . automation world . retrieved 2016 08 28 . cs1 maint multiple names authors list link 2 dead link harman news . harman news . retrieved may 5 2016 . harman twitter . harman twitter . retrieved feb 22 2016 . harman news . harman news . retrieved sep 30 2015 . fy15 sec form 10 k . harman sec filing form 10 k. retrieved august 7 2015 . fy14 sec form 10 k . harman sec filing form 10 k. retrieved august 7 2014 . fy13 sec form 10 k . harman sec filing form 10 k. retrieved august 2 2013 . fy12 sec form 10 k . sec gov filing form 10 k. retrieved august 3 2012 . fy10 sec form 10 k pdf . harman sec filing form 10 k. retrieved august 4 2010 . fy08 sec form 10 k . harman sec filing form 10 k. retrieved august 6 2008 . fy07 sec form 10 k . harman sec filing form 10 k. retrieved august 6 2007 . external links edit official website harman japan website harman korea website harman connected services v t e harman international industries subsidiaries akg acoustics c1000 amx crown international dbx professional products digitech digitech whammy harman kardon infinity systems jbl jbl paragon lexicon mark levinson audio systems martin professional soundcraft studer symphony teleca people david e. blackmer graham blyth phil dudderidge sidney harman james bullough lansing francis f. lee mark levinson v t e kohlberg kravis roberts founders jerome kohlberg jr. henry kravis george r. roberts selected current investments academy sports outdoors alliance boots aricent group avago biomet bharti enterprises capsugel cicc caf coffee day colonial pipeline del monte foods dollar general eastman kodak el paso corp. energy future holdings first data harman international industries hospital corporation of america kion group laureate education legg mason legrand magma fincorp maxeda nielsen holdings northgate information solutions nxp semiconductors oriental brewery pets at home prosiebensat .1 media sealy corporation seven west media sungard tdc a s toys r us us foods visma wild yageo zhone technologies category retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title harman international industries & oldid 741883664 categories harman international industrieselectronics companies established in 1980companies based in stamford connecticutcompanies listed on the new york stock exchangekohlberg kravis roberts companiesamerican brandshidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from august 2016cs1 maint multiple names authors listofficial website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages afrikaans 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