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COMPANY HISTORY
| 1948 |
Founded
Chiyoda Stationary as a wholesale stationer. |
| 1959 |
Renamed PLUS
Corporation. |
| 1963 |
PLUS Industrial
Co., Ltd. was established. |
| 1967 |
Head Offices
moved to present location. |
| 1972 |
Established the
logo of PLUS Corporation. |
| 1980 |
PLUS U.S.A. Corporation
was established. |
| 1983 |
Founded the institute
of office environment. |
| 1985 |
Incorporated
Taiwan PLUS Corporation. |
| 1990 |
PLUS U.S.A. Corporation
was reestablished as PLUS Corporation of America |
| 2000 |
PLUS Corp. of
America acquires Lightware, Inc., a Beaverton, Oregon based
innovator of portable projectors and presentation systems. |
| 2002 |
PLUS
Corp. of America purchases the liquidated assets of Lightware,
Inc. to form one company: PLUS Vision Corp. of America. |
Headquartered
in Allendale, New Jersey, and Beaverton, Oregon, PLUS Vision Corporation
of America manufactures and markets both extremely sophisticated
and affordable ultra-lightweight, ultra-portable digital projectors
under the PLUS brand name. We also manufacture and market full
featured PLUS brand electronic copyboards and real-time interactive
whiteboards. Featuring an unprecedented level and range of performance
options, PLUS communication and information products are designed
to provide a high degree of value to today's mobile professionals,
including corporate presenters, medical and legal professionals,
educators, trainers, military/government professionals, and technical
consultants.
Parent company PLUS Corporation is a 50-year-old company with
consolidated revenue of $1.5 billion from its presentation, office
and communications products. In 1998, PLUS created the Presentation
and Communications Division to handle R&D and marketing for its
electro-optical product line. That was also the year that PLUS
began selling its first projector based on DLP™ technology, the
UP-800, the world's first sub-10-pound projector, combining the
Digital Light Processing technology developed by Texas Instruments
with PLUS Corp.'s unique optical technologies.
At about that same time, the projector market began its rapid
growth, fueled by increasing demand for smaller, lighter, better-performing
presentation products for conference rooms, mobile presentations,
schools and other applications. PLUS leads in the advancement
of this trend with the development of a series of groundbreaking
projectors that were progressively smaller and lighter, yet able
to deliver higher brightness levels. What's more, these new size,
weight, and brightness levels were achieved without sacrificing
any of the performance features customers have come to rely upon.
Following up the breakthrough UP-800 was the UP-1100, at the time
the world's lightest XGA projector to feature DLP technology.
In 1999, PLUS again broke the weight barrier with the U2 series
projectors. At six pounds each, they once again gave PLUS the
lightweight crown. That record was quickly broken, however, when
the following year PLUS introduced the three-pound U3 Series projectors.
In 2002 the company remained true to its reputation, introducing
the V-Series, the world's first two-pound Digital Light Processing™
technology-enabled projectors, and the world's smallest and lightest
home theater projector, the Piano HE-3100. Throughout this time,
PLUS projectors received a series of design awards, including
Germany's IF Design Award, Japan's Good Design Award three years
in a row, and most recently, the 2002 International Consumer Electronics
Show Innovations Award.
Mr. S. Mark Hand, who has served as President of Lightware since
the company was acquired by PLUS in December 2000, became PLUS
Vision Corp. of America's Vice President of Sales & Marketing,
Business Products Group. He will continue to be based in Beaverton,
Oregon, where Lightware was founded in 1995 to deliver affordable,
portable projection technology for large and small businesses,
mobile professionals, as well as the education and government
markets. The Oregon office will now serve as the headquarters
for PLUS' Business Products Group.
In May 2001, to further strengthen the company's position in the
rapidly expanding projector market, the PLUS Presentation and
Communication Division was established as an independent company,
PLUS Vision Corp. As of January 2002, the American components
of PLUS and PLUS Corporation of America merge as well as purchase
the liquidated assets of Lightware, Inc. to form PLUS Vision Corp.
of America.
According to PLUS Vision Corp. of America President & Chief Executive
Officer Tom Oishi: "The integration of PLUS Corporation of America
and Lightware into one North American sales, marketing and support
unit will allow us to more efficiently market our presentation
products. This will result in greater levels of performance value
and support for our growing and expanding North and South American
customer base."
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