Nixdorf Computer

German computer company

Nixdorf Computer AG was a West German computer company founded by Heinz Nixdorf in 1952. Headquartered in Paderborn, Germany, it became the fourth largest computer company in Europe, and a worldwide specialist in banking and point of sale systems.

When Nixdorf worked at Remington Rand Corp., he recognized the market potential for calculators. He presented his concept to a few large businesses. The Rheinisch Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk (RWE) in Essen showed interest and trust in his ideas, so they gave him 30,000 D Mark. With that, Nixdorf was able to found the Labor für Impulstechnik on July 1, 1952. The same year, the company delivered their first calculator. Because of their success, the Labor für Impulstechnik delivered to major companies like the Wanderer Werke in Cologne and the Compagnie des Machines Bull in Paris. In 1954 the company was compelled to move to another office location, because they needed more space. They invented many products like the Wanderer Conti, the first desk calculator in the world with a printer in it, and the Nixdorf Universalcomputer 820. The fast expansion was the reason why the company rented rooms in Paderborn, Nixdorf's hometown. One year later, the company moved completely to Paderborn and their first own building was built in 1961. Today, there is a museum located there. In 1967, Nixdorf had the idea of not just selling via distributors anymore, but to sell the products by himself. The first companies were built and the Labor für Impulstechnik was also represented in Berlin. The first public move was when the company bought their biggest client, the Wanderer Werke in Cologne.

With the buy of the Wanderer shares in 1968, followed the merger between the former Wanderer Werken and the Labor for Impulstechnik to the Nixdorf Computer AG on October 1, the same year. The place of business was in Paderborn. Because of the electronic data processing as a new concept, the company had a quick success. Producers like IBM were trusted on mainframes but Heinz Nixdorf recognized that mainframes were too expensive for many concerns, so he presented the Nixdorf 820. With that he brought the computer directly to the office and the people could afford it. Because of a 100 million DM order in 1968, the first computers made their way from Paderborn overseas. Later, the Nixdorf Computer AG also settled down in the United States and in Japan. In the 1970s, the Nixdorf Computer AG grew to the market leader in the mid range computing in Germany and was the fourth largest computer company in Europe with subsidiaries in Germany, Ireland, Spain, the United States and Singapore. In 1972, it was represented in 22 countries. Because of the expansion, the company grew faster and bigger and so they had to build new buildings. In 1971, the new central office was applied, today it is called the Heinz Nixdorf Aue and in the building is the Heinz Nixdorf Museums Forum and the Heinz Nixdorf Institut of the Universität Paderborn. In 1975, the Heinz Nixdorf Company produced a new generation of data capturing: the 88xx line. It was very successful, and in 1978, the Heinz Nixdorf AG sales were a billion DM, with over 10,000 employees worldwide. With the thought of training his employees, Nixdorf founded a trade school in 1969, which was done in 1972: the Bildungszentrum für informationsverarbeitende Berufe (b. i. b.). Heinz Nixdorf was an ambitious sportsman, and as he wanted his employees to do sports as well, he built the Ahorn Sportpark in Paderborn right next to the company's central office. In 1980, Nixdorf purchased a US based vendor of IBM mainframe software, TCSC (The Computer Software Company), which then became Nixdorf's NCSC (Nixdorf Computer Software Company) subsidiary. ADR and Nixdorf settled out of court in 1981, with an agreement that Nixdorf could continue to resell ADR's products. Because of its fast growth, the NCAG needed more money. Nixdorf refused an offer from the Volkswagen AG, but agreed with the Deutsche Bank which gave the concern 200 million D Mark for 25 percent. By going public to the Börse Düsseldorf they got 300 million DM in 1984 as well. One year later, the emission brought 700 million DM. The production capacities in the factories in Germany and abroad were extended. In 1985, the sales of Nixdorf AG were 4 billion DM, with an after taxes profit of 172 million. At this time, the company had 23,000 employees in 44 countries. Heinz Nixdorf died of a heart attack on March 17, 1986, at the CeBIT in Hannover.

The follower of Nixdorf was Klaus Luft, who made some records in the first year. The turnover was 5 billion D Mark and the company had 30,000 employees. But the company could not follow the change of the computers and missed important products like the personal computer. Because of the loss of money, Luft had to give away his job after 3 years to Horst Nasko. Because of the loss of money the chairpersons were compelled to sell the company.

In 1989, Nixdorf decided to pull out of the IBM compatible mainframe market, in order to focus on Unix. It transferred its Nixdorf 8890 line of clone IBM mainframes to Comparex Informationssysteme GmbH. However, while Comparex was willing to take over the hardware business, it did not want the responsibility of maintaining Nixdorf's Edos operating system (a fork of IBM's DOS/VS operating system), preferring that its customers purchase mainframe operating systems from IBM instead. Nixdorf decided to cancel all work on the next release of its Edos, since they did not want to commit to maintain any new version in the years to come.

On October 1, 1990, Siemens took over the Nixdorf shares and the merger between the Nixdorf Computer AG and Siemens followed to the Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme (SNI). Thousands of people were made redundant in Paderborn the same year, because Siemens sought to streamline the company. Siemens became the largest computer company in Europe.

On October 1, 1999, the SNI was overtaken by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. The name was changed to Wincor Nixdorf GmbH. Since 2004 the company is going public at the Frankfurter Börse as Wincor Nixdorf AG. It produces cash points, cash registers and reverse vending machines. In 2016, Wincor Nixdorf merged with Diebold, Inc. to produce Diebold Nixdorf.