Gericom was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

equipment manufacturer, based in

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

. Prior to being bought by bought by

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

-based Quanmax, Inc in 2008 and subsequently converted to Quanmax AG, the company received investment from the Oberlehner Private Foundation and Charles Dickson, an investor from

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

History

The company was founded in 1990 by Hermann Oberlehner and went public as ''Gericom AG'' in 2000. Gericom products were initially sold via chains such as

Media Markt MediaMarkt is a German multinational chain of stores selling consumer electronics with over 1,000 retail locations in ten countries in Europe. With the Saturn (store), Saturn chain of stores it constitutes Media-Saturn Holding, owned by the re ...

and

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

. In 1998 a webshop was established, and later Gericom products were also sold in supermarkets such as

Aldi Aldi (German pronunciation: ), stylised as ALDI, is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and ...

, Hofer,

Plus Plus or PLUS may refer to: Mathematics * Addition * +, the mathematical sign Music * Plus (band), a Japanese pop boy band Albums and EPs * ''+'' (Ed Sheeran album), (pronounced "plus"), 2011 * ''Plus'' (Astrud Gilberto and James Last album), ...

, and

Lidl Lidl ( ) is a trademark, used by two Germany, German international discount supermarket, discount retailer chain store, chains that operates over 12,600 stores. The ''LD Stiftung'' operates the stores in Germany and the ''Lidl Stiftung & Co. K ...

. The company was mostly popular in German-speaking countries of Europe. A range of Gericom PC and

laptop A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...

s have been marketed for a few years via

in England, high specification and a long support offer, the laptops are with Intel

Centrino Centrino was a brand name of Intel Corporation which represented its Wi-Fi and WiMAX wireless computer networking adapters. The brand name was first used by the company as a platform-marketing initiative. The change of the meaning of the brand n ...

mobile technology. In 2004, Gericom planned to sell nearly 25% of its shares to German computer manufacturer

Medion Medion AG is a German consumer electronics company and a subsidiary of Chinese multinational technology company Lenovo. The company operates in Europe, Turkey, Asia-Pacific, the United States and Australia. The company's main products are comp ...

, but the deal was later aborted by Gericom's founder Hermann Oberlehner. Since 2007, sales figures of Gericom products dropped dramatically, issued stocks lost 93% of value between 2003 and 2008. The drastic decrease in sales was often pulled together with quality of Gericom products, that had deteriorated over the years. Gericom products often got very negative test results by computer magazines, often being the last one in comparison tests. In 2008, the annual revenue had dropped to 30 million Euro. In 2008 the majority of Gericom's company shares (61.32 percent) were sold by Oberlehner and bought by Taiwanese computer manufacturer Quanmax, Inc. Gericom AG was then renamed to Quanmax AG, whose shares continue to be sold at the

Frankfurt Stock Exchange The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (, former German name: , ''FWB'') is the world's 3rd oldest and 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time). Organisation Located in Frankfurt, ...

in Germany. Quanmax AG experienced significant growth and generated a revenue of about 60 million Euro and employed over 150 people in 2009. Quanmax AG is developing its own products independently from its Taiwanese owner.

References

Companies based in Linz Computer companies of Austria Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct computer systems companies Manufacturing companies of Austria {{Austria-company-stub