General DataComm history

By 1973 GDC was reporting revenues of $6.8 million.

In fact, the company's sales had been growing at 30 percent a year since 1974, and Johnson noted in a Forbes interview that he would not want the firm to grow any faster because it might then become more unwieldy.

In 1977 GDC bought a 150,000 square foot plant in Danbury, Connecticut, for about $2.7 million, or about eight-years rent on the facility it had been leasing about 16 miles from there.

By 1979, GDC's $41.4 million in sales made it the fourth largest data transmission equipment company in the United States, ranking second in number of units sold.

In 1980 a Federal Communications Commission decree affecting the telephone companies caused that market to shrink.

Then in 1981, GDC introduced their Megamux T-1 multiplexer, a design evolved from their early “kludge-like” products.

With sales growth of 43% in 1983, GDC returned to profitability.

At the beginning of 1984, the telecommunications market changed drastically with the break up of AT&T. Suddenly the regional Bell operating telephone companies became potential customers.

A new 360,000-square-foot plant in Naugatuck, Connecticut, finished in 1986, focused on problems relating to customer network requirements.

In 1989 GDC agreed to develop telecommunications technology with Japan's Hitachi Ltd.

In 1991 the firm increased its presence in Europe when it bought Eurotech France, a telecommunications equipment company.