Smart Technology history

Shah disagreed and in 1988 he resigned to start his own company to make memory modules.

SMART commenced operations in 1989, employing about 30 people in a 28,000-square-foot plant in Fremont.

Sales approached $16 million in fiscal 1992, when the company turned a profit of $292,000, but business began to explode.

In 1993 SMART introduced a suite of PC card communications products, the addition of which helped to increase revenues to $80.8 million and net earnings to $3.3 million.

The company recorded sales of $163.8 million in fiscal 1994 and net income $6.2 million.

Hence, SMART’s revenues grew to $274.6 million and net income more than doubled to $12.6 million in fiscal 1995.

In July 1996 it became involved in the embedded computer market by acquiring RISQ Modular Systems, Inc., a California designer and manufacturer of embedded processor modules, which performed just one or a small number of dedicated tasks.

In October 1997 SMART reorganized its business, establishing two units to house its new product lines: the embedded-computer division and the communications-product division.

In 1998, SMART released its information management software and the SMART Notebook 2.0.

1999 brought the first SMART Board for plasma displays.

Smart Technologies Originated June 2000.

Despite increasing sales to $18.7 billion in fiscal 2001, Solectron posted a loss of $124 million.

SMART’s East Kilbride plant, for example, lost 150 jobs in 2002.

In 2003, Smart developed and later patented DViT (Digital Vision Touch) technology which was an important feature of the SMART board.

By the year 2004 about 24% of classrooms in Britain had IWBs.

In 2005, SMART unveiled its wireless slate, a tablet PC that lets users manipulate and select on-screen objects, create and save notes and launch applications.

The company continued its strong recovery, improving sales to $707.4 million in fiscal 2006 and enjoying a 23.3 percent increase in earnings to $32.2 million.

O’Brien, Chris, “A Profitable Ride at Smart Modular,” San Jose Mercury News, January 1, 2007.

New products in 2008 included the SMART document camera, collaborative learning software, and the next-generation SMART Board 600i interactive whiteboard system.

On July 15, 2010 Smart Technologies placed an initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), raising upwards of $660 million.

A research conducted by Futuresource Consulting concluded that one in every seven classrooms in world was expected to have a whiteboard by the year 2011.

On December 11, 2012, SMART Technologies announced it would begin corporate restructuring.

In 2016, SMART Technologies Inc. was acquired by Foxconn for $200 million.

In 2018 Smart Technologies expanded their reach and entered into the Central Florida market through the adoption of a young company led by Edward Steelman.