BASF

BASF - After Philips brought the compact cassette onto the market in 1963, BASF (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik) also became a leading manufacturer of tape cassettes. In 1966 a magnetic tape factory was opened in Willstätt near Kehl. In 1969, BASF and Sony acquired licenses from DuPont (USA) for the chromium dioxide process that the DuPont chemist Norman L. Cox had developed in 1956; Both companies then brought the first HiFi-capable chrome dioxide compact cassettes onto the market. Computer disks were added in 1973 and video cassettes in 1977. In 1991, BASF took over Agfa-Gevaert's magnetic tape division and then founded BASF Magnetics GmbH (Mannheim). After sales fell sharply due to the new CD burners, BASF sold BASF Magnetics GmbH with locations in Ludwigshafen, Willstätt, Munich, Obenheim (France), Avranches (France), Manaus (Brazil) and Jakarta (Indonesia) to the South Korean company in 1996 Chemical group Kohap, which renamed the company Emtec (European Multimedia Technologies/EMTEC Magnetics GmbH) in 1997. Emtec continued to use the BASF brand until 2000, after which they only used the former BASF logo.