The name EMTEC stands for European Multimedia Technologies.
EMTEC's official history cites 1996 as the year BASF Magnetics spun off, and 1997 as the year the name EMTEC Magnetics emerged, following BASF's sale of its magnetic media business to the Korean KOHAP Group.
In 1997, EMTEC Magnetics’ turnover was approximately DM 1.5 billion, and its product range comprised over 1,200 products;
Following the acquisition, KOHAP obtained the right to use the BASF brand, and until 2000, products were labeled "BASF by EMTEC."
After the transition to the EMTEC brand, the products gradually adopted a new design and name.
It is worth noting that, in addition to production facilities, EMTEC acquired certain patents from BASF and Agfa related to the manufacture of magnetic tape and cassette products (based on Google Patents data).
EMTEC Consumer Media focused on consumer-facing products:
- audio cassettes;
- video cassettes;
- camcorder cassettes;
- CDs;
- DVDs, etc.
In 2002, EMTEC officially announced a restructuring plan: Consumer Media was to become an independent company, while the Obenheim plant - where tape was loaded into cassettes - was to become a separate enterprise. At that time, the plant employed approximately 60 people following workforce reductions.
In 2002, EMTEC reported a major restructuring driven by the market's shift from analog to digital media - specifically, from magnetic tape to CD and DVD formats.
In late 2002, EMTEC announced the elimination of approximately 600 of its 2,700 jobs across its production facilities in Ludwigshafen, Willstätt, and Munich.
As part of the 2002–2003 restructuring, the production of consumer audio and video cassettes in Obenheim was deemed unprofitable, and the production lines were subsequently dismantled.
Following the 2002 Asian financial crisis, KOHAP sold EMTEC to Legal & General Ventures (LGV). In January 2003, EMTEC Magnetics GmbH filed for bankruptcy in Germany.
After the bankruptcy, EMTEC’s equipment was sold off, with some of it acquired by other manufacturers; for instance, the equipment for producing analog audio tape was purchased by RMG International (RMGI).