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Datanetics

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Overview

Datanetics Corporation, later ITT Datanetics, was a keyboard manufacturer from Fountain Valley, California. According to Meryl Miller’s notes, Datanetics was incorporated in 1967, although the Californian business records show that the company was registered in 1964. The company, he reports, was founded by Richard “Dick” Gerlach, with Meryl being the first person to be hired. Meryl and Dick previously worked together at NCR.

Much of the research into Datanetics was made possible through information and parts supplied by co-founder Meryl Miller. Other former staff are all reported to have no interest in talking about their time there.

Michael Muller from Germany (sadly now deceased) served as the company’s design engineer. Around 1979, he left Datanetics to set up The Keyboard Company as a dedicated keyboard manufacturer for Apple, bought by Apple a few years later.

History

Datanetics Corporation had registration number C0480823. According to the California Secretary of State website Business Search, the company was registered on the 10th of November 1964 by Marshall J Styll (pronounced like “still” according to Meryl Miller, not like “style”). The Agent for Service of Process, Marshall Styll, is listed with a Fountain Valley address. The company registration history is given as follows:

Date Event
1964-11-10 Registration
1965-02-19 Amendment
1966-01-26 Amendment
1968-06-10 Amendment
1970-06-05 Amendment
1971-07-30 Merger
1972-10-12 Amendment
1973-09-28 Merger
1982-11-29 Statement of Information completed
1982-12-13 Statement of Information completed

Meryl Miller disputes these details. He notes that the company was originally located in Redondo Beach (a statement seemingly corroborated by early advertisments), although their first invoice—to RCA—puts them in Van Nuys, a distance of 30 miles by road from Redondo Beach (25 miles north as the crow flies). Their final location, Fountain Valley, is 28 miles north-southeast of Redondo Beach, 31 miles by road.

In January 1982, TEC Incorporated announced that it was purchasing DC-70 from Datanetics, as reported in the Arizona Republic newspaper on the 22nd and 29th of January that year.

At some point prior to the middle of February 1982, “certain Datanetics keyboard product lines” were acquired by Ardent Key Tech Corp. Nothing more is known than that single sentence posted to Computerworld, February 15, 1982.

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Documentation

All documents scanned by Bitsavers unless otherwise noted.

See also