Development of the Nixdorf Computer AG
With the buy of the Wanderer shares in 1968, followed the merger between the former Wanderer Werken and the Labor for Impulstechnik to the Nixdorf Computer AG on October 1, the same year. The place of business was in Paderborn. Because of the electronic data processing as a new concept, the company had a quick success. Producers like IBM were trusted on mainframes but Heinz Nixdorf recognized that mainframes were too expensive for many concerns, so he presented the Nixdorf 820. With that he brought the computer directly to the office and the people could afford it.
With the 100 million DM order in 1968, the first computers made their way from Paderborn overseas. Later, the Nixdorf Computer AG also settled down in the United States and in Japan. In the 1970s, the Nixdorf Computer AG grew to the market leader in the mid-range computing in Germany and was the fourth largest computer company in Europe with subsidiaries in Germany, Ireland, Spain, the United States and Singapore. In 1972, it was represented in 22 countries. Because of the expansion, the company grew faster and bigger and so they had to build new buildings. In 1971, the new central office was applied, today it is called the Heinz Nixdorf Aue and in the building is the Heinz Nixdorf Museums Forum and the Heinz Nixdorf Institut of the Universität Paderborn.
In 1975, the Heinz Nixdorf Company produced a new generation of data capturing: the 88xx-line. It was very successful, and in 1978, the Heinz Nixdorf AG sales were a billion DM, with over 10,000 employees worldwide.
With the thought of training his employees, Nixdorf founded a trade school in 1969, which was done in 1972: the Bildungszentrum für informationsverarbeitende Berufe (b.i.b.). Heinz Nixdorf was an ambitious sportsman, and as he wanted his employees to do sports as well, he built the Ahorn-Sportpark in Paderborn right next to the company's central office.
In 1980, Nixdorf purchased a US-based vendor of IBM mainframe software, TCSC (The Computer Software Company), which then became Nixdorf's NCSC (Nixdorf Computer Software Company) subsidiary. TCSC's products included its own operating systems for IBM and compatible mainframes, EDos and EDos/VS; it had licensed the DATACOM/DB database from Applied Data Research (ADR) to run under them. Having purchased TCSC, Nixdorf sought to continue the licensing arrangement; ADR and NCSC went to court in a dispute over whether the licensing arrangement was terminated by the acquisition.[2] ADR and Nixdorf settled out of court in 1981, with an agreement that Nixdorf could continue to resell ADR's products.[3]
Because of its fast growth, the NCAG needed more money. Nixdorf refused an offer from the Volkswagen AG, but agreed with the Deutsche Bank which gave the concern 200 million D-Mark for 25 percent. By going public to the Börse Düsseldorf they got 300 million DM in 1984 as well. One year later, the emission brought 700 million DM. The production capacities in the factories in Germany and abroad were extended.
In 1985, the sales of Nixdorf AG were 4 billion DM, with an after-taxes profit of 172 million. At this time, the company had 23,000 employees in 44 countries. Heinz Nixdorf died of a heart attack on March 17, 1986, at the CeBIT in Hannover.
