eHold

eHold was founded in 1987 by Pere Petain and Claire Clemenceau, both of whom had previously worked in the research and development section of the hardware division of HAL, the multinational computer giant. They were interested in starting up a company that would satisfy the needs of home and small business users, focusing on imaging devices and sound devices. They began the company with less than $1 million in start-up capital, in a small rented space in the outskirts of Paris, and with two part-time employees.
The company grew quickly from these humble beginnings. By 1993 it employed more than four hundred people while producing a product line that included hand-held and table-top scanners, sound cards, digital mixing boards, midi keyboards, and laptop computers. At this time it went public; it is now traded on the Paris Stock Exchange.
By the late 90s eHold had changed its focus in order to play a pioneering role in a number of new and promising technologies: sub-laptop computers, including palm-sized and pocket-sized devices, web cams and other digital cameras, external storage media and reading devices for them, and infrared port systems and improved USB hubs to facilitate transfer of data from peripheral devices to base units.
eHold is the third largest producer of non-printer peripheral devices in the European Union. Today it has more than four thousand employees working at seventeen centers in six countries besides France. The annual turnover of the company is more than €7 billion ($6.3 billion).
Gross profits for the last fiscal year were up more than 25% compared to the previous year, while net income rose more than 30%, as a result of increased efficiency in distribution. It is expected that revenue will continue to rise in the coming years, as recent research projects begin to bear fruit in the sale of new products.