ce - Pioneering the Chip Market
In Germany, the rise of the semiconductor industry is inseparably linked with the name of ce. When the company was founded in February 1976, green light LEDs were built into German cars for the very first time. The idea of supplying the German industry with active and passive electronic components provided the foundation for ce's international activities.
The company was founded with a capital of 2500 Euros in a 3-room-apartment in Munich's district of Schwabing. Apart from established contract distributors, ce was the first free trader i.e. chip broker in Europe. ce started out as a supplier to deliver in case of bottlenecks that could not be covered by contract distributors.
At that time, ce was hugely successful in gaining a foothold with the at that time leading companies in the electronic industry, such as Grundig, Nixdorf, Koerting, AEG, and Mannesmann. In 1978 ce was the first German company to open a purchasing office in Japan.
In 1981 a purchasing office in the booming Silicon Valley/California/USA followed. At that time ce purchased at the chip industry's only existing production center and sold products to the top electronics companies in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It was at that time that ce recognized the major price differences in the market. The fact that price lists practically did not exist, gave rise to prices that were freely negotiated or determined per continent, region and segment of industry.
