Harman
More info
- Founded
- Founders
- Sidney Harman, Bernard Kardon
- Owner
- Samsung Electronics (since 2017)
- Type
- Audio and automotive electronics
- Headquarters
- Stamford, Connecticut
- Website
- harman.com
The audio group behind JBL, AKG and Harman Kardon — and, since 2017, Samsung's route into connected cars, bought for eight billion dollars.
The company traces back to 1953, when Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon built one of the first hi-fi receivers and founded Harman Kardon. Over the decades the group swallowed brand after brand — JBL, AKG, Infinity, Mark Levinson — and became one of the world's largest makers of speakers and headphones.
Its centre of gravity now sits in the car: Harman builds infotainment, audio and connectivity systems for a large slice of the auto industry. That was the part Samsung was after when it bought the company for eight billion dollars in 2017 — Samsung's largest acquisition to date — and let it carry on as a standalone subsidiary with its own management in Connecticut.