MicroAge
| Founded |
1976 Tempe, Arizona, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Founder |
Jeffrey D. McKeever Alan P. Hald |
| Products | Technology |
MicroAge (NASDAQ: MICA) was an American technology sales company based in Tempe, Arizona founded in 1976 by Jeffrey D. McKeever and Alan P. Hald, originally as part of Paul Terrell's chain of dealerships and franchises under the brand The Byte Shop.
The name "MicroAge" is now a dba name for Frontier Technology LLC, also of Tempe, Arizona.
History
In 1980, they opened the first computer store located in a mall in Paradise Valley, Arizona. The store sold computers popular in the early home computer age, such as the Apple II, Northstar, Imsai and Altair computers.
Byte Shops of Arizona became MicroAge Computers and developed into a major national distributor as well as having its own chain of stores becoming the most widely known franchiser in the computer industry with over 1000 franchises world wide. Its primary competitor at the time was ComputerLand, another well-known franchising operation. The company was listed on the Fortune 500 list from 1995-2001. It employed over 6,000 people and generated revenues in excess of $6 billion at its zenith.
In 2000 MicroAge was delisted from the NASDAQ, trading over-the-counter as MICAQ. In 2001 it filed for bankruptcy, terminated all business and liquidated all remaining assets to pay creditors.
Revival of the name
One of the founders of the original business, Jeffrey D. McKeever, subsequently bought the rights to the name "MicroAge" and uses this as a "doing business as" name for Frontier Technology LLC. The new company, headquartered in Tempe, Arizona and with the slogan "The IT Solutions Experts", has a different ownership structure and legal company name from the original MicroAge.