Garmin Ltd. NASDAQ: GRMN, incorporated in George Town, Cayman Islands, is a group of companies founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell, Min Kao, David Casey and Paul Shumaker, that develops consumer and aviation technologies for the Global Positioning System. Subsidiary Garmin International, Inc. serves as headquarters for the Garmin Limited companies and is located in Olathe, Kansas, a suburb of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The largest operating subsidiary and primary production facility of Garmin Limited is Garmin (Asia) Corporation, located in Shijr, Taiwan, a suburb of Taipei.

Founders and Company Origins

Gary Burrell, born in 1937 attended earned a degree in Electrical Engineering from Wichita State University and graduate degree from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He went to work for King Radio, a manufacturer of aviation radios in 1963 only six years after that company had been started by Edward King Jr. in a farmhouse in Olathe, Kansas. A licensed pilot, Burrell led development on some of King’s most successful navigation and communications products. King went on to supply Boeing with radio equipment starting in 1969.

By 1989 Burrell had spent nearly his entire professional career -- with the exception of a brief stint at Lowrance Electronics working for King Radio. During these years the company went through many corporate changes. In 1983 King was acquired by the Allied Corporation and combined with the former Bendix Corporation to form Bendix-King. Allied later went on to merge with the Signal Companies in 1993 to form AlliedSignal which acquired Honeywell in 1999 and then took its name.

Min Kao, born in 1949 in a small town in Taiwan called Chushan. After serving in that country’s navy he attended National Taiwan University and moved to the United States of America to attend the University of Tennessee where he obtained advanced degrees in Electrical Engineering. While a graduate student, he did research for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the United States Army. He later went on to work for the American defense contractors Teledyne and Magnavox.

Burrell hired Kao to join his division at Allied’s King subsidiary in 1983. Kao had been working at Magnavox developing military navigation systems using the Global Positioning System constellation of satellites, which at the time was still known by the name NAVSTAR. During his years working with Burrell, Kao led the team that developed the first GPS navigation system that was to be certified for use in airplanes by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Burrell left Allied Corp. in 1989. Convinced that the company should have been more aggressive in pursuing products based on GPS technology, he found management did not agree. He took to interviewing for jobs at other companies including Magnavox, but couldn’t find a good fit. A deeply religious Christian, Burrell had been a founding member in 1984 of Olathe’s Indian Creek Community Church. Having left his job at Allied, he was considering devoting himself full-time to the ministry.

But over dinner, Kao asked Burrell if he had ever thought about starting his own company. Burrell replied that he hadn’t, but then went on to say that if he were to start a company, he would do so only with Kao. Both agreed that the future of navigation would be closely linked with GPS technology.^[1]

At the time the Global Positioning System of satellites was still being assembled. The 1986 explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger had set the system’s construction back by 24 months. The satellites had been redesigned to fit aboard a Delta II rocket. The system was declared operational in April of 1989, and went on to prove a decisive strategic advantage to U.S. and Allied forces in the 1991 Gulf War.

Kao had been thinking of starting a company, and had recently visited old school friends in Taiwan, one of which was an investment banker, who assured Kao that if he wanted to launch a company, money to help get it started would be available.

Within weeks of their dinner, Burrell and Kao were on a plane to Taipei, Taiwan and within months of that visit had amassed $4 million, which included the combined contents of their own personal savings accounts.

The money was sufficient to hire a dozen engineers and to rent office and work space in Lenexa, Kansas. Initially they called the company ProNav, but later changed it in 1991 when a competitor using the name NavPro on one of its GPS receivers, sued alleging trademark infringement. The name “Garmin” is combination of the two founders’ names “Gar” being the first three letters of Burrell’s first name, and “-Min” being Kao’s first name.

First products

The company’s first product was a GPS receiver called the GPS 100, a dash-mounted receiver aimed at the marine market, and sold for $2,500 United States Dollars. It debuted at the 1990 International Marine Technology Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. The product was an instant hit and generated a backlog of orders for 5,000 units.

Soon after, in January 1991 Kao set off for Taiwan to set up manufacturing facilities in Taipei.

Another early product, a handheld GPS receiver, proved popular with military personnel serving in Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.

Company’s Growth

By 1995 Garmin’s sales had reached $105 million, and had achieved a profit pof $23 million; and by 1999 sales had reached $233 million and profit of $64 million.

By 1999 the company’s products had captured roughly 50% of the North American market share in the market for GPS receivers used in the marine and outdoor recreation, according to a market study conducted by Frost and Sullivan. Its own internal estimates showed that its aviation retrofit products had a 59% market share, and that among portable aviation GPS products, it controlled 76% of the market.

By 2000 Garmin had sold three million GPS devices, and was producing 50 different models. Its products were sold in 100 countries, and carried by 2,500 independent distributors. As of August 22 2000, the company held 35 patents on GPS technology. By the end of June 2000, the company employed 1,205 people: 541 in the United States, 635 in Taiwan, 29 in the United Kingdom.

The company started trading publicly on the NASDAQ exchange on December 8, 2000. At that time Burrell owned 19,911,155 shares. Kao owned 20,352,803 shares. Together their holdings accounted for 45% of the stock in Garmin. Kao’s brother, Ruey-Jeng Kao an attorney in Taipei owned another 7,984,109 shares, which when combined with Burrell’s and Kao’s shares constituted 54.22% of the shares outstanding.^[2]

In 2005 Forbes Magazine estimated Kao’s net worth at $1.5 billion. He has donated $17.5 million to the University of Tennessee. The same year Forbes estimated Burrell’s net worth as $940 million.^[3]

In 2003, Burrell retired as Garmin’s Chief Executive Officer in 2004 retired as Chairman of its Board of Directors. He is now Chairman Emeritus. Kao became CEO in 2003, and Chairman in 2004.^[4]