The company began in the radio field, but became more widely known for their reel-to-reel tape recorders as well as cassette decks[2] and televisions.

[4] Tandberg Data is now officially a German company, and continues to make computer tape storage systems.

In the early 1950s, Tandberg opened a branch plant at Kjelsås[5] (in Oslo) to produce reel-to-reel tape recorders.

Over the next decade, Tandberg quickly incorporated a number of leading-edge concepts; the model 2 Hi-Fi of 1956 had three tape transport speeds, allowing improved high-frequency response.

Their first full stereo system, the model 6 of 1960, featured four amplifiers, two for recording and two for playback respectively, giving the operator total control of both audio channels.

That same year a new lineup of transistorized Tandberg recorders entered the market to fill the gap left by the preceding models.

Tandberg tape recorders dominated the Norwegian market, and had a reputation for advanced technology and high quality at reasonable prices.

It was on Tandberg reel-to-reel machines that President John F. Kennedy recorded many meetings in the Cabinet Room of the White House, including those associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

A shareholder revolt removed Vebjørn Tandberg from control of the company, and he committed suicide in August.

[12] In 2000, the company moved into IP-based videoconferencing using the maturing H.323 standard, making the entire product line IP-capable.

IVIGO, based in the Netherlands, developed and successfully commercialized circuit-switched video solutions for UMTS network operators, vendors and content providers.

[citation needed] On 16 December 2005, Andrew Miller stepped down as CEO, replaced by the CFO Fredrik Halvorsen.

[citation needed] In September 2007, the company acquired Codian, a rival developer of video-conferencing infrastructure products, for $270 million in cash and shares.

[15] After upping its offer to almost $3.4 billion, Cisco announced on 4 December 2009, that over 90% of Tandberg's shares had been tendered, allowing it to squeeze out the remaining shareholders.

[31] In November 2010, Fiona Glaser, an x264 developer, published information in which she claims that one of Tandberg Telecom's patent applications from December 2008, contains a step-by-step description of an algorithm she committed to the x264 codebase around two months earlier.

Copies of e-mails that demonstrate this, together with an affidavit and an Information disclosure statement was filed by Tandberg with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in June 2011.