Obelisk Electronics
Obelisk Electronics was founded in TN 1722 by a group of industrialists who wished to sell communications equipment to the Republican Army. It won several contracts and subcontracts from other companies to equip their vehicles, and began to expand into other areas of military electronics. In TN 1796, it moved into consumer electronics, flooding the market with cheap trideo viewers, audio players and personal assistants, accepting a short-term loss to drive other companies out of the market. While this strategy was not completely successful — the products were rushed into production and several had to be recalled — it established Obelisk as an important player in the consumer market.
After its entrance into the civilian market, Obelisk grew rapidly, taking over three other electronics companies and, by TN 1802, it had become the largest electronics firm in the Southern Republic. Obelisk has always been highly aggressive in its approach to other companies in the field and has used the wealth of its backers to buy out or bankrupt its competitors on many occasions. In TN 1804, five rival companies filed a joint suit against Obelisk for unfair business practices, but after several appeals, the Republican Supreme Court ruled in favor of Obelisk Electronics. Seeing this as a stamp of approval for its activities, Obelisk became more blatant in its attempts to be rid of its competitors, and in TN 1809 it "acquired” the three top researchers from Territorial Arms’ energy weapons research and development unit. Obelisk always denied that the engineers and scientists were somewhat less than enthusiastic about leaving, pointing out that no criminal activity was ever proven and accusing Territorial Arms of “poor sportsmanship.”
Presently, Obelisk is in a bidding war with Aardman Electronics, a Humanist Alliance firm, over the supply of data encryption equipment to the Southern MILICIA’s Special Intervention Unit (and other elite units) and industry observers are speculating on what tactics Obelisk will use to get its own way this time.
After its success in the consumer hardware market, Obelisk decided to move into software as well, buying into several computer game companies, recording studios and radio stations and initiating a massive cross-promotion of its products and media. The investment paid off, making several Obelisk affiliates industry leaders. After the War of the Alliance, Obelisk set up several of its own Hermes 72 satellite trideo networks, including the popular Electric Shocks music channel and the Explorer science channel. Today, Obelisk is one of the major broadcast media providers in the Southern Republic and Mekong Dominion, although it is finding the Eastern Sun Emirates and Humanist Alliance markets very hard to crack.