Expansion and Consolidation
In 1995 News Corp expanded Etak's field operations unit to more quickly create accurate maps of major US cities. The majority of a second building at 1605 Adams Drive in Menlo Park (around the corner from the first building) was leased by Etak to house a map library, Unix *Sparc digitizing stations, and field operations in early 1995. Prior to this, all national field operations were out of the Menlo Park office. Field offices, staffed by between 6-16 personnel, were opened in (in order of opening): Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Miami, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and Orlando.
Starting in 1996, a highways project was started to capture geometry, geo-location, services, and navigation attributes along the interstate and federal and state highway systems. Under Sony's ownership, urban core projects were started in 1997 in Portland, Sacramento, Boston, New York, Las Vegas, San Diego, Dallas, San Antonio, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and Kokomo, Indiana, due to the agreement with GM's Delphi (formerly Delco) unit.
As the Etak map database was built (on old TIGER files) and updated, the field operations unit re-assigned personnel to smaller satellite offices. The Miami field office, blocked by the Orlando office, was shuttered, and its personnel moved to Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Phoenix. In March 1998, the Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, and Washington D.C. offices were closed, and headcount at remaining offices was reduced. On 4 June 1998, all remaining field offices were closed, marking the end of independent mapping efforts under the Etak banner.
Read more about this topic: Etak (automotive Navigation Systems)
Famous quotes containing the words expansion and and/or expansion:
“We are caught up Mr. Perry on a great wave whether we will or no, a great wave of expansion and progress. All these mechanical inventions—telephones, electricity, steel bridges, horseless vehicles—they are all leading somewhere. It’s up to us to be on the inside in the forefront of progress.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Every expansion of government in business means that government in order to protect itself from the political consequences of its errors and wrongs is driven irresistibly without peace to greater and greater control of the nation’s press and platform. Free speech does not live many hours after free industry and free commerce die.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)