Luxor Reel to Reel Tape Recorders

1918 – Luxor founder, Axel Holstensson moves to Motala, Sweden and starts an electronics store and installation company, Motala Electric Agency

1923 – Registers the Luxor Radio Factory Company, a name was based on the discovery of Tomb of Tutankhamun near the city of Luxor in Egypt

1936 – Luxor’s automatic record changer was first introduced in the January issue of “Populär Radio”. They continue producing many different models of record changers through the 40s and 50s

1938 – Introduces broadcast receiver models 1124W, 1160W, 1224W

1942 – United States Patent No. 2,291,158, was issued to Holstensson as joint inventor related to “talking machines for playing a plurality of records in succession.”

1947-48- Factory was moved into newly built premises on Hagen. RO16 Robot record player was released.

1949 – Marketed new wire recorder Magnefon

1950’s – Became one of the first European mass manufacturers of television sets.

1950 – M102, M61, MP613 R-R

1951 – Disponent 19 PM, curiously late, a portable wire recorder with amplifier  is released

1952 – Releases the TR75  R-R wire tape recorder 

1954 –  Holstensson files action against  V-M Corporation, a US manufacturer of record players, charging infringement of the 1942 patent.

1955 – Swedish Radio starts television broadcasts on a modest scale. Luxor offers up its first TV models.

1957 – First non-wire R-R Recorder, the  MP-22

1963 – Luxor Rapid player

1964 – MP 423 R-R released

1965 – Luxor MP 410 4 track stereo tape recorder , MP 424, MP 433 (mono 4track, three-speed ) MP 404 and MP453 R-R are released

1974 – Luxorita 3041 radio

1976 – (October 8) A catastrophic fire due to broken fluorescent lamp destroyed 15,000 m² of factory space and killed two employees. The loss of production at Luxor led to a lot more impartation into the Swedish market from Japan

1978 – Launched its first home computer, ABC 80

1979 – Axel Holstensson dies

1981 – American computer manufacturer Commodore’s CEO, Jack Tramiel visits Luxor in Motala, but chose not to invest in an acquisition due to failed export investment, losses due to the fire, overcapacity in production and poor management

1984 – Finnish company Nokia became principal owner

1986 – Computer production discontinued

1997 – Nokia sold its car speaker and audio amplifier business to Harman International Industries. A collaboration with the then Electrolux-owned Autoliv AB led to the company first became a partner for Luxor Electronics since 1998, buying the entire business. In Motala, there still remains manufacturing of various types of electronic products for the automotive industry but not under the Luxor brand

1998 – Nokia wanted to streamline its business to mobile telephony therefore sold the satellite receiver business to American company Space Craft Inc.

1999 – The brand name was sold to the Norwegian retailer Elkjøp ASA. When British Dixons Retail bought Elkjøp in November, they also acquired the Luxor brand

2006 – Turkish company Vestel acquired the Luxor brand