ELGIN, ILL. – Hitachi Kokusai America has closed the broadcast division of its U.S. office in Elgin, Ill., in what Sean Moran, vice president of sales of broadcast and professional products for the company’s U.S. broadcast division, called a “consolidation.”
Joe Tilson, attorney for Hitachi, said that the Elgin office “had not been profitable for two years; [and] it appeared that it would not be profitable in the next two years.”
The Elgin office was the primary location in the U.S. for Linear, a Brazilian broadcast transmitter manufacturer Hitachi acquired in 2011 in an effort to increase its business globally. Two employees will continue to represent Linear in the U.S. from their homes. Linear still maintains its offices in Brazil.
“It has been very, very difficult for the transmitter market over the last 10 years,” said Dick Fiore, president of Comark, a Mass.-based transmitter manufacturer who Hitachi invested in just last year.
