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AMI Inc., formerly and commonly known as American Megatrends, is a software and hardware development company that specializes in BIOS/UEFI firmware and various PC hardware. The company was founded in 1985 as Quintessential Consultants Inc. (QCI) in Norcross, Georgia, United States. The company was renamed American Megatrends Inc. shortly after its establishment, and then again as AMI Inc. in 2020.
Background
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Access Methods Inc. (AMI) was an earlier joint venture by Subramonian Shankar and Pat Sarma founded in 1979 in Upper Montclair, New Jersey and incorporated in New York City two years later.[1][2] The company specialized in computer software, including AMIBIOS; an IBM PC-compatible BIOS firmware that primarily competed with Phoenix Technologies' PhoenixBIOS and Award Software's AwardBIOS.
Foundation and history
Shortly after the release of AMIBIOS in 1985, legal problems arose between Sarma and his partners. Therefore, Sarma founded a new company called Quintessential Consultants Inc. (QCI). This company was later renamed American Megatrends, Inc. (to keep the AMIBIOS acronym) and it then acquired AMIBIOS from Access Methods Inc. in the same year.
American Megatrends was owned by both Sarma and Shankar, with Sarma being the owner and Shankar being the vice president.[3] This partnership continued until 2001, when the company's RAID division was acquired by LSI Logic. Shankar then acquired all of Sarma's shares in the company, making him the majority owner.[4]
In 2020, the company was renamed AMI Inc. Two years later, its headquarters was moved from Norcross to Building 800 at 3095 Satellite Boulevard in unincorporated Gwinnett County, near the city of Duluth.