"We're the people who started it all!"
(a slogan on the original Moog Rogue ad)
Robert A. Moog and Herbert Deutsch built their first modular synthesizer prototype in August 1964. The next summer R.A. Moog, Inc. employed approximately 10 employees and was building custom modulars for people like John Cage. Business remained relatively slow until Wendy Carlos released the Switched on Bach album in 1969, making the Moog sound known around the world.
With ARP Instruments giving Moog some serious competition in 1970, things started looking rather bad financially. The company was saved by an investor called Bill Waytena, who practically bought Moog for nothing. He merged them with Musonics, with the new firm changing its name to Moog Music. At this time the now legendary MiniMoog was released, and eventually even made its way to music stores (which at that time didn't sell synths).
Moog Music was sold to Norlin in 1974. The new owners' policies prompted Bob Moog to leave the company in 1977. Instead of leaving the synthesizer business altogether, he did design other synths like the Crumar Spirit. Nowadays he owns a company called Big Briar, which manufactures theremins and the Moogerfrooger line of analog effects units.
Moog equipment featured in Everything2:
More to come...