Mitel is a high-tech company specializing in the sale of voice communication equipment for business. Michael (Mike) Cowpland and Terry Matthews founded it in 1973. Its name is a combination of the founders’ first names and their first product - MIke and TErry's Lawnmowers. They were originally intending to sell Russian-made lawnmowers and when the shipment did not appear, they quickly adjusted to produce a telephony tone receiver product based on Mike's Ph. D. thesis.
The tone receiver was a great success. Early on they realized the possibilities of the then new technology of microprocessors to change how office telephone equipment was built. They introduced the SX200 PBX to an astonishing success. The next major product that they introduced was a large digital PBX which was called the SX2000. This was an early attempt to integrate the voice and data functions of office systems and proved to be an overwhelming technical task. The SX2000 difficulties hindered the company greatly and began a many year experience of losses. The losses created by the SX2000 hurt the company greatly. As a result, Mike and Terry lost control of the company and it was eventually sold to British Telecom. British Telecom left the equipment business a few years later to concentrate on their monopoly services. They sold the business to an investment company called Schroder Ventures.
In 2001, Mitel was split into two parts. The PBX division and the company name were sold to Terry Matthews one of the founders who took it private. The PBX division then began a new chapter under the name Mitel Networks by developing a family of Internet-ready PBXs based on Internet standards. This was a new attempt to create a converged voice-data system, which echoes the original attempt with the SX2000.
The original company retained the semiconductor division. It was renamed Zarlink (Tsar of Links to reflect its interest in networking semiconductors).
