Who's Comdial? What happened to Stromberg-Carlson?

Stromberg-Carlson was a telecommunications equipment manufacturing company formed as a partnership between Alfred Stromberg and Androv Carlson in 1894, when Alexander Graham Bell's patent for the telephone expired. Stromberg and Carlson were employees of American Bell Telephone Company, and each invested $500 to establish a firm to manufacture equipment for sale the non-Bell telephone companies.

Stromberg-Carlson was originally located in Chicago, with Carlson managing manufacture and Stromberg responsible for marketing. In 1904, Stromberg-Carlson was purchased by Home Telephone Company, a relatively large service provider which was based in Rochester, New York, and which relocated all of Stromberg-Carlson to New York.

In 1955, Stromberg-Carlson was purchased by General Dynamics. In 1982, General Dynamics sold the phone system and telephone division of Stromberg-Carlson to Comdial Corporation. Comdial went bust in 2005 and was bought  by Vertical Communications, which also bought phone system maker Vodavi.