The Downfall of Olivetti - Exploring an Abandoned Computer Factory

[@gvt3065]

Back in the 80's Olivetti was a customer of the company I worked for. We used to go to Scarmagno, Ivrea, to perform calibration, maintenance, and repair on lots of our instruments they had - It's so strange recalling those halls as full of working people, and seeing them turned now into liminal spaces. Thanks for your video !!!

[@BluesyBor]

There are, or at least were many abandoned factories in my city - most of them are already transformed into something else or completely razed to reclaim the ground for other buildings. I've ventured to many of these ruins in my early twenties and they did impress me a lot, but not to such extent as you described. Now I know that's because I didn't get to see them alive and full of people. But maybe I'll be able to experience it, since I've been visiting many small and big factories in the last few years as a serviceman. ;D

[@ForgottenBuildings]

Incredible that you had the chance of seeing it while active and full of life. Thanks for sharing!

[@bigmedge]

@@BluesyBorwhich city is this?

[@BluesyBor]

@@bigmedge Lodz in Poland.

[@feponcio]

@@bigmedge The abandoned factory in the video is located in Scarmagno.

[@ExpressoMechanicTV]

A sad end to a truly great company, run by a man with a social conscience. A very rare thing.

[@raylopez99]

Sad indeed. Goes to show that contrary to Hollywood fairy tales, doing the right thing does not guarantee success.

[@5pr1nk57]

Exactly my thoughts, it's a shame more companies are not run in the early visionary way Olivetti was, the world would be a better place for everyone!

[@5pr1nk57]

​@@raylopez99That's the thing though, it was until America and right wing politics got involved, then it was downhill from there! 😢

[@janiss2926]

still have one of their atom mini pc's gathering dust somewhere, it's pretty crap but has saved me a bunch of times!

[@lance8080]

Chinese cheap garbage has ruined everything 🇨🇳

[@velikuparin483]

I still have one Olivetti PC and it still works !! It is really shame to loose the Olivetti corporation. So long time working PCs.

[@justinflation6144]

No you don't but nice try.

[@cuchidesoto2686]

I used to work for Olivetti UK who had a head office at 30 Berkely Sq., London with branches all over the UK. They were in the top three of OE manufacturers in Europe with several other pioneering divisions such as Accounting Machines, wet photocopiers, adding machines and even large machine tools. Their proportional spacing typewriters, Editor 5 range, were the best. It is very sad to see such a world leader collapse so disastrously, so quickly. A few days ago I walked into a small shop in Valparaiso, Chile and on the counter was a Summa Quanta 71-20 adding machine on a till drawer still giving good service over 50 years after it was sold.

[@waitandhope]

Omg

[@cybercat1531]

Those adding machines are incredibly reliable and functional, especially for a small business when used by someone familiar with the device. It becomes very intuitive and fast to use

[@martinbolton7465]

I also use to work for the company in London I was a typewriter engineer and use to go round repairing typewriters.

[@kiwidiesel]

Except for the great scandal known as planned obsolescence now.

[@acidtechno]

Superb , yes i worked ac in offices in berkely Sq . Our company had Olivetti equipment also.

[@joaopaulosilva7120]

I'm from Brazil and Olivetti is still part of my daily life. I am an accountant and several office employees still use Olivetti calculating machines. It was a very strong brand here in Brazil.

[@greystone83]

cool

[@giornalista.italia]

Noi italiani siamo maestri nell’autodistruzione quando decideremo di tirar fuori gli attributi sarà troppo tardi, ormai siamo un popolo di Lobo indirizzati verso un atteggiamento di sudditanza…

[@arthurmagalhaes661]

Realmente no Brasil a Olivetti teve um grande mercado, trabalhei com as máquinas de escrever elétrica Tekne7 e depois com a eletrônica ET121, substituídas pelo modelo da TeleEdit MD (que era uma 196C da IBM com memória e discos 5 1/4 para gravação de textos), depois substituíram pelas IBM 6788 com vídeo, discos de 3 1/2 e 800k de armazenamento, dicionário, até que chegou o Macintosh SE com os monitores de fósforo branco (BigPicture), já com as impressoras a laser.

[@justinflation6144]

Brazil... no explanation required.

[@RobWhittlestone]

Very interesting video. I worked with Olivetti Systems and Networks in Switzerland to develop the infrastructure for the creation of a the new Post Finance bank. Many of my colleagues went to Ivrea on business. Olivetti had also developed the electronic ticketing system used by the Swiss railway company SBB CFF FFS. I attended marketing events at Olivetti Zurich at Industriestrasse 50 in Wallisellen, a curious triangular building with round towers at each apex, now repurposed. Olivetti had very confusing designations for their PCs - it wasn't clear from the designations which models were more capable and therefore should be more costly. I pointed this out and was invited to join their marketing team which I declined. Olivetti was very much present in the late 80's and early 90's here in Switzerland. Thereafter they completely dropped off my radar. All the best, Rob in Switzerland

[@DesertEagleDutch]

@@RobWhittlestone Thank you for sharing. I love these kind of personal stories. I'm curious though. What made you decline that marketing position? Maybe you could have saved this company 😉

[@RobWhittlestone]

@@DesertEagleDutch No it would only have been a Swiss position and because I was an external consultant it would have meant a considerable loss in income. Also there seemed to be a lot of politics going on and I didn't want that.

[@migovas1483]

@@RobWhittlestone it all boils down to politics.. just look at ARM and Qualcomm now.. same stuff.

[@fnordist]

I bought an Olivetti Prodest PC1 back in 1988-a solid system with an interesting design. The problem with Olivetti, though, was that they just couldn’t keep up with Far East competitors like Acer, and in the mainframe market, they lagged technologically. The capital simply wasn’t there, as with all European tech companies, which seemed doomed from the start-Philips, Siemens-Nixdorf, you name it. And if things keep going like this, the EU is just going to slide even further down.

amazing!

[@Arcadier]

as an IT guy from back in the 80s I remember all machines Olivetty made ! Awesome and reliable machines. The made quality affordable !

[@the_kombinator]

Then you probably remember their curved-face 1.44Mb floppy drives

[@isrbillmeyer]

I had a Mitac PC in the 80's. But always admired the Olivetti PC's. Just could not afford it.

[@zomby2d]

I remember their PCs were built like tanks. So much metal in there compared to flimsier builds from other brands.

[@the_kombinator]

@@zomby2d Going by the Olivetti 386-25 I sold, no, there was a lot of plastic. But it wasn't like Apple plastic, I opened and closed that machine like 20 times and it didn't break a clip.

[@KymyA74]

Who remember the Olivetti Prodest with the optic pen? I'm an italian IT guy, too...

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

I always find it amazing watching these videos how so many of these places looked like everyone just walked away one day, never to return. No closure.

[@dasiro]

the place burned down during a period in which it was already spiraling into bankruptcy so there was no money to rebuild it. The decision to close it permanently was after employees left it intact to return the next business day and suddenly there was physically no more company to go to.

[@tallitonttu4035]

I worked in Ivrea as a systems specialist in early 90's in Olivetti's software "factory" in international projects. In our group there were people around the world. I visited Scarmagno PC factory couple of times. One special memory from those visits was when watching the assembling of PC's (386 or 486). In the line robot put gray "dull box" Olivetti cover on every second PC and "nice shape" white Compaq cover on the rest (at that time Compaq didn't have enough capacity to assemble all their own PC's). The PC's inside were exactly the same. Funny thing was that in many magazines there were tests where those Compaqs were much better than Olivettis... ;-))

[@ATX-GEEK]

I visited that factory many many times in its hay days, during the mid 90's, as a Field Applications Engineer from OPTi USA, a IBM PC chipset manufacturer. I wonder what has happed to the hundreds of very competent engineers and thousands of skilled workers. Except for the heavy smoking habits of the Italians, they always went the extra mile to make me feel welcome. I loved the 2 hour, 5 course lunches at local, family owned restaurants. Good times...

[@a.melekh7936]

My first sound card back in '97 was OPTi 931 (ISA) 😜... together with active speakers and 8x Mitsumi CD-ROM it made my Pentium a "Multimedia-PC" 😎

[@E_Proxy]

Olivetti employees (before telecom destroyed it) are still some of the most loyal and nostalgic people I've seen. They often keep and participate to Facebook groups about Olivetti (PCs or typewriters, or both), help out other people, tell stories and stuff. Must've been very satisfying to work for a good brand lead by geniuses who cared about workers. 90s worker had, probably, to work for dumb big consulting companies with no heart or get hired by Telecom (TIM) and similar

[@garyt123]

Heyday. Just sayin....

[@robhamtom]

Where exactly is it ?

[@realhelathylifestyle]

I think the 2 hour 5 course lunches might in some way be linked to the demise.😂

[@quadrotas]

Imagine being a former call center employee and seeing your old desk in this video.

[@dexterford8094]

The kid's drawing was so personal

[@georgeboydratcliff1036]

OMG I worked at Olivetti in Ivrea, and recognise some of these offices! I was a software engineer developing their PC product range. Their problem was they were producing fairly standard PCs, believing their (then!) great brand would be enough to carry them. Unfortunately, as IBM found out, PCs became white product appliances (I worked at IBM after Olivetti). I loved working in Ivrea, and have many life-long memories!

[@dipankarchatterjee8809]

a heart breaking presentation. Thanks all of you for such flash-back.......

[@petercermak4095]

At time line 18:17 floppy disks were mentioned. My father was the President of Verbatim International and I worked in his Sunnyvale CA and Limerick IR factories. Verbatim held all the patents for floppy diskettes globally and we made and labeled them with our own labels such as "Data Life" or our clients names like Dysan or Memorex. I remember visiting the Olivetti offices in Northern VA. They had a towering "O" out front which still remains to this day. Sadly both my father and that great company are gone, but their contributions to the world remain.

[@spe808]

I used to work at Olivetti in Cupertino, it was their R&D for the 386 and 486 PCS.

[@alexdhall]

Wait...where specifically in Northern VA (NoVA) did Olivetti have offices??

[@petercermak4095]

@@alexdhall near Tysons Corner. The building was on a circle. They built a 30 foot "O" monument in the circle that was still standing last time I was driving around. But that was 15 years ago. Not sure if it remains.

[@alexdhall]

@@petercermak4095 You wouldn't be referring to the building that has a big O that's a part of the actual building at the intersection of Chain Bridge Rd and Old Courthouse RD? That particular building is still around. I believe the US Treasury Department leases space there...

[@petercermak4095]

@alexdhall yes. That probably is the building. It's been years since I've been by there.

[@red9350]

As an italian, it's such a pity what happened to this once important brand

[@niccots]

And French Bull, German Blaupunkt, Dutch Philips, Finish Nokia or Czechoslovak Tesla

[@jaimeduncan6167]

Nothing new, the same happened to American brands, like Burroughs Corporation which build a transistorized computer before Olivetty, to DEC (diigtal) pioneers in so many technologies and the company that revolutionized the world with the PDP series of minicomputers, , to Wang Laboratories. What save IBM and HP was their ability to reinvent themselves, their share size, and the fact that being an American corporation they were close to the software scene, something that Japan failed at. You can drink kool-aid and think it was a conspiracy or accept reality. Since the USA is trying to kill themselves and adopt the Soviet model, the future could be European, but if they react and /or the Chinese return to the right path it's going to happen again as it did with the Mainframe revolution triggered by the IBM 360, the PC revolution of the IBM PC, the 3 internet waves, the APP ecosystem, the Smart Phone revolution etc.

[@briansmyla8696]

@@niccots And Ericsson

[@dicdicd1767]

That's the result of EU désindustrialisation policies. It's a shame.

[@VenturiLife]

I used to build and install their servers for a while in Australia. There was nothing their senior engineers didn't know about their server product hardware.

[@hamradiotimes5586]

I worked for Xerox in 80s. We used to get there computers and rebrand them. Very good quality items...

[@WhiteWolf65]

I noticed that as a techie... and the way the Sharp tractor-feed dot-matrix printer was almost-identical to the Roland one... only the main board was different. You could interchange ~everything~ else, even the inked tape cassettes for the thing. Ever tried to replace pins on one of those printheads? It is a PAIN - yea, I did that... hated it.

[@abjectt5440]

3M bought the guts and put their own cases on them. The electronic typewriters. I used to repair them and the customers said they would never by an Olivetti. Then I would show them all the Italian branded parts.

[@ShiningJMaster]

My father was a manager at Olivetti and worked his last year as Director of technical services in that factory. I remember when it was populated by thousands of workers.

[@CA999]

Thank you for a well edited and paced video documentary. Sadly many other Italian brands have been in decline too. It looks like the same cultural and geopolitical issues are doing the same to Germany and the rest of Europe. It's sad for those workers and us loyal customers. 😢

[@TheBrummie60]

True, but some Italian firms do the same, as much loved English confectioner, Thornton's, is now under Italian ownership.

[@typxxilps]

just the usual progress and change - societies have to become more competitive again and workers earn based on their productivity and not based on unions strength as we had seen with VW . 3 decades ago VW - a much smaller VW without MAN, Scania, Bugatti, Bentley... was on the verge of going bankkrupt in those days after the reunion. Piech saved VW and changed everything which started with a 4 day production week for every employee, no one was laid off or fired, everyone worked less and got paid less. But with the increasing production volumes and successes laid by Piech the employees became less productive and still increased their earning beyond the increase of productivity when piech left. And now they are at the same point when Piech announced that VW would become the biggest car manufacturer of the world and that he would go to war for that - and he smiled while speaking. But they do not have such leader.

[@DAVIDBLADE94NVIDIA]

@@typxxilps TRUE !

[@briansmyla8696]

As an American, I view Italy as more of an artistic design country that appeals to aesthetics more so than a technology focused country. Sure, the Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and Alfa Romeo are very stylish machines, but they don't last very long in the real world if they're used regularly. They simply look good.

[@SteveMacSticky]

Thanks for your opinion. However your take is incorrect​@@briansmyla8696

[@wiktoro2604]

My first PC was Olivetti M290S. 8MB RAM, 80MB HDD, SoundBlaster (mono), CD-rom x2speed, Olivetti VGA 800x600 CRT, olivetti qwerty keyboard. Norton Commander nad Windows 3.11.

[@capobilotti]

Sure. Literally most outdated computer by specs/design money could buy back then. But you threw away original memory sticks, bought 2x 4MB ones (not sure if they would even work) to fill 2 slots. 8MB RAM in system where it didn't make any sense. And then you've put Soundblaster and CD-ROM. Must have been the most expensive 286 in the World. Please come up with some more stories which didn't happen. It's really entertaining.

[@wiktoro2604]

@@capobilottiI got those parts for free from some older friends. It was back in 1994, when they weren’t so expensive. My next machine was a 386SX with an HDD, RAM, SoundBlaster, and a CD-ROM from Olivetti. But I had to change the case because the motherboard didn’t fit.

[@marcash3862]

I grew up near there, in a small town near Ivrea.. the burned out call center was in operation only for a short time, between around 2004 and 2013 (when the fire happened) and was not catering to Olivetti. It was a small portion of the building rented out by a customer care vendor firm working for different companies including Telecom Italia. During those years large swathes of the complex were already abandoned. I knew people who worked there in the final years, they told me it was creepy to go to work since neighbouring areas were in complete decay!

[@robhamtom]

Where exactly is it ?

[@5pr1nk57]

Interesting to know, explains why the call centre used HP monitors rather than Olivetti products!

[@FranciscoPerola]

This video is extraordinary, and demonstrates Europe's total failure in Information Technologies. In the last forty years we have been completely surpassed: first by Japan, then by the USA and, more recently, by China. The European Union, which, in theory, should combat the decline of Europe, is a bureaucratic monster, which does, precisely, the opposite.

[@elvergomez9105]

Neoliberalism at most. Capitalism is wonderlful when you own all the capital.

[@VirideSoryuLangley]

I don't know if "failure" is the right word in this context... Americans simply murdered their competition...

[@vicentemanuel6723]

From Spain 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@fnordist]

@@elvergomez9105 It’s not about a lack of capital or neoliberalism; it’s that Americans just take bigger risks when investing. Every startup heads to the US because investors in EU -banks or corporations-are far too cautious, and sometimes downright foolish. Look at Philips, for instance, selling off their photolithography manufacturing division, which was the real moneymaker. It’s absurd.

[@Billy-the-Kid]

ASML ??

[@shilombaba]

14:30 Always glad to hear the CIA conducted extensive investigations on itself. That must have been the highest amount of integrity ever seen.

[@fernandonavarro3839]

And the result was: "We didn't do anything!"

[@joelfernando1]

muricans way of life: stealing, destroying, killing.

[@bmoulas]

@@fernandonavarro3839 Exactly. You don't want an assassination unit to actually confess.

[@DejoR79]

Lol, very naive.

[@denisdenisov7623]

“In a murder investigation, it's important not to go out on your own.”

[@arcadesunday4592]

Fantastic documentary. Very well done, and very thought provoking.

[@VideoCesar07]

I remember how Olivetti equipment was pretty common in the late 80s and early 90s in many company offices. As IT exploded in the 90s I lost track of them and thought that maybe they got bought out and absorbed into another company. What a sad end to an iconic brand. I have seen videos of abandoned buildings of all sorts but for some reason this one just hit different. Thanks for this video.

[@maxsaunders9380]

I visited that factory in about 1978 when I worked for a New Zealand enterprise which bought thousands of telex machines and bank terminals from Olivetti during the 1970s. So sad to see it now. The nearby hotel I stayed in was designed to suggest a typewriter.

[@robhamtom]

I still can't find it on Google maps

[@ErnaSolbergXXX]

This is just such an accurate representation of europe

[@Brit_Toolmaker]

The first CNC desktop programming system I used, way back in 1986-7, was an Olivetti M20 that I think ran their own GTL20 CAM software that stood for Geometric Technical Language. It would output to a punch tape writer that was then read into a Bridgeport Series 1 CNC. Exciting and very happy days, sad to see what became of Olivetti.

[@darnice1125]

I worked for Olivetti north America in the 1980's for 10 years. Olivetti dominated the PC industry with the M21 and 24, which were rebadges and sold by many pc companies including Xerox and Att. They also dominated the branch banking industry with teller and atm systems. The US government realized domestic suppliers were years behind Olivetti, so they slapped a huge import tariff on all Olivetti products. This rendered them unable to compete in the largest market in the world. So they quickly declined and closed.

[@OoAntimAoO]

non serviva tassare, lo hanno ammazzato così hanno fatto prima, cancellando il mio futuro perchè sicuramente sarei andato a lavorare li, abito a 2 passi da ivrea.

[@vittoriobacchiega9118]

I worked for this company in 1985 to 1995 as ATM specialist engineer and see these locations made me sad. What a waste of efforts and skills cause by bad politicians and foreign interferences. There was intentionally purpose to destroy this company due calculators race after ww2 and entrance into cold war.

[@jeffj2495]

Thanks for this good information, i didn't realize that at all. Too bad for Olivetti.

[@neilECM]

So maybe the CIA consapiracy theory could be true.

[@aldrinvargas2593]

@@neilECM according to the CIA they are "innocent". Hahaha

[@MarkMifsud]

I remember Olivetti being a powerhouse. They even sponsored the 1990 World Cup which was held in Italy. Seeing this video is sad and nostalgic.

[@princeali316]

Woah. From sponsoring the World Cup to this..

[@piperjohn_3]

1960s Olivetti typewriters were iconic. Industrial design for the ages. Reliable as well as strikingly elegant and beautiful.

[@parlindungansitompul9625]

Yes.. My father had one..

[@piperjohn_3]

@@parlindungansitompul9625 Yeah, I bought a second-hand Olivetti Praxis in my first year at university. Just loved the look and feel of it. Soon switched to an ugly IBM PC with word processing software though.

I'm typing this comment on a 1991 Olivetti keyboard. Still working, still awesome.

[@justinflation6144]

NO you are not. Keyboards were PS2 in 1991. Now they are USB. Do people like you lie because you crave attention or is it an IQ problem?

[@gerrycrisostomo6571]

I don't own any Olivetti product or device but the story of this company makes me sad... I hope and pray that this company will be revived and rebuilt from the ground up and become successful again in the future.

[@enricol5974]

Not a chance in the hell. Olivetti is gone for good.

[@gerrycrisostomo6571]

@@enricol5974 With the ingenuity, hardworking, and skills of the Italian people, Anything is possible. Olivetti is known for producing high quality products and a lot of people all over the world know that. All that is needed is a group of good investors and some assistance from the government and it will be back in business.

[@martins767]

Amazing work! Thanks for sharing. I've grown up and started working surrounded by many Olivetti office equipaments in Brasil. I'd never imagined such an amazing company having so sad ending.

[@jack_timber]

One of the first "new" PC's I bought, must be 30+ years ago, was an Olivetti 486 with 4 Mb of ram. A great PC of it's time.

[@lewisavinash1]

i had purchased a 80286 here in Mumbai, my first PC, 1MB ram 40mb HDD, 1 MB vga RAM

[@Pueblo-p2v]

Io comprato un PC modulo 4 ed era molto veloce nell' esecuzione calcoli. Dopo passato a server Olivetti molto competitivo😊😊😊😊

[@Pueblo-p2v]

1986

[@adamuk5037]

Same here, it was our first family pc. Was a beautiful looking machine. IMO

[@iamgermane]

The narrator is wrong. The first modern computer was for the US military aboard warships for naval fire.

[@bernhardschuepbach4533]

That jar of black ink must be worth millions, you know how expensive those inkjet cartridges are 😁 Thanks for the video, very intresting

[@L33tSkE3t]

@@NerdyNEETThe ink and cartridges are cheap, it’s just a few companies hold almost the entire industry and their way of doing business is to sell the printers cheap, sometimes at a loss. Then the cartridges are sold at a huge markup and are proprietary to each printer and with other dirty tricks of using color ink mixed with black ink which is why most printers can’t print in black and white if the color cartridges are empty but the well of blank ink isn’t.

[@WombleUK]

Having owned a couple of Olivetti Fax machines, they were expensive but Olivetti support was absolutely abysmal. Olivetti were obsessed with making everything proprietary & the device's I owned were flakey & unreliable.

[@larkalfen9510]

its cheap second its common rule among people who explore these old buldings NEVER STEAL ANYTHING so the next generation can come and see the bulding as it was abandoned

[@MrCarGuy]

​@@larkalfen9510 Some things _will_ be destroyed by nature if not taken. Paper manuals, records, etc. As long as they are taken for historical preservation

[@larkalfen9510]

@@MrCarGuy a For historical preservation? Then yes But some people who go exploring these places just steal items and resell them on the market.

[@dieseldragon6756]

Seeing the laptop at 13:33 was a complete head-F for me. I'm watching this on an IBM laptop of similar vintage but with just the Core i5. To think that a laptop with the _next model of CPU up from mine_ may have been sat, unwanted, in a factory for the best part of a decade just blows my mind! 🙃

[@soulrazy]

The i7 also surprised me, but your i5 could be higher gen.

[@MobileICTHengelo]

IBM stopped making laptops years before. Do you mean Lenovo?

[@dieseldragon6756]

@@MobileICTHengelo Yeah. Got mixed-up because I still have a couple of IBM branded ThinkPads here (The venerable and bulletproof T42 ❤‍🔥) and for me the line will always be an IBM one, even post-Lenovo. 😇

[@jojoanggono3229]

​@@dieseldragon6756T42 is very nice and solid. I remember it has old style keyboard (non chiclet) made by Chicony if not mistaken. Keyboard is so nice to type.

[@PaulFellowsGuitarist]

I visited this factory back in the early 1990’s. We met with some senior management there regarding advanced microprocessors for peripheral devices. Wow they all were dressed in amazing top quality Italian suits! They were struggling at the time to make reliable laptop computers. In order to debug the printed circuit boards they were having to design boards 4 times the actual size in order to attach logic probes. They managed to get the over sized boards working, but then found that when they shrank the board size to the actual size, the boards would not work reliably due to all the circuit transmission lines behaving differently due to shorter track lengths changing capacitance/inductance/impedance characteristics. It is sad to see such a fabulous facility in ruins.

[@Funkteon]

Those are the kind of computational mistakes that American computer scientists and technicians rarely made... Europe's tech industry has always been like a car running on fumes in the slow lane, while the US rockets ahead with the pedal to the metal. You have a continent of brilliant minds bogged down by endless bureaucracy, rigid labour laws, and an obsession with safety nets that stifle the very essence of innovation. In the US, if your startup fails, you dust yourself off and move on to the next billion-dollar idea. In Europe, it feels like you need to fill out a 27-page form, translated into five languages, before even considering taking a risk. The European Union likes to tout itself as a haven of collaboration, but the truth is, it's a fragmented mess. Between navigating different regulations in 27 countries and figuring out how to pay same-same employees based on ten different market-rate median salaries, it's like trying to code with one hand tied behind your back. Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley, you can set up shop in a garage, make a few phone calls, and land a million-dollar investment before lunchtime. Europe’s big idea of a ‘startup hub’ is basically a WeWork with a coffee machine that serves lukewarm espresso. And let's talk about the culture for a second. The European startup scene loves to pat itself on the back for 'innovation,' but the reality is it’s so risk-averse it makes grandma's knitting circle look daring. Investors want the next unicorn, but they refuse to take a chance on anything that isn't a safe bet-basically hoping for an Airbnb clone with the edge of an EU-compliant privacy policy. In the US, venture capitalists throw money at crazy, world-changing ideas that might just be the next big thing. In Europe, they’ll fund you, but only if you’ve already proven you're profitable and agree to a lifetime of board meetings and oversight. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the tech talent drain. Europe produces some of the best engineers and innovators, but they’re all on the first flight to San Francisco the second they realise there’s no ceiling there, just open skies. Europe's startup culture is stuck in neutral, bogged down by cautious pessimism while the US sprints ahead, turning dreams into reality. Simply put, Europe's startup scene isn’t ‘growing’-it’s merely trying to catch up to a race that left the starting line years ago. If Silicon Valley is the bustling nightclub of tech, then Europe is the polite tea party where everyone talks about the ‘potential’ to revolutionise the world but leaves before it gets too exciting.

[@PaulFellowsGuitarist]

I have to certainly agree with many of your observations. Investment is difficult and usually confined to markets that have already emerged or tied in to government backed strategic sectors. I did later in my career pursue a startup of my own which had some limited success and produced some class leading products and manufactured around half a million units. Unfortunately that counts against the start up unless it was funded through either by a government investment scheme or by a large angel or VC from the get go. I have worked with many brilliant engineers over the years. I even remember meeting with a fledgling graphics company in Silicon Valley and recommending back to my senior management that we should invest in them to enlarge our graphics chip component sector. They did capitalise upon my recommendation but failed to properly follow through. The fledgling start up however did very well indeed and is in the present day doing extremely well in graphics and AI. Re brain drain, I hired a bright young PhD student who my HR team told me not to hire as he was deemed to be too geeky and not a team player. He struggled at first, but I gave him the confidence to get stuck into a project. In about 12 weeks of his own work, he produced a software implementation of a well known video compression standard as a clean room development. It ran 10 times faster on the same hardware than a team of over 20 engineers in an EU project which took 18 months to develop. My company didn’t see the value (especially as it was software rather than hardware!) and he was soon on the next plane to Seattle as soon as they got wind of his achievements. Europe also fails to invest in marketing and PR so even big leaps forward in technology get lost in the noise. Given my time again I would have jumped on the plane to the west coast.

[@dsfs17987]

@@Funkteon coolaid much? and you do realize you're comparing someone that is waving dads credit card around pretending to be rich with a pragmatic approach? 99/100 of your "next big thing" ideas are scams dedicated to extract investor money and then skimming in every step of spending that investment, which then never becomes profitable, but if the BSittery successfully continues, by some point the investors realize what they are in and just continue to pump borrowed money in and leverage that to borrow more and more - that is what the start up world in silicone valley is like

[@HyperMAX9001]

@@Funkteon And then europe applied the hanbrake of innovation and everything is grinding to a halt. It is painted green.

[@Mark_SWZA]

@@Funkteon This makes sense...it seem the US encourages many crazy ideas and most of them fail which is ok. You only need a fe to work! As you also say other countires dont want to risk losing money which becomes a downward spiral as no innovation occurs. It seems the US has the right idea....

[@GHOOGLEMALE]

Excellent - superb documentary

[@tempestfrost]

Wonderful video! Liked & Subbed. ♥

[@PXAbstraction]

Really cool video! I like how you go back and forth between showcasing the company history and the remains. I really like your music choices as well.

[@ROSNADOR]

My first PC was a Olivetti 386SX. This is sad 😢

[@the_kombinator]

Hah, I recently rebuilt a 386 DX-25 from Olivetti - it even had 32k cache!

[@MyNotSoHumbleOpinion]

Mine was older! It was a M290S based on a 80286 @12MHz... 1MB of ram!

[@labiadh_chokri]

Me also after my ZX81 i owned a 286 Olivetti pc back in the days when u can put your operating system on a floppy disk 💾

[@kebotize]

i owe this company my living... my first computer too... olivetti 386SX

[@friendlypiranha774]

My first computer was an Olivetti M24 SP running at 10 MHz and with a 20 MB HDD, 1 MByte of RAM and an APL character generator chip. It was even faster than the contemporary IBM PC of the day; which maxed out at 8 MHz. I used that machine solidly for over 10 years. Over the years it ran Lotus 1-2-3, MultiMate, WordPerfect, STSC APL, Turbo Pascal, Turbo C, Clarion and Clipper. For fun, it had something like version 1 of Test Drive and of course Xonix. To this day, it is the only computer from my past that I truly miss.

[@oregonduc]

Olivetti was an authorized vendor that made a touch screen POS register for the company I was at. Then they just disappeared. This video now gives some light on what happened

[@gavinprosser]

One of the best urban explorers videos I've ever seen....... So much info from the narrator 😊 this is the standard all urbex videos should be based on

[@andrewoverland2884]

Brilliant. It’s so refreshing to watch something that is more than just a ‘look what we found’ style video. Well done.

[@y2k04]

I hope that people try to restore some of the well preserved machines and CRTs. Heck, or even make a museum with the blueprints and marketing material. I think that would be a good tribute to the company.

[@Desperatetopia731]

Your vids have really become better lateley (not to say they were not good before), i like the style of exploring while learning the history of the place

[@surfer5352]

I really enjoyed this video! In 1980's I worked for an office equipment dealer and Olivetti was one of the typewriter brands we carried. They had some serious quality issues, and were also the worst company to get parts from. People that buy an expensive electronic typewriter were not willing to wait months and months to get replacement parts. And they seemed to break frequently. It seemed like they only made parts when they had many orders, and didn't have any parts ready for delivery. We eventually dropped them and picked uo another line to replace them. It was sad to see the facility they had was so modern, but was run so poorly.

[@bernieschiff5919]

In 1981 I bought an (expensive) Olivetti electronic typewriter with the interchangeable Daisy Wheel that allowed for different typefaces. This was the smaller unit, an angled wedge design in flat dark grey with a matching case and folding handle. Great design, quiet, and had an erase spool of white tape for corrections, it could erase an entire line from memory just by tapping the erase key. The first repair I think was for the H key was not printing. The second was another key missing or misprinting. The technician said this would happen again, he said it was an engineering flaw in I think one of the chips or circuit drivers. It finally failed again, and I couldn't afford more money for the same problem. Sad, I put it out by the dumpster for trash pickup, I should have donated it to The Museum of Modern Art for their design collection, like throwing away a classic car. I did buy second hand the larger office version of this wedge design typewriter as a gift for my father, who liked to type, worked great, never had to be repaired. I still have it, but it's only use today would be to type in paper forms or documents. The technology has passed it by.

[@jonathanwoods9843]

Wow, I never knew the history of Olivetti. I did know that they employed famous designers to design their products, particularly typewriters, as I found pictures of them in design books. I also found an old Olivetti typewriter about 25 years ago in a Long Beach, CA thrift store, and bought it. It's beautiful and very well made. 100% mechanical, it will, no doubt, outlive any computer. It's a shame that a company that treated its employees so well, and was a bright spot in industry met such a tragic end.

[@f.k.b.16]

Same! I'm glad I watched this and learned of a once great company

[@nicolek4076]

Sadly, they didn't always treat their employees that well. I know from personal experience in Ivrea that the personnel managers could act like mafiosi, threatening your family (that also worked there) if you should rock the boat. Luckily I had no family living locally.

[@luigi7693]

There is a film "Adriano Olivetti - the power of a dream". very beautiful, worth seeing!

[@horseathalt7308]

@@luigi7693 Thank you for the suggestion, I will watch this! I'm in the USA and even as a child I remember Olivetti products being in our life from time to time in the 1970s and 1980s.

[@E_Proxy]

Just out of curiosity, do you know the exact model of the typewriter you bought? (until a year ago I had a couple of years of "typewriters flu" and bought waaay too many, being Italian it's fairly easy to find Olivetti here)

[@peabase]

Olivetti PCs were easier on the eye than their contemporaries. The specs weren't bad either. IBM's PC went with the hamstrung 8/16-bit Intel 8088, while Olivetti had the full-fledged 16-bit 8086. Only AT&T PCs could equal them, but they were, in fact, rebadged Olivettis.

[@originalsusser]

Of course they were easy on the eye... Italian attention to detail as well as aesthetics are the cornerstone of all things Italian

[@tomn8tr]

I used to setup and repair those AT&T machines, they were actually really nice.

[@eupher2]

I still have a AT&T computer from 1995. I thought it was weird that AT&T had computers, but now I know they were rebranded Olivettis.

[@peabase]

@@tomn8tr Another honourable mention should go to NCR. Their PCs looked nice and were built like a tank. I'm not quite sure, but I seem to recall they were in fact rebadged Siemens Nixdorf PCs -- designed and made in Germany. It would explain a lot.

[@tomn8tr]

@@peabase I used to work on the one piece NCRs - model 4's I think.

[@rztrzt]

In the mid 90's we had AST, Compaq & Olivetti PCs in our corporate, the Olivettis had some design flair I must say.

[@briandaly7236]

I was always fascinated by the unique model for the workers being placed above profit that they provided. Thank you for the wonderful narration and detail you provided. 👍

[@cobra-he9xj]

I designed a laptop mainboard for Olivetti 30 years ago. I still have one. They were very nice folks. Very respectful of engineers. I miss those days.

[@Veejay-76]

Mooie docu, met goede research en historische beelden. Complimenten! Super professioneel!

[@snowblindburd]

It's funny... for many years I've seen the Olivetti logo on the SCCA Trans Am Chevy Berettas (late 80s very early 90s), and I never stopped to look them up. Thanks for the informative and great video!

[@RobCCTV]

I was a huge fan of Olivetti PCs. Very well built. Even down to a component level, they made stuff well. For example, all their PSU capacitors were rated at 105C, not the usual 80C.

[@sidneydasilva2274]

Nossa ! Que triste 😢 Parece uma cena apocalíptica! Essa marca sempre teve produtos de qualidade! Ótimo vídeo! Conheci seu canal agora e já me inscrevi. Saudações do Brasil 🇧🇷

[@jetraid]

Awesome. I used to have a Olivetti laptop. Love to see that laptop runing again.

[@venopsis]

00:38 has such a Aperture/Portal vibe that's crazy!

[@ChavJag]

Wow I totally forgot about Olivetti

[@JonDarnbrough]

An amazing programme guys. I call it a programme as it gave you that feeling you get when watching TV documentaries at home. Very rare for me. The sound was very clear and the video work and presentation was truly amazing. Bright and clear. The information contained was informative and entertaining. Very well done guys. Some of the nicest abandoned filming I have watched in quite some time. Can't wait to work through your channel. Thank-you !!

[@Tim_3100]

My partners late mother talked to me about olivetti and how many people she knew dreamed of working for it back in 1960's

[@red_ashcroft]

Sad to see companies like this to just go to waste just like that.

[@sergpie]

The direct competition and threat to market dominance in computing and electronics Olivetti was posing at the time (1950s-1970s), and the seriousness with which both American government and corporate institutions took it, is something that can’t be overstated. Great video.

[@Rok_Piletic]

Similar happened to "ISKRA Slovenia"

[@alidee5448]

Not watched all the video yet (gotta run, family thing) but worker empowerment = unauthorised democracy. No wonder the CIA had to get involved!

[@tekpic04]

​@@Rok_Piletic Funnily enough I still own a ETA telephone 📞.

[@mx338]

We are seeing it right now with how hard the US tries to keep China down from eclipsing them so it's not unreasonable.

[@arbjful]

The CIA has its fingers in many pies…

[@theSoundCarddatabase]

Magnificent documentary. What wonderful images, exploration, and excellent narration as well.

[@person.X.]

Fantastic video. It is really impressive how you meld the exploration of the factory with the history of Olivetti. I remember Olivetti typewriters and computers well.

[@nhatsen4642]

I worked for Olivetti in Venezuela, around 1989, repairing electronic typewriters. Although my stay there was brief, I have fond memories of my work there.

[@Spoolingturbo6]

Wish this walk-through video was 4x as long. really cool stuff!

[@DennisLongstream]

What a great video! Not only showing Urban Exploring, but also taking the time to tell a bit about the building and its history. I find these kinds of abandoned buildings so fascinating! In the Netherlands, it would be unthinkable for such a large building, complete with leftover belongings, to simply fall into oblivion. The Netherlands is a very small country, so every piece of land is valuable. Of course, there are occasionally vacant buildings in the Netherlands too, but huge buildings like this, just abandoned and forgotten? No, we hardly ever see that.

[@toninocars]

What a story and greatly presented Thank you

[@ForgottenBuildings]

Thanks, glad you've enjoyed it!

[@drkmagneto]

Very well done. I had never heard of Olivetti until now. Thanks!

[@arthurcrime]

Like a lot of others here, I worked for Olivetti in Australia. We were called Olivetti multimedia, we did things like create kiosks to sell car insurance. It was a great job. This was a great look at this factory combining the history with the exploration was fantastic . Thanks.

[@reqinu1678]

Awesome content bro 🫡

[@maxSebben]

It was Frederick Fachin ex Olivetti who was responsible for giving Intel the worlds first successful microprocessor the Intel 4004

[@Doctom91]

Federico Faggin, yes. (He also worked on the intel 4040, 8008 and 8080...later, he founded Zilog)

[@PackFan2323]

Very, very good video. Well put together. What a story about what might have been.

[@beagsx3]

I'm sure my first ever PC was an Olivetti. It was a 486DX2/66 with a mammoth 8MB of ram, 150mb HDD and single speed SCSI CD ROM drive. It cost me a small fortune but the hours of fun I had with it 😄

[@felixa695]

Amazing video, I admire the research and effort you put in this video. Thanks for sharing this with us

[@dasiro]

20:00 surprised to see an HP L1910 since it's the first recognizable computer peripheral in the video that wasn't made by Olivetti. I still remember unpacking these monitors as an upgrade for lots of workplaces and replacing them years later with bigger screens.

[@basvandersluis5662]

Top notch Urbex content, guys! Music, back story, pictures, narration; everything is just right. I really enjoyed the video and to learn the story of Olivetti. And as someone from the Netherlands, I enjoyed the Dutch accent, of course. ;)

[@Bonpu]

Awesome documentary. Thank you so much!

[@MRJKX1981]

Very interesting. Thank you for making this. My very first PC in 1995 was an Olivetti 486SX2 50 MHz 4 MB RAM 210 MB harddrive + 14” screen.

[@kumanderlinux]

Thoroughly enjoyed this, thank you!

[@apalrdsadventures]

I really like how you mixed the history in here. I've heard of their computer products, and they have always seemed unique (integrating printers and such).

[@tlhoutman]

Thanx for some historical IT insights

[@dilligafmofoker]

My mom had an Olivetti typewriter. As a young child, I used to marvel at how the ball with all the characters would spin and strike the paper with lightning speed & precision as she typed away at 65 wpm. Great video. Thx!

[@GiorgioSilvioPatalani]

Wonderful documentary. Well made !!

[@TJ34644]

Many thanks for uploading this amazing and incredibly well researched footage - providing total context to the building. Crazy history with the founders assignations by the US. Subscribed!

[@robinvdm6963]

Veel leuker met meer uitleg over de geschiedenis van het gebouw dan de standaard urbex video's, dacht al een Nederlands tintje in je taal te horen haha. Subbed!

[@AlphaSphere]

Tintje? Het is overduidelijk een vrij dikke nederlandse accent. Voor mij is het niet om aan te horen maar dat is vrij persoonlijk. De inhoud is best goed en erg interessant en daar doet het accent niets aan af. Mooie docu!

[@helix0rz]

Beautifully crafted documentary! Keep up the good work!

[@Dedubya-]

An excellent video and story - thanks so much

[@cashe18]

How the giants fall. Reading the comments, I see this company was a monster of industry. Monster used as a good term. They were EVERYWHERE. These comments are full of techs, engineers, staff, and vendors of this great company. Reminds me of Motorola in the 90s, especially the Motorola factory in Harvard, Illinois. Thank you for the video.

[@gerardjj68]

Prachtige aflevering, ook de achtergrond muziek is fantastisch gekozen! ❤

[@AndreFerreira-ym4wd]

Great video, at least is longer than usual and very very informative one. We want more like this kind of videos... 👌🏻👍🏻

[@peterjensen3162]

Great documentary, thanks for sharing this.

[@abjectt5440]

I joined Olivetti Canada in 1972 in service for 26 years. From mechanical calculators through computers. They invented the electronic typewriter. Word processors you name it. I remember the Logos 27-1 mechanical calculator. Luckily I didn't have to work on that. With the case off it was a blur of gears and moving parts but when it jammed it took our guy a week to fix it. The first computer was the M-24 dual fdu no hdu. Fond memories of my youth.

[@robertodiazsanchez4177]

I learned typing on an electric Olivetti Lettera typewriter. Unbelievable unboxings, by the way.

[@MattNeighbour]

I loved watching this, it filled in a lot of blanks for me as I have visited the Olivetti site a few times around 2020. At that time, TUV still had an EMC test lab on one corner of the site, before they moved the lab south to Turin. I went over the St Bernard pass from Switzerland to get some scientific instruments certified. I only vaguely knew of Olivetti as a printer manufacturer and I was shocked to drive through the vast abandoned site to get to the TUV corner. Thanks for shedding light on what those other buildings were and educating me about Olivetti!

[@chatters7969]

Your channel is amazing, videos put together with quality, I feel you are ethical urban explorers as well, never take anything but photos and don’t cause damage, that’s important to me

[@sheridenboord7853]

I had an M20 in 1985. It got dragged around everywhere. Cars, aeroplanes, offices, bedrooms. It got so much use. Ran dos, booted from the hard drive. Had an incredible set of manuals. Best part was GWBASIC. Never failed. Was top quality. Used it for demonstrations, editing, compiling and games. I miss that computer from 40 years ago. I still have programs and files from it.

[@goodtimeswerehad]

Nicely done video. A sad ending to a once beloved and well-known brand

[@trs4u]

Interesting! I developed software on an AT&T 3B2 400 in the late 1980s that had an Olivetti badge on it. Can barely remember it, except for one time when I dropped it down a flight of stairs during an office move, and it just kept on trucking when powered up again! I can still feel the relief...