What Company Owns Micro Center & Does It Own Any Other Tech Brands?

Micro Center is the retail arm of Micro Electronics, a privately held technology company based in Hilliard, Ohio. Micro Electronics (and, by extension, Micro Center) dates back to 1979, right when personal computers were starting to emerge as their own industry.

Its founders, having previously worked for Radio Shack, probably saw the potential in such a new and exciting (and quickly growing) market. Out of that came Micro Center: a chain of stores that brings together a broad selection of tech parts, products, and accessories under one roof.

 The store's original location in Columbus was just 900 square feet, but that expanded to over 44,000 square feet by 1983. Micro Center eventually expanded its operations to include online sales as well, and it continues to help users with pre-built and DIY PC builds to this day. As much of a household name as Micro Center is, though, it's just part of the equation for Micro Electronics. The parent company has also owned several tech brands of its own, including PowerSpec and the now-defunct WinBook.

Micro Center's success paved the way for Micro Electronics to establish its own tech brands to sell in its stores. One of the brands, PowerSpec, is still around and known for pre-built desktop systems. Another brand, WinBook, made notebooks, tablets, and home theater and television equipment until it was shut down sometime in the late 2000s. Micro Electronics also established and owned Redemtech, a company focused on recycling and upselling used tech, which it sold to Arrow Electronics in 2012.

Micro Center serves (or, in the case of WinBook and Redemtech, used to serve) as a retail home base for these Micro Electronics brands. You could say the relationship is roughly equivalent to that of Harbor Freight and its in-house brands. Thus, while each of Micro Electronics' tech brands could have hypothetically existed on their own, keeping them in-house likely helps prices stay down and profits go up. 

In other words, Micro Center is Micro Electronics' consumer-facing retail operation, while PowerSpec (and, in years past, WinBook) are Micro Electronics brands sold through Micro Center. Redemtech was the only one that worked differently, as it would head out to collect e-waste before recycling or reselling it to various buyers. While Redemtech is no longer part of the Micro Electronics empire, you can still buy refurbished laptops at Micro Center outlets, just not under the Redemtech name.