In 1958, DYMO was founded in California as DYMO Industries, where it introduced the first personal label maker, the embosser, and quickly revolutionized the way business and individuals organized and identified their offices and surroundings. DYMO embossers became synonymous with labeling and identification. In 1978, DYMO Industries was acquired by Esselte Office Products, one of the largest worldwide office supplies manufacturers. Under the Esselte umbrella, In 1990, DYMO expanded its product line to include electronic labelmakers. In 1998, Esselte Office products acquired CoStar Corporation, a USA firm based in Connecticut that had pioneered the market for small, dedicated label printers that connected to PC and Macintosh computers. CoStar's tiny LabelWriter® printers enable users to print one at a time labels directly from their desktop computers, eliminating the hassle of printing labels with standard office printers. The LabelWriter printers handle a wide variety of labels for envelopes, packages, file folders, disks, CDs and other media, name badges and many more applications including Internet postage. The printers include easy-to-use software and work seamlessly with popular programs such as Microsoft Word, Outlook and the Palm Desktop. The addition of the LabelWriter line meant that DYMO offered the most complete line of labeling and identification products on the market. In 2005 DYMO was acquired by Newell Rubbermaid. Newell Rubbermaid Inc. is a S&P 500 company, a global marketer of consumer and commercial products with sales of approximately $6 billion and a strong portfolio of brands, including Sharpie®, Paper Mate®, DYMO®, EXPO®, Waterman®, Parker®, Rolodex®, IRWIN®, LENOX®, BernzOmatic®, Rubbermaid®, Graco®, Calphalon®, Levolor® and Goody®. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., and has approximately 22,500 employees worldwide.