CMS Enhancements

CMS Enhancements Inc.

Company type	Public (from 1986)
Industry	Computer hardware, data storage
Predecessor	Complete Management Systems
Founded	July 1, 1983 (1983-07-01) in Irvine, California, United States
Founder	Jamshed "Jim" Farooquee, Mason Tarkeshian, Tom Ong
Defunct	1997 (1997)
Fate	Corporate restructuring and rebranding to AmeriQuest Technologies (1993); spin-off of drive manufacturing subsidiary (1997)
Successor	AmeriQuest Technologies
Headquarters	Irvine, California , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jamshed "Jim" Farooquee (founder, former CEO), Hal Clark (CEO from 1992), Kenneth Burke (leader of spin-off)
Products	Hard disk drives, tape drives, graphics cards, memory modules, uninterruptible power supplies, personal computers (briefly)
Number of employees	549 (peak), reduced to 215 by 1992; about 440 in 1992 (Early 1990s)

CMS Enhancements Inc.—initially known as Complete Management Systems—was a U.S.-based computer firm located in Irvine, California. Established in 1983, its primary offerings throughout the 1980s comprised both internal and external hard disk drives as well as tape drive devices. The company mainly procured hard drives from Seagate, tailoring these components for systems such as the Macintosh (marketed under the MacLite label), IBM PC, and Compaq Deskpro.

During the early 1990s, after unsuccessful ventures into the personal computer sector, CMS encountered financial difficulties that culminated in a corporate restructuring and rebranding to AmeriQuest Technologies in 1993.

1983–1990

CMS Enhancements was established in July 1983 in Irvine, California by founders Jamshed "Jim" Farooquee, Mason Tarkeshian, and Tom Ong. Farooquee, the lead entrepreneur, had immigrated from Pakistan following his graduation from a technical institute in Karachi in 1976. He invested $12,000 of his own capital to initiate the company. The firm went public in 1986 and saw its stock price peak at $36 per share in early 1987.

The company experienced swift expansion with revenues reaching $133 million by 1987. By 1989, CMS offered an extensive portfolio exceeding 300 storage products—including tape drives—and broadened its catalog to include graphics cards, memory modules, and uninterruptible power supplies under its own brand. While most products were modified OEM components (primarily Seagate hard disks), tape drives were produced internally after acquiring North Atlantic Industries' Data Storage Products division in April 1988. This acquisition brought valuable intellectual property, inventory assets, tooling, and manufacturing facilities located in Singapore (10,000 sq ft) and Long Island (5,000 sq ft), marking CMS’s transition toward internal manufacturing. The initial product from these facilities was LiteTape—a portable tape drive with a 40-MB capacity designed for PC-compatible laptops—released in 1989.

CMS operated a 73,000-square-foot plant in Tustin, California and expanded by acquiring an additional 50,000-square-foot building in 1988. That same year saw the establishment of an overseas office in the Netherlands. By late 1988, Tarkeshian and Ong had exited the company; Ong retired at age 60. By June 1989, CMS reported sales of $200 million—a growth of 32%—and net profits increased by 92% to $4.8 million compared to the prior year.

1990–1997

In the early 1990s, CMS encountered significant obstacles beginning with defective Seagate hard drives in 1988 that led to substantial customer returns. The integration of North Atlantic DSP complicated operations and resulted in multi-million-dollar write-offs by 1992 when the workforce numbered approximately 440 globally. A competitive price war within the external data storage market between 1990 and 1991 further diminished CMS’s market presence, culminating in its first loss of $8.5 million by June 1991. To diversify its offerings, CMS entered a joint venture with Korean manufacturer TriGem in 1991 to produce PCs under the CMS brand; however, strong competition from Compaq during 1992 caused this partnership to fail and led to another $8.5 million loss mid-year.

To prevent insolvency, CMS underwent drastic downsizing—reducing staff from 549 to 215 employees—and divested manufacturing operations in Singapore and Pakistan while refocusing on hard drive products under CEO Farooquee’s strategic direction. This realignment restored profitability by October 1992. In December of that year, Hal Clark replaced Farooquee as CEO; Farooquee remained involved as a board member.

Later in 1992, CMS reentered the PC market through AnyBus Technologies by outsourcing motherboard production to IBM. AnyBus PCs supported multiple bus standards (ISA, VESA Local Bus, OPTiLocal bus) but suffered financial losses averaging $100,000 per month. Following a major corporate restructuring in February 1994, CMS rebranded as AmeriQuest Technologies and shifted its business model toward value-added reselling—customizing existing systems for specialized markets such as Unix-based graphical workstations—aiming at higher-growth sectors.

The original drive manufacturing division continued operating as a subsidiary until AmeriQuest spun it off under Kenneth Burke’s leadership in 1997. The separated CMS maintained headquarters in Costa Mesa, California while AmeriQuest relocated to Florida. As of 2022, this entity functions as CMS Products with a focus on data security and backup solutions.