Imperial electronic typewriter Model SE 5020, SERIAL NUMBER.....54034359 AN 61702 REFERS, 1984.

In the 1970s, the British typewriter manufacturers Imperial Typewriters was taken over by US electronics giant Litton Industries, which also swallowed up Royal Typewriters, and after a brief revival, the Imperial name disappeared completely. Manual Imperial typewriters ceased to be made in 1979.

In March 1975, a British company called Office and Electronic Machines (OEM) originally established in 1950 took over the business of the Imperial Typewriter Company, a week after Litton had closed the last Imperial factory, on Hedon Road in Hull. OEM changed Imperial’s name to Imperial Business Equipment, headquartered in Leicester, and began selling electrical and electronic machines with the Imperial nameplates.

The last typewriter sold as an Imperial was the SE 5000 CD series (of which this SE 5020 is an example), a copycat golfball electronic typewriter marketed in Britain and Australia in the late 1970s and early 1980s by Imperial Business Equipment Ltd.

The SE 5020 electronic typewriter has a memory which can store regularly used phrases.