apex digital, inc. was founded in 1997 by wasim (ceo) and ancle hsu (chief operating officer). in 2000, it introduced its first dvd players – the ad-600a – to the us market, which became successful due to their ability to play mp3 files; used to download music files off the internet during the height of the napster controversy. by the end of 2001, apex was the second leading marketer of dvd players in the us after sony.