Stern Pinball, Inc. is the second of two gaming companies to exist under the name Stern. It was founded in 1999 by Gary Stern By 1999, the pinball industry was virtually dead and Williams, once the dominant leader in a healthy industry, decided to stop manufacturing pinball tables and focus on gambling devices as WMS Gaming. During the same year, Sega decided to leave the pinball industry as well and sold its pinball division (previously purchased from Data East in 1996) to Gary Stern, the son of Sam Stern. Gary Stern founded Stern Pinball, Inc. that same year and since then, the company has been the largest manufacturer of pinball tables in the world.