Tesla (company)
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TESLA (from "TEchnika SLAboproudá" (meaning "Light-current Technology", was a giant state-owned electrotechnical conglomerate in the former Czechoslovakia.
The company was established as Elektra on 18 January 1921 and renamed to TESLA on 7 March 1946. TESLA had a state-sponsored monopoly on electronics production in socialist Czechoslovakia and it produced nearly everything electronics-related until 1989. Many subsidiaries were created, including Liptovský Hrádok, Hradec Králové, Pardubice, Žďár nad Sázavou, Bratislava, and Nižná. Later some of them have been transformed into independent state-owned companies.
While the wide range of the production was impressive, quality was low and quantity usually did not meet the needs of industrial customers. Many products became gradually obsolete simply because they were not updated; e.g. one particular type of diode would be manufactured without any modifications for over 30 years.
TESLA had to contend with foreign and new domestic competition after the fall of socialism in Czechoslovakia, and generally could not compete effectively, which resulted in dramatic downsizing and privatization of the majority of its stores and production facilities. TESLA's logo is a rare sight in present-day Czech Republic or in Slovakia, as only a few of its subsidiaries have survived.
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Some of the present TESLA companies:
