Thomson SA
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| Thomson, SA | |
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| Type | Public: NYSE: TMS Euronext: TMS |
| Founded | Paris, France (1893) |
| Headquarters | Boulogne-Billancourt, France |
| Key people | Frank E. Dangeard, Chairman/CEO Jean-Charles Hourcade, SVP/CTO Julian Waldron SVP/CFO |
| Industry | Consumer electronics |
| Products | See partial products listing. |
| Revenue | € 8.5 billion (2005) |
| Website | www.thomson.net |
Thomson SA (NYSE: TMS , Euronext: TMS), formerly known as Thomson Multimedia is an international French electronics manufacturer and media services provider headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris. In 2004 it had almost 60,000 employees in 30 countries worldwide. In 2005 its consolidated revenues were € 8.5 billion.
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[edit] History
Thomson is named after the electrical engineer Elihu Thomson, who was born in Manchester, England, on March 26, 1853. Thomson moved to Philadelphia at the age of 5, with his family. Thomson formed the Thomson-Houston Electric Company in 1879 with Edwin Houston. The company merged with the Edison General Electric Company to become the General Electric Company in 1892. In 1893, the Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH) was formed in Paris, a sister company to GE in the United States. It is from this company that the modern Thomson Group would evolve.
In 1966 CFTH merged with Hotchkiss-Brandt to form Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brandt (soon renamed Thomson-Brandt). In 1968 the electronics business of Thomson-Brandt merged with Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil (CSF) to form Thomson-CSF. Thomson Brandt maintained a significant shareholding in this company (approximately 40%).
History
Electric Company
Thomson is named after the electrical engineer Elihu Thomson, born in Manchester, England, on March 26, 1853. As a 5-year-old child, Thomson moved to Philadelphia with his family. In 1879, Thomson formed the Thomson-Houston Electric Company with Edwin Houston. The electric company merged with the Edison General Electric Company to become the General Electric Company in 1892. In 1893, the Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH) was formed in Paris, France as a sister company to GE in the United States. It is from this company that the modern Thomson Group would evolve.
In 1966, CFTH merged with Hotchkiss-Brandt to form Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brandt (soon renamed Thomson-Brandt). In 1968, the electronics business of Thomson-Brandt merged with Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil (CSF) to form Thomson-CSF. Thomson Brandt maintained a significant shareholding in this company (approximately 40%).
Multimedia and Broadcast Management
Thomson began a move into broadcast management, facilities and services market with the purchase of Corinthian Television, becoming Thomson Multimedia. In 2001, Thomson Multimedia purchased the Grass Valley Group from a private owner. Then, in 2002, Thomson Multimedia renamed itself Thomson. Thomson then purchased the Moving Picture Company from ITV. Thomson also purchased Internet startup Singingfish from private owners, but then sold Singingfish to AOL in late 2004.
In July 2005, Thomson agreed to purchase the largest in-store television network in the United States, the independently held PRN Corporation for $285 million dollars. In December 2005, Thomson re-purchased the Broadcast & Multimedia part from Thales Group.
Electronic Parts Manufacturing
In 1982, both Thomson-Brandt and Thomson-CSF saw nationalization due to the efforts of François Mitterrand. Thomson-Brandt was subsequently renamed Thomson SA (Société Anonyme), and soon thereafter merged with Thomson-CSF. In 1987, the state-run Thomson bought RCA and GE Consumer Electronics from GE. In 1988 Thomson Consumer Electronics was formed, and then renamed it Thomson SA. In 1995, The French government split the consumer electronics and defence businesses of Thomson Multimedia and Thomson-CSF prior to privatisation in 1999. The company then went through a series of transactions, including with Marconi plc, before becoming Thales in 2000.
In December of 2006, Thomson SA agreed to sell off its Audio/Video and Accessories businesses, which includes all consumer electronics under the RCA and Thomson brands except TVs, (now part of TTE), and communications products such as cordless phones (which it will keep), to Audiovox.[2]
Television Production
In 2000, Thomson Multimedia purchased Technicolor from Carlton Television (owned by Carlton Communications) in the UK. In June 2005, the Videocon Group of India announced that it would acquire the colour picture tube manufacturing business from Thomson SA for Euro 240 m.
Global Expansion
In 2004, Thomson set up a joint venture (TTE) with China's TCL, giving to TCL all manufacturing of RCA and Thomson television and DVD products and making TCL the global leader in TV manufacturing. (Thomson still controls the brands themselves and licenses them to TTE.) At the time, TCL was hailed as the first Chinese company to compete on the international stage with large international corporations. Thomson initially retained all marketing of TTE's products, but transferred that to TTE in 2005.
Also in 2004, Thomson increased its stake in the Bangalore, India based company Celstream Technologies, which specializes in product engineering. On October 16, 2007, Thomson SA agreed to sell its consumer electronics audio video business outside Europe including the worldwide rights to the RCA Brand for consumer electronics audio video products [3]
In June 2005, the Videocon Group of India announced that it would acquire the colour picture tube manufacturing business from Thomson SA for Euro 240 m. [1] Cirpack, a softswitch manufacturer, was incorporated and acquired in April 2005. Thomson is responsible for more than four million VoIP lines as of July 2006, that are being run over Cirpack softswitches, within the auspices of such companies as Free Telecom, T-Online or Telecom Italia. All together, more than 80 voice services providers (carriers, cablos and ISPs) in 30 countries operate using Cirpack softswitches.
Awards
Thomson was honored at the 2008 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for development of monitoring systems for compliance standards for ATSC & DVB transport streams.
[edit] Organization
Thomson operates under four strategic brands servicing a variety of global markets:
- Thomson: Providing consumer electronics to Europe
- Grass Valley: Providing equipment and services to broadcast industries throughout the world
- Technicolor: Providing services to film industries throughout the world
Thomson also uses the GE (under license) and other brands for consumer electronics in the United States and Canada. It uses both the Thomson and RCA brands for consumer electronics in Latin America, Asia and the Pacific Rim.
Thomson also controls the patents and licensing of the MP3 audio codec.
They also produce a TiVo-based personal video recorder.
[edit] Portfolio
- Consumer electronics
- Scenium range of HDTV and EDTV TV systems
- LiFE range of low cost 4:3 CRT TV systems
- Scenium DVD and home-theatre systems
- Lyra personal media players
- Digital TV receivers
- Satellite receivers (division acquired from Grundig)
- GE digital and analog telephones
- SpeedTouch range of ADSL modems and IP phones
- Film services
- Film processing
- Post production and special effects
- VHS, DVD and film-reel authoring and distribution
- Digital cinema
- Broadcast equipment and services
- Video disk recorders and servers
- Digital news production
- Cameras
- Routers and control surfaces
- Video switchers
- Broadcast facilities
- Digital media asset management
- Analogue and digital radio broadcasting equipment
- Cable modems
[edit] References
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (August 2006) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
In December 2006, the European subsidiary of TTE closed its operations in France and TTE lost the right to use the Thomson brand on TV sold in Europe
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Company data: THOMSON Company Profile - Yahoo! Finance
- Member of the Digital Watermarking Alliance - Furthering the Adoption of Digital Watermarking
- Article: Le modem cable/VoIP Thomson THG520 sur Developpez.com (French)
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