''This article concerns the media and entertainment company. For other uses, see
Thomson (disambiguation) .''
SA , formerly known as '''Thomson Multimedia''' is a multinational electronics manufacturer and media services provider headquartered in
Boulogne-Billancourt ,
France . The company has almost 60,000 employees (as of 2004), in 30 countries worldwide. In 2003, Thomson's consolidated revenues were € 8.5 billion.
Thomson operates under four strategic brands servicing a variety of global markets:
- Providing consumer electronics to Europe
- RCA : Providing consumer electronics to North America
- Grass Valley : Providing equipment and services to broadcast industries throughout the world
- Technicolor : Providing services to film industries throughout the world
Thomson operates under the
GE Consumer Electronics brand in the United States.
Thomson also controls the
Patents and
Licensing of the
MP3 audio
Codec .
They also produce a
TiVo -based
Personal Video Recorder .
- 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 Telephone s
- 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
- ---Broadcast facilities
- ---Digital media asset management
- ---Analogue and digital radio broadcasting equipment
- --- Cable Modem s
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 ). 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%).
In 1982 both Thomson-Brandt and Thomson-CSF were nationalized by
François Mitterrand . Thomson-Brandt was renamed (Société Anonyme) and 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, renamed in 1995. The French government split the consumer electronics and defence businesses prior to privitisation in 1999, those companies being Thomson Multimedia and Thomson-CSF. Thomson-CSF went through a series of transactions, including with
Marconi Plc , before becoming
Thales in
2000 .
Like its American counterpart, the French Thomson has manufactured a variety of electrical, and later electronic, products for industrial, consumer, and military markets.
In 2000, Thomson Multimedia purchased
Technicolor from
Carlton Television (owned by Carlton Communications) in the UK.
In 2001, Thomson Multimedia purchased the
Grass Valley Group from a private owner.
In 2002, Thomson Multimedia renamed itself ''Thomson''.
In 2004, Thomson purchased the
Moving Picture Company from
ITV . Later in the same year, Thomson began a move into the broadcast management, facilities and services market, with the purchase of
Corinthian Television . In the same year Thomson increased its stake in bangalore based
Celstream Technologies specializing in product engineering.
In June 2005,
Videocon Group India announced that it would acquire the colour picture tube manufacturing business from Thomson SA for Euro 240m.
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In December 2005, Thomson re-purchased the Broadcast & Multimedia part from
Thales Group
