What's in a Name?
A lot of profit, if you're talking about trusted names in consumer electronics. But some of those reassuring brands we grew up with — RCA, AT&T, Westinghouse, and Polaroid — bear no relation to the American companies we associate them with. In many cases, it's Chinese companies looking to make inroads into the lucrative U.S. market, where branding is everything.
In the case of RCA, the buyer is another well-known American company, Audiovox, which this week signed a definitive agreement to buy the RCA audio/video business from France's Thomson. Thomson bought the RCA trademark in the late '80s, a year after General Electric had acquired RCA (including its broadcast business) and replaced the famous red RCA neon letters with GE atop Rockefeller Center in New York City.
