1892: The founding of the General Electric Company
Thomson was named after the electrical engineer Elihu Thomson, who was born in Manchester, England, on 26 March 1853. Thomson moved to Philadelphia, United States, 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 was 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 kept approximately 40% of the company stock.
1982: Thomson SA and its expansion
In 1982, both Thomson-Brandt and Thomson-CSF were nationalized due to the efforts of François Mitterrand. Thomson-Brandt was subsequently renamed Thomson SA (Société Anonyme), and soon thereafter merged with Thomson-CSF. The Thomson Group was created, comprising Thomson-CSF, which focused on radio and broadcasting equipment and later electronics for defense and aerospace, and Thomson Multimedia which focused on consumer electronics. In 1988, two years after General Electric acquired the RCA Corporation, GE sold its consumer electronics division to Thomson, in exchange for some of Thomson's medical businesses. Thomson Consumer Electronics was formed to market products under the GE and RCA brand names. In 1995, the French government split the consumer electronics from the defense businesses of Thomson Multimedia and Thomson-CSF prior to privatization in 1999. Following privatization, Thomson-CSF went through a series of acquisitions, including with Marconi plc, before becoming Thales in 2000. In 2005, Thomson bought Cirpack and Inventel.[8]
In 2000, Thomson Multimedia purchased Technicolor from Carlton Television (owned by Carlton Communications) in the UK and began a move into the broadcast management, facilities and services market with the purchase of Corinthian Television, becoming Thomson Multimedia. In Q1 of 2001 it purchased the Broadcast Division of Koninklijke Philips (Philips Broadcast) then in 2002 acquired the Grass Valley Group, Inc. from Dr. Terence Gooding of San Diego, CA. Thomson then purchased the Moving Picture Company from ITV and the internet startup Singingfish, but then sold it to AOL in late 2004. In 2004, Thomson increased its stake in the Bangalore, India, based company Celstream Technologies, which specializes in product engineering. Cirpack, a softswitch manufacturer, was incorporated and acquired in April 2005. In July 2005, Thomson agreed to purchase PRN Corporation for $285 million. In December 2005, Thomson re-purchased the Broadcast & Multimedia part of Thales Group.
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 controlled the brands themselves and licensed 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. In June 2005, the Videocon Group of India announced that it would acquire the color picture tube manufacturing business from Thomson SA for €240 million. In early 2010, Thomson sold the rights to manufacture RCA branded televisions to ON Corporation.
In September 2005, Thomson first showed its Infinity camcorder. At the April 2006 launch, this was described as "a new line of IT-based acquisition, recording and storage devices."[9] It was designed to end the stranglehold of proprietary products in this market, and was inspired by a Grass Valley executive's trip to Fry's Electronics in Burbank to buy a computer backup device.[10] The product failed to take market share from the predominant players in News Acquisition, Sony and Panasonic. It was too heavy and used too much power, which reduced battery life and increased heat. Its production was discontinued in 2010.
Also in 2005, Thomson marketing executive Nicholas de Wolff developed a plan for the creation of interactive Innovation centers,[11] where early research projects could be demonstrated to industry leaders and clients in a close-up format, allowing for more strategic advanced product development. The centers (in Burbank, United States;[12] Rennes, France; Hannover, Germany; and Beijing, China) were so successful, de Wolff and Thomson CTO, Jean-Charles Hourcade subsequently decided to launch the research demos at IBC and NAB trade shows,[13] despite strong opposition from several business units.
In February 2007, Thomson Multimedia's Technicolor Content Services division announced that it had invested in Indian animation studio Paprikaas to expand its entertainment services capabilities.[14] In December 2007, Technicolor partnered with DreamWorks Animation to assist Paprikass in the "recruitment, training and development of top-tier animation talent".[15] By January 2010, Technicolor had raised its ownership in Paprikaas to 100%.[16] Following the acquisition, Technicolor's Indian offices in Delhi were merged into Paprikaas, and the resulting studio was rebranded Technicolor India in May 2010.[17][18]
In December 2007, Thomson SA agreed to sell off its Audio/Video and Accessories businesses (sold under the RCA and Thomson brands) except for communications products such as cordless phones to Audiovox. In October 2007, Thomson SA agreed to sell its consumer electronics audio video business outside Europe including the worldwide rights to the RCA brand.
2020–present: Restructuring and rebranding to Vantiva
In June 2020, Technicolor filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy due to the COVID-19 pandemic[41] and went through a restructuring process following the appointment of former Eir CEO Richard Moat. In 2021, the Technicolor post-production brand was sold to LA-based Streamland Media. The sale was part of a strategic decision to focus on visual effects and animation for film, advertising, gaming and live events.[42]
Following the restructuring, Technicolor reported "a positive third quarter 2021, and a significant improvement in profitability, despite supply constraint challenges affecting both Connecting Home and Technicolor Creative Studios."[43]
Meanwhile, in May 2021, Technicolor launched Technicolor Creative Studios, forming a global structure to drive its family of studios.[44]
