From Wikipedia:
RCA, formerly an acronym for the Radio Corporation of America, is now a trademark owned by Thomson SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Thomson. The trademark is used by two companies, namely Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Thomson SA (the owner of the RCA name), which licences the name to other companies like Audiovox for products descended from that common ancestor.
BTW, RCA-victor was a merger between victor and RCA. Victor made the “victrola” phonograph. That’s the one with the dog. I could be wrong, but I think “motorola” was originally the “car radio” division of victor(victrola)...motor-victrola...get it?
LOL.
I was also just consulting Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JVC
Evidently the dog in named “Nipper” (no jokes please), and is a widely used logo for JVC (Japan Victor Corp), which was formerly a subsidiary of RCA Victor, but now owned by Mitsubishi.
By agreement however, JVC Victor can only use the dog logo within Japan. The logo rights belong to “HMV” music worldwide.
According to wiki, JVC uses the logo a lot.
I thought Elvis bought RCA for $35,000 back in 1956?
Or was it the other way around?
Motorola, originally named Galvin Manufacturing, was always an independent company.
In 1930, every car radio installation was custom, complex, and expensive. Paul Galvin and his associates got the idea to produce a car radio that would be much easier to install. It was to involve the creation of a network of dealers and installers.
One morning, when thinking about their new product, Galvin reportedly coined the word “Motorola” after the idea of the “Victrola.”
Interestingly, one of Galvin’s early associates was Bill Lear, the man who went on to develop the LearJet and its infamous 8-track tape player. Lear claimed to have invented the term “Motorola,” but this is disputed by Paul Galvin’s son Bob, who remembers the development of the product from his boyhood.
Galvin Mfg changed its corporate name to Motorola in 1948, IIRC.
[On a personal note...
That is the year I became aware of the company, when my older brother won a Motorola table radio-phonograph in a Boy Scout raffle. The eventual hacking of that machine was my first act in a long life of technical sin.
My relationship with the company went on to become somewhat more personal in 1968, and would continue, on and off, for about 30 more years.]