electric . emerson radio corporation type public traded as nyse mkt msn industry wholesaler founded 1948 headquarters hackensack new jersey usa key people duncan hon ceo products consumer electronics owner panasonic 1988 2001 funai 2001 present number of employees 115 slogan we re playing your tune website www.emersonradio.com emerson radio corporation is one of the united states largest volume consumer electronics distributors and has a recognized trademark in continuous use since 1912 . the company designs markets and licenses many product lines worldwide including products sold and sometimes licensed under the brand name g clef a homage to emerson s logo . contents 1 history 1.1 1915 1920 1.2 1921 1940 1.3 1941 1950 1.4 1951 1960 1.5 1961 1980 1.6 1981 1990 1.7 1991 2000 1.8 2001 present 2 products 2.1 consumer electronics 2.2 hd radio 2.3 smartset 3 historical products 4 references 5 external links history edit 1915 1920 edit emerson radio corp. was incorporated in 1915 as emerson phonograph co. naics 421620 consumer electronics wholesaling based in new york city by an early recording engineer and executive victor hugo emerson who was at one time employed by columbia records . the first factories were opened in chicago and boston in 1920 . in december of that year the company fell victim to the sales slump for phonograph music that accompanied the post world war i recession and the growth of commercial radio . it went from the self claimed third largest record manufacturer into receivership . 1921 1940 edit in 1922 emerson phonograph co. passed into the hands of benjamin abrams 1 and rudolph kanarak . abrams a phonograph and record salesman along with his two brothers ran the company and renamed it emerson radio & phonograph corp in 1924 after entering the radio business . the company s record interests were subsequently sold . although emerson introduced the first radio phonograph combination sold in the united states the company remained in obscurity until 1932 when during the great depression it introduced the peewee radio see historical products below . 2 1941 1950 edit emerson radio & phonograph converted to military production for world war ii in 1942 when it held one sixth of the u.s. radio market . in 1943 it became a public corporation when it offered over 40 percent of its stock to the public for 12 a share . in 1947 among its first post war products emerson offered a television set with a 10 inch tube . 3 although its ending retail price was nearly equal to a month s salary for the average working american it put emerson at the lower end of the market . however between fiscal 1948 and 1950 the high demand for television allowed emerson to more than double its sales . its net income reached a record of 6.5 million in fiscal 1950 with sales of 74.2 million . 1951 1960 edit in 1953 emerson radio and phonograph purchased quiet heet corp. which entered the company into air conditioning . although radio represented only 15 percent of emerson s revenue by 1954 4 the company credited itself as creating the firsts of the clock radio self powered radio and transistorized pocket radio ; production of tape recorders began in 1955 . emerson radio and phonograph paid 6 million to purchase the consumer products division of dumont laboratories in 1958 . 5 with this acquisition a higher priced line of television sets phonographs and high fidelity and stereo instruments along with the dumont trademark was added to emerson s products . however by this time the us television market was saturated and many customers who were in need of another set were waiting for color television instead of buying a replacement . sales fell from 87.4 million in fiscal 1955 to 73.9 million in fiscal 1956 when the company earned only 84 852 . a cost cutting campaign by abrams rebounded net income which reached 2.7 million in fiscal 1959 on sales of 67.4 million . in fiscal 1964 emerson s last full year of independent operation it earned 2.1 million on sales of 68.2 million . 6 1961 1980 edit in 1965 the company acquired the pilot radio corp. from jerrold corp. later in 1965 emerson radio and phonograph was purchased for approximately 62 million in cash and stock by national union electric corp. a diversified manufacturer . its line of quiet kool air conditioners became a separate national union electric division . this company continued to produce radios television sets and phonographs distributed under the emerson and dumont names and hi fi equipment under the pilot name . 7 between 1967 and 1971 the national union electric division lost about 27 million due to too little volume to cover costs . the division contracted out the manufacturing of television sets and some other home entertainment products to admiral corp. and laid off 1 800 employees . in addition to importing some of its home entertainment products from the far east emerson continued to be responsible for design engineering and marketing . in late 1972 national union electric announced that emerson was discontinuing distribution of television sets and other home entertainment products . in 1973 emerson sold its license for marketing products under the emerson name to major electronics corp. founded in 1948 by melvin lane and incorporated in 1956 this brooklyn based company originally made children s phonographs . 8 the company later diversified into the production and sale of a broad line of low priced home entertainment products that included stereos radios and clock radios . in 1971 major also began importing low cost radios . by 1975 the company was only manufacturing portable phonographs . in 1976 the company moved its headquarters to secaucus new jersey and changed its name to emerson radio corp. in 1977 . sales rose from 11.5 million in fiscal 1975 to 49.2 million in fiscal 1978 the year in which phonographs radios tape recorders and players compact stereos digital clock radios and other low to medium priced electronic equipment was being imported assembled and marketed primarily under the emerson name . approximately 60 percent of its components were being imported from the far east and 20 percent from each great britain and domestically and assembled in either secaucus or sun valley california . in 1979 emerson began selling heart aid after purchasing a large portion of cardiac resuscitator corp. a near bankrupt company . emerson spent heavily to develop and produce both an improved implantable cardioverter defibrillator and a pacemaker . in addition the company took an 18 percent share in a developer of computerized axial tomographic cat scanners . because this line of products never made money emerson disposed of its holdings in them between 1987 88 . emerson radio dropped its last u.s. made product the phonograph line in 1980 because it became unprofitable due to rising labor costs . despite harsh competition emerson radio raised its sales and earnings in fiscal 1980 to 81.9 million and 1.6 million respectively . their plan was to have their suppliers mainly in taiwan and south korea imitate sony and panasonic audio video products and then sell them at a lower price . 1981 1990 edit sales increased from 94.8 million in fiscal 1983 to 181.6 million in fiscal 1984 when net income came to 9.1 million 9 because of the company s reintroduction of television sets in 1983 . emerson purchased sets from goldstar electric co. aka lg electronics a south korean company but sold them at a higher price point . in 1984 emerson signed a 10 year contract with orion electric to produce a line of vcrs to its existing product lineup . 10 in 1985 a compact disc player and microwave oven were introduced causing sales to once again double in fiscal 1985 to 357.5 million and net income rose to 13.3 million . tv sets and vcr s accounted for two thirds of sales that year . 11 later that year emerson radio moved its headquarters to north bergen new jersey and acquired h. h. scott inc. a company that manufactured high fidelity audio and visual equipment . products were sold under the scott name until 1991 the year the line was discontinued . in 1986 emerson began importing and marketing compact refrigerators and hi fi stereo vhs vcrs . camcorders telephones and answering machines were added to its product line in fiscal 1988 . in 1990 personal computers and facsimile machines were added for a major roll out to more than 500 wal mart stores . 12 in 1992 sales reached a peak of 891.4 million but net income was only 10.4 million . emerson s addition of personal computers resulted in a 150 million loss for the company . that coupled with the recession that began in 1990 brought the company s total loss to 37.5 million in the last nine months of the year . shares of stock fell as low as 2 compared to the high of 12.75 in 1987 . several shareholder lawsuits charged some emerson directors and officials with breach of fiduciary duty and self dealing . emerson also fell into technical default on its long term debt of 55.4 million at the end of the year . in 1988 emerson radio was sold to panasonic . 1991 2000 edit the emerson radio logo that was used prior to 2006 . the current logo now uses a futuristic version with a slanted g clef logo and emerson in an electified neon type font as seen on the website . fidenas investment ltd. a swiss firm based in the bahamas began purchasing shares of emerson radio stock in 1989 . it held a 20 percent stake more than that held by stephen and william lane by 1992 when they began a takeover attempt . the lane brothers were seeking to restructure 180 million in debt but conceded defeat in june 1992 . 13 emerson s financial situation worsened and in fiscal 1993 the company incurred a loss of 56 million on sales of 741.4 million . when the company filed for bankruptcy in october 1993 emerson had been in default on 223 million in debt for the previous two years . 14 in 1994 the company emerged from bankruptcy pursuant to a plan of reorganization and with 75 million in financing arranged by fidenas which had assumed a 90 percent stake in emerson . 15 it then issued 30 million shares some of which were claimed by creditors . legal battles ensued and continued until mid august 2001 . 16 in early 1995 in an effort to cut costs emerson radio licensed the manufacture of certain video products under the emerson and g clef trademarks for a three year period to otake trading co. ltd. the company also licensed the sale of these products in the united states and canada for the same period to wal mart stores inc. as a result emerson s net sales fell from 654.7 million in fiscal 1995 to 245.7 million in fiscal 1996 with the licensing agreement only providing about 4 million a year in royalty income . also in 1995 emerson radio entered the home theater and car audio fields and the 900 million a year home and personal security market with a carbon monoxide detector . the company planned to eventually lend its name to burglar alarms motion detectors personal alarms smoke detectors and safety lights ; however the company left this field in fiscal 1997 . additionally emerson announced it would license the emerson name to more than 250 audio and video accessories made by jasco products co. an oklahoma firm selling cables remote controls and appliance cleaning devices . 17 18 the company took a 27 percent stake in sport supply group inc. the largest direct mail distributor of sporting goods equipment and supplies to the u.s. institutional market for 11.5 million in late 1996 . subsequent to a