packard . packard bell b.v. type subsidiary of acer industry computer hardware fate acquired by acer inc. in 2008 founded 1986 ; 30 years ago 1986 founder beny alagem headquarters nijmegen netherlands area served europe africa products desktops laptops netbooks monitors tablets parent acer inc. since 2008 website packardbell.com packard bell is a dutch based computer manufacturing subsidiary of acer . the brand name originally belonged to an american radio manufacturer packard bell founded by herbert herb a. bell and leon s. packard in 1933 . some websites use 1926 as the founding date when herbert bell was an executive with jackson bell company los angeles california . 1 2 in 1986 israeli investors bought the name for a newly formed personal computer manufacturing company producing discount computers in the united states and canada . in 2000 packard bell then a subsidiary of nec stopped its north american operations while remaining a leading brand in the european markets . in 2008 it was acquired by the taiwanese consumer electronic firm acer in the aftermath of its takeover of gateway computers . gateway products are now sold in the americas and asia while packard bell products are sold in africa europe and the middle east . contents 1 history 1.1 founding packard bell company 1.2 teledyne packard bell years 1.3 computers the new packard bell 1.4 packard bell europe 2 sponsorship 3 possible return to the united states 4 references 5 external links history edit herbert bell zwiebel co founder of packard bell co 1933 1971 a regional manufacturer of radio and televisions based in los angeles ca founding packard bell company edit see also packard bell 1926 original company logo the original packard bell name began in september 1933 . herbert bell birth name herbert anthony zwiebel former business partner of jackson bell radio company in los angeles formed packard bell . jackson bell went into receivership that year due to financial problems . jackson bell was one of the few rca licensed radio manufacturers on the west coast of the united states . bell partnered with leon s. packard . in 1934 they marketed their first radio the model 35a carryover from jackson bell . in 1935 leon packard sold his partnership to herb bell being skeptical of its future . herb bell managed to obtain the rca license for manufacturing superheterodyne radios . based in los angeles packard bell along with hoffman radio became well known regional makers of consumer electronics . packard bell ventured into television quickly due to the rca royalty free patents . 3 1938 model 46h packard bell radio illustrating stationized dials of u.s. and canadian stations west of the rocky mountains . packard bell radios had a distinguishable styling the tuning dial showed the call signs of american and canadian radio stations west of the rocky mountains . the idea came from bell s mother who had trouble reading the tuning dial . packard bell was a family business herbert bell s brothers arthur albert elmer and willard participated in major departments from design manufacturing and marketing . citation needed packard bell did quite well and like hoffman electronics became a recognized name in regional consumer electronics citation needed . after world war ii and through the 1960s packard bell was a very profitable company . packard bell went public in 1955 . the firm expanded into defense electronics during world war ii and continued into the 1970s . herb bell died in the early 1970s citation needed . teledyne packard bell years edit in 1968 packard bell was sold to teledyne . teledyne was interested in reaching further into the consumer electronics business . the sales was converted into stock at an exchange of 1 share of teledyne common stock equals seven and one half shares of packard bell common stock . the packard bell name remained but with teledyne ahead of it hence teledyne packard bell . 4 computers the new packard bell edit the packard bell logo in the 90s . in 1986 beny alagem and a group of israeli investors bought the packard bell name from teledyne 5 and resurrected it as a manufacturer of low cost personal computers . their computers were among the first ibm pc compatibles sold in retail chains such as sears . 6 according to fortune magazine packard bell sometimes benefited from misplaced name recognition with consumers especially first time computer buyers and even some salespeople erroneously associating the company with others of similar name such as hewlett packard pacific bell and bell laboratories . packard bell s old slogan america grew up listening to us . it still does may have facilitated the confusion . 7 the company also sold nearly identical systems under different names making comparison difficult . a packard bell multimedia d160 manufactured in the mid 1990s aside from price and brand misnomers packard bell s success in number of units sold may have come from two areas of innovation 1 branding and industrial design provided by the san francisco offices of frog design ; and 2 its boot up shell packard bell navigator created by the pixel company in seattle . they targeted a huge section of consumers who were inexperienced using computers . frog design gave the look of quality and utilized innovations such as color coding cable connectors first seen on the ibm ps 2 while navigator provided the ability for users to launch installed programs by clicking on screen buttons and then later a house metaphor . 8 during this phase returns dropped from 19 % to 10 % and sales grew exponentially . citation needed in late 1995 to early 1996 microsoft forced boot up shells off oem computers by updating its microsoft windows distribution agreement opk 2 and packard bell without a clear on shelf differentiator saw sales begin to tumble . citation needed in 1995 compaq sued packard bell for not disclosing that packard bell computers incorporated used parts . this practice was in fact widespread in the computer industry including compaq itself . however unlike its rival companies packard bell was judged not to have advertised the practice sufficiently in its warranties compaq for instance disclosed it in the warranty statement . 9 the company was the subject of several lawsuits and paid millions of dollars in settlements . in 2005 pc world magazine ranked the packard bell computers of 1986 1996 as the worst pcs manufactured of all time . 10 11 in addition one out of six packard bell pcs sold at retail was returned a rate double the industry average . 10 in 1995 packard bell acquired zenith data systems from groupe bull in a deal which saw groupe bull and nec taking a larger stake in packard bell 12 to create a 4.5 billion company . the company then became integrated with nec computers . its 15 % market share made it the largest pc manufacturer in terms of units shipped in the united states . citation needed however compaq overtook it in retail sales in mid 1996 and cemented its lead the next year with the release of a 999 pc in march 1997 . citation needed packard bell posted losses totaling more than 1 billion in 1997 and 1998 . in the u.s. price pressure from compaq and later emachines along with continued poor showings in consumer satisfaction surveys made it difficult for the company to remain profitable and led to alagem s departure in 1998 . citation needed in 1999 nec began withdrawing the packard bell name from the u.s. market while keeping it in europe where the brand was untainted by allegations of sub standard quality . 13 packard bell europe edit packard bell s logo 2003 2009 . in 2000 nec withdrew packard bell from the u.s. market selling their utah based call centers all its us inventory and all us product liability to alorica inc who was responsible for providing support to all remaining us customers . packard bell also entered other businesses such as mp3 players . in 2004 the company changed its logo and began manufacturing media products for television and wireless networking . packard bell also sells accessories and has started operating in other continents . in september 2006 packard bell was bought by john hui the former owner of emachines . now known as packard bell europe b.v. the company relocated to nijmegen in the netherlands . in august 2007 the chinese pc manufacturer lenovo confirmed its interest in acquiring packard bell in a move to expand its products into europe by placing an offer for packard bell . 14 in january 2008 acer announced that it had acquired a 75 % controlling share in the parent company of packard bell due to ownership rights that it had acquired when it purchased gateway the year before enabling acer to counter offer any third party bid on packard bell leading to a takeover . 15 packard bell is now under the same corporate division of and shares products with acer s subsidiary gateway inc. a notable former competitor . sponsorship edit from 1996 until 2000 when strongbow took over the contract packard bell sponsored english football club leeds united . from 2009 to 2010 the name packard bell has been seen on the fiat yamaha motogp racebike of world champion valentino rossi of italy . 16 packard bell also dropped their sponsorship from the professional electronic sports team 4kings . possible return to the united states edit a press release distributed by prweb on august 2nd 2015 17 stated that the packard bell name had been purchased by jmm lee properties for use in the united states and that products would go on sale that month . according to numerous trademark websites packard bell is a registered trademark for use in the united states only by jmm lee properties . according to the press release on prweb the new packard bell brand in the united states was to be unaffiliated with the brand run by acer in europe . the trademark was officially registered on september 8th 2015 . a year later the brand still has no north american web presence and no packard bell branded products are sold in the us market . references edit source computerhope source computer history museum 1 in los angeles paul floyd a. 1994 . los angeles radio manufacturing the first twenty years 1922 1942 . glendale ca floyd a. paul . pp. 41 46 . magazine billboard . teledyne buys packard bell . january 20 1968 . billboard . retrieved 2013 03 04 . betanews nec sells packard bell to calif. investor packard bell sells more pc s in the u.s. than anyone so just who are these guys fortune june 12 1995 sprout alison l. with coxeter ruth m. packard bell sells more pcs in the u.s. than anyone . so just who are these guys fortune magazine june 12 1995 http money.cnn.com magazines fortune fortune archive 1995 06 12 203837 index.htm linebach nath packard bell suing compaq . chicago tribune . 11 october 1995 . retrieved 23 december 2015 . a b tynan dan . 10 worst pcs of all time pc world march 19 2007 2 berley max 8 february 1996 . groupe bull quits pcs in 3 way deal . international herald tribune . archived from the original on 25 october 2005 . retrieved 10 march 2014 . nec disables packard bell nec zdnet november 3 1999 lenovo close to acquiring packard bell acer buys 75 percent of packard bell washington post packard bell sponsor of yamaha factory racing team changeover of sponsorship from acer . acer group . 2 february 2009 . retrieved 23 december 2015 . http www.prweb.com releases 2015 08 prweb12881950.htm external links edit official site support information on old packard bell motherboards v t e acer inc. brands acer gateway packard bell products personal computers consumer aspire 8920 aspire desktop aspire notebook aspire one