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landmarks
This chronology is indicative only. It covers -
Context is provided by the broader communications and
media timeline on this site.
The Vivendi profile provides
a more detailed chronology regarding the Universal interests
(including predecessors such as MCA). There is a more
detailed chronology for RKO and
General Teleradio in the notes for those groups.
beginnings
1876 Thomas Edison opens laboratory at Menlo Park
1879 Elihu Thomson and E. J. Houston form Thomson-Houston
1880 Edison gains patent for carbon filament incandescent
lamp
1882
BF Keith founds Keith (later Keith-Albee-Orpheum) vaudeville
chain
1883 Thomson-Houston founded
1883 Emil Rathenau licences Edison's electrical patents,
founds Allgemeine Elektrizitäts Gesellschaft (AEG)
1885 American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T)
founded
1890 Edison established incandescent lamp factory
1890 Edison forms Edison General Electric Company
1890 Tokyo Incandescent Lamp & Bulb Manufacturing
founded
1892 General Electric (GE) formed
through merger of Edison General Electric & Thomson-Houston
Electric
1893 Shibaura Engineering Works (Shibaura Seisakusho)
founded
1893 Compagnie Francaise Thomson-Houston formed in Paris
1899 United Fruit Company founded, with est 75% of US
banana market
1899 Western Electric establishes Nippon Electric
1899 Tokyo Incandescent Lamp becomes Tokyo Electric Corp
1900 GE establishes laboratory at Schenectady
1901 Victor Talking Machine Co formed through merger of
Berliner Gramophone Co and Johnson's Consolidated Talking
Machine Co
1903
GE absorbs Stanley Electric Co
1904 Shibaura goes public
1905 GE forms Electric Bond & Share to finance power
utility development, later becomes major electricity and
gas utility holding company
1905 gains 51% of Tokyo Electric
1909 Shibaura forms alliance with GE
1911 divests general engineering operations to Tokyo Ishikawajima
Shipbuilding
1915 Cushman & Wakefield founded
1915 General Tire & Rubber Company founded by William
O'Neill
1917 US Navy buys American Marconi's US shore and ship
radio network
1918 Albert Hull invents magnetron
RCA established
1919 Radio Corporation of America (RCA)
incorporated to control US patents of General Electric,
AT&T, Westinghouse, United
Fruit
1919 RCA acquires British Marconi's controlling interest
in American Marconi
1919 GE offshore operations bundled under International
General Electric Company
1919 David Sarnoff becomes General Manager of RCA
1922 AT&T establishes radio station in New York (later
WEAF) and forms Broadcasting Corporation of America
1924
GE distributes EBASCO stock to its shareholders
1925
speculator Joseph Kennedy forms Film Booking Office (FBO)
1926 AT&T sells Broadcasting Corporation of America
(inc radio stations WEAF and WCAP) to RCA
1927
RCA buys stake in FBO, Kennedy takes stake in Keith-Albee-Orpheum
(KAO) cinema chain
1926 NBC established by RCA (50%), GE (30%), Westinghouse
(20%)
1926 NBC radio network launched
1927 Radio Act
1928 RCA divides affiliates into NBC-Red and NBC-Blue
networks
1928 first regular schedule of US television programming
begun by RCA in Schenectady (broadcasts Tuesday, Thursday,
and Friday from 1:30 to 3:30 pm)
1929 RCA buys Victor Talking Machine for US$154m
1929 Owen Young heads committee responsible for Young
Plan
1929 GE buys 16.66% of Osram for US$8.8m
1929 increases stake in AEG
to 25%
1929
RCA merges film interests with FBO and KAO to form Radio
Keith Orpheum (RKO) production,
distribution and exhibition group
1930 GE Plastics department created
1930
RKO absorbs Pathe Exchange
1930 Justice Dept launches antitrust action against 'radio
trust'
1931 NBC puts TV transmitter atop Empire State Building
1931 buys WMAQ Chicago
1932 GE Credit Corporation created to help finance
consumer purchases
1932 RCA demonstrates all-electronic television system
1932 NBC buys KNBC San Francisco
GE sells RCA
1932 General Electric and Westinghouse
sell RCA
1932 NBC and CBS allow prices to be mentioned in radio
commercials
1934 Federal Communications Commission replaces Federal
Radio Commission
1935 RCA abandons support for Armstrong's FM development
1935 Public Utility Holding Co Act
1938 first telecast of unscheduled fire, on NBC's W2XBT
1938 Supreme Court affirms Holding Co Act in Electric
Bond & Share v SEC, GE subsequently sells down utilities
holdings
1939 Tokyo Electric and Shibaura merge as Tokyo Shibaura
Electric (later Toshiba)
1941 Federal Communications Commission Report on Chain
Broadcasting recommends that RCA dispose of one of
its networks
1941 US shares in Tokyo Shibaura confiscated by Japanese
government
1941 NBC buys radio KYW Cleveland
1942 General Tire & Rubber buys
radio WEZE Boston
1942 buys radio WEAN Providence
1943 RCA sells 'Blue' network (later ABC)
to Edward Noble for US$8m
1943 Electric Bond & Share sells Idaho Power Co
1948
controlling stake in RKO sold to Howard Hughes
1949 General Tire & Rubber buys WOR New York
1950 NBC launches Today show and The Adventures
of Superman (faster than a speeding bullet, able to
leap tall buildings etc)
1950 General Tire & Rubber buys radio KHJ Los Angeles
1953 General Tire & Rubber sells radio WEZE Boston
to Vic Diehm Associates
1954 sells buys radio WEAN Providence to Providence
Journal Co.
1955 NBC sells KYW Cleveland to Westinghouse
1955 NBC president David Sarnoff says "Television will
never be a medium of entertainment"
1955
Hughes splits RKO into RKO Pictures
(sold to General Tire & Rubber's General Teleradio
for US$25m) and RKO Theatres
1957 NBC buys WJAS Pittsburgh
1957 Henry Griffing's VuMore cable tv trial in Bartlesville,
Oklahoma
1960 conglomerate H&B American Corp buys Jerrold cable
tv systems for US$5m
1961 General Tire & Rubber buys VuMore cable tv group
RCA as a conglomerate
1965 RCA buys Random House
1967 RCA buys Hertz Rent-a-Car
1969 buys Cushman & Wakefield
1970 buys FM Stamper, renamed Banquet Foods
1973 buys Ballantine Books
1976 sells Cushman & Wakefield to Rockefeller Group
1976 GE buys Utah International mining and civil engineering
group for US$2.7bn
1980 RCA sells Random House to Advance
1980 sells Banquet Foods to ConAgra
1980 RCA buys CIT financial group
1982 RCA sells Gibson Greeting Cards to Wesray for US$80m
1982 Thomson nationalised by French government
1983 Wesray sells Gibson for US$290m
1983 GE sells Utah International to Australia's BHP for
US$2.4bn
1984 RCA sells CIT to Manufacturers Hanover Bank for US$1.5bn
1985 Disney makes unsuccessful
bid for NBC
GE buys NBC
1985 GE buys RCA for US$6.3bn, primarily to acquire NBC
1985 GE sells Hertz to UAL for US$587m
1985 launches GEnie online information services
1986 RCA-Victor (RCA's music arm) sold to Bertelsmann
1986 GE buys Kidder Peabody for US$600m
1986 sells KYUU FM (now KXXX) in San Francisco, WKQX FM
in Chicago, WJIB FM in Boston and two other radio stations
to Emmis
1987 Thomson buys RCA consumer electronics operations
1987 RKO General spun off by GenCorp, renamed RKO Pictures
1988 NBC radio stations sold to Infinity,
Westwood and Group W
1988 GE buys Borg-Warner Chemicals
1994 GE sells Kidder Peabody to Paine Webber for US$670m
(inc 25% stake)
1996 Thomson privatised as Thomson-CSF (later Thales)
and Thomson Multimedia
1996 GE buys Agrobanka, major Czech bank
1996 sells GEnie online service to IDT
1997 NBC forms CNBC business television alliance with
Dow Jones
1998 GE sells 3% of Paine Webber for US$400m
1999 NBC takes 32% of Paxson
for US$415m
2000 Thomson Multimedia buys Technicolor from Carlton
2000 GE sells remaining Paine Webber stake to UBS for
US$1.5bn
2001 Tyco buys CIT for US$9.5bn
2001 GE buys European Bank for Reconstruction & Development
stake in Budapest Bank
2001 buys Security Capital for US$4bn
2001 buys Heller Financial (commercial and real estate
finance, equipment leasing) for US$5.3bn
2001 buys Franchise Finance Corporation of America for
US$2.1bn
2001 sells GE American Communications (GE Americom) to
Société Européene des Satellites
(SES)( for US$5bn
2001 European Commission forbids GE US$42bn takeover of
Honeywell
2002 NBC buys Telemundo for US$2.7bn from Sony
and Liberty Media
2002 NBC buys Cablevision-controlled
Bravo cable tv channel for US$1.25bn
NBC Universal
2003 Vivendi combines US film
studios, theme parks and cable tv channels with NBC
2003 GE sells Japanese life insurance operation and US
auto and home insurance operations to AIG for US$2.6bn
2003 buys Transamerica Finance from Aegon for US$4.8bn
2003 sells Financial Guaranty Insurance (bond insurance
operations) to PMI for US$1.9bn
2003 GE buys Instrumentarium
2003 GE buys Amersham for US$9.5bn
2003 GE buys equipment leasing arm of Ikon Office Solutions
for US$1.5bn
2004 spins off mortgage and life insurance operations
to Genworth
2004 sells 60% of back-office unit in India to General
Atlantic Partners and Oak Hill Capital Partners for US$500m
2004 buys water treatment company Ionics for US$1.3bn
2004 buys Citigroup transportation leasing unit for US$4.4bn
2005 NBC Universal pays US$3.4bn for IAC/InteractiveCorp's
5.4% stake in Vivendi Universal Entertainment
2005 NBC Universal announces deal to acquire majority
control of MSNBC from Microsoft
2006 NBC Universal agrees to buy iVillage for around US$600m
2006 agrees to sell four NBC television stations (WNCN
Raleigh, Columbus, Birmingham and Providence) to MediaGeneral
for US$600m
2007 announce acquisition of Oxygen cable television channel
for US$925m
2008 CBS, Robert Redford and NBC
Universal sell Sundance Channel to Cablevision
for US$496m
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