Packard Bell

Packard Bell is an American computer manufacturer, founded as Packard Bell Electronics Inc. in Los Angeles in 1986 by Israeli-American investors who bought the trademark rights to the historic Packard Bell Corporation from Teledyne; in spite of similarities in their names, Packard Bell has no connection to either Hewlett-Packard or Bell System. Packard Bell helped to pioneer the mass market for PCs in the United States by selling in big office stores. In the early 1990s, the company entered the European market and opened its regional headquarters in Wijchen, Netherlands, in 1993. By this time, it had become the second largest OEM for IBM PC compatibles in the U.S. In 1996 Packard Bell was acquired by the Japanese electronics conglomerate NEC, and changed its name into Packard Bell NEC Inc. In 1999 changed its name again into NEC Computers Inc. At the time of the merger, Packard Bell was the largest PC manufacturer in the American market having overtaken Compaq, but increasing competition and losses led to NEC stopping its North American operations by 2000, focusing squarely on European and other markets under its profitable Packard Bell Europe in the Netherlands, which later diversified to products such as portable media players. This unit became responsible for all Packard Bell and NEC operations outside of Japan and China. In 2006, NEC divested the Packard Bell division, renamed PB Holding Co., to Chinese-American entrepreneur Lap Shun Hui, and in 2008 was acquired by Taiwanese firm Acer, in the aftermath of their takeover of Gateway. Packard Bell Europe under Acer, based in Nijmegen, continued making Packard Bell products for the European, African and Middle Eastern markets until at least 2013. Southern Telecom later acquired the rights to the brand in North America and started selling PCs there in 2018. Universal Exports Group, a...