CJR's guide to what the major media companies own.
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- General Electric
- 3135 Easton Turnpike
Fairfield, CT 06825
10019-3737
Voice (203) 373-2211
- www.ge.com
- GE owns a 49% interest in NBCUniversal. Comcast has a majority 51% interest.
- 1878
- Thomas Edison forms Edison Electric Light Company
- 1892
- Edison General Electric Company merges with Thomson-Houston Electric Company to create General Electric Company
- 1897
- Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company formed by Guglielmo Marconi
- 1901
- Emile Berliner and Eldridge Johnson form the Victor Talking Machine Company
- 1906
- David Sarnoff begins working at American Marconi
- 1917
- U.S. Government begins using GE produced aircraft engines
- 1919
- Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is created. RCA is formed after the U.S. Government gives control of the wireless industry back to the public sector following World War I. RCA gains the assets of American Marconi and becomes the controlling body of the patents belonging to General Electric, Westinghouse, United Fruit and AT&T
- 1926
- National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) formed. Sarnoff sees the potential of a nationwide network of radio stations and gets RCA, GE and Westinghouse to invest in the acquisition of WEAF in New York City and WJZ in Newark
- NBC's "Red" and "Blue" networks respectively -as the flagship stations for the new NBC Radio network
- 1927
- NBC Radio broadcasts the Rose Bowl to nationwide audience
- 1929
- RCA purchases Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, NJ for $154 million and begins manufacturing radios and phonographs
- 1932
- Due to concerns of a growing monopoly, GE and Westinghouse sell off stake in RCA
- 1939
- NBC introduces television broadcasting at the World's Fair in New York City
- 1941
- Federal Communications Commission releases its Report on Chain Broadcasting. The report is critical of the growth of broadcast networks and proposes that NBC sell off one of its two networks
- NBC Red & NBC Blue
- 1941
- NBC receives first license for a commercial television station
- 1943
- After losing court battles with the FCC over the demand to divest one off its networks, RCA sells of NBC Blue Network to Edward Noble, lifesavers candy creator. Network eventually becomes ABC
- 1954
- NBC has first color telecast of Rose Bowl parade. Very few people actually see the telecast because there are not that many color sets in use
- 1966
- RCA purchases Random House
- 1973
- RCA purchases Ballantine Books
- becomes part of Random House
- 1980
- RCA sells of Random House to S. I. Newhouse's Advance Publications
- 1985
- GE acquires NBC as part of a $6.3 billion for RCA
- 1986
- - GE sells RCA's music division to Bertelsmann
- 1989
- CNBC is formed
- 1996
- MSNBC is launched. Cable news network is a joint partnership between GE and Microsoft
- 1997
- CNBC Asia and Europe are formed.
- 1999
- GE gains 32% stake in Paxson Communications and its PAX TV network
- 2002
- Telemundo Communications Group is acquired for $2.7 billion in a deal with an investment group that includes Sony and Liberty Media. In a separate deal, Bravo Network is acquired from a deal with Cablevision and MGM for $1.25 billion
- 2003
- Deal announced between GE and Vivendi Universal to create NBC Universal. In the deal, GE acquires Vivendi Universal's entertainment holdings which include theme parks and Universal Pictures' movie and television studios, and three cable channels (NYT 10/9/03)
- 2011
- Comcast takes control of NBCUniversal with a 51% interest. GE retains a 49% share.
