tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post6682922491842798163..comments2024-03-28T13:45:42.289+00:00Comments on The IPKat: After the split: so is it HP, Hewlett Packard, Hewlett Packard Enterprise or what?Verónica Rodríguez Arguijohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05763207846940036921noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-25839682140569247742016-08-23T16:12:03.531+01:002016-08-23T16:12:03.531+01:00GE and GEC used to be joint (50-50) owners of Gene...GE and GEC used to be joint (50-50) owners of General Domestic Appliances, who uses to manufacture (in the UK) domestic white goods under brands such as Hotpoint and Creda. GEC sold their half to GE when their senior management got mesmerized by dot.com madness, but GE sold the brands on, and manufacturing has now moved to mainland Europe. Ronnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-69333206876700696672016-08-23T11:19:43.327+01:002016-08-23T11:19:43.327+01:00Anonymous @ 9:17 BST, Thanks for the correction.Anonymous @ 9:17 BST, Thanks for the correction.Neil Wilkofhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04200865773480720037noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-19293954323352267402016-08-23T09:17:29.145+01:002016-08-23T09:17:29.145+01:00Arthur AndersEn not AndersOnArthur AndersEn not AndersOnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-78419875737092099502016-08-22T22:32:07.775+01:002016-08-22T22:32:07.775+01:00Once there was a UK "General Electric Company...<i> Once there was a UK "General Electric Company" and US "General Electric" which were completely unrelated.</i><br /><br />There was an AEG (Allgemeine Elektrizität Gesellschaft) and a CGE (Compagnie d'Électricité) as well. Both mean exactly GE in German and French respectively.<br /><br />AEG was however an Edison creation, so it's somehow connected to GE (US).<br /><br />GEC finally disappeared about 10 years ago. The Marconi trademark belongs to Ericsson, an arch-rival in a few fields. :-(Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-34504380342616606502016-08-22T20:32:36.381+01:002016-08-22T20:32:36.381+01:00Of course it can also work the other way. Once the...Of course it can also work the other way. Once there was a UK "General Electric Company" and US "General Electric" which were completely unrelated. In a blaze of publicity the UK version changed its name to Marconi and became a telecoms company at the height of the dotcom bubble. It publically relinquished the General Electric name to GE and promptly imploded, finally ending up as a tiny company laying cables. <br /><br />I don't know what happened to GE, are they still around?A Nonni Mousenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-56132171952721403392016-08-22T13:13:25.028+01:002016-08-22T13:13:25.028+01:00Neil, I think you're missing a part of the sto...Neil, I think you're missing a part of the story. In my opinion, the goodwill of both these "HP" entities is usurped.<br /><br />Back in 1939, William Hewlett developed in his Palo Alto garage what was to become the first product of the real Hewlett-Packard, the 200A audio oscillator. One of their inaugural customers was Disney's sound department.<br /><br />In the next 5 decades the company was mostly a household name to geeky types with their slide rules and pocket protectors. HP had a sterling reputation for first rate engineering, and top of the line specifications, although the initials were also taken to mean "High Price" (I would sometimes muse about the number of town houses one could buy with the HP gizmos stacked on my lab bench). Reading the HP Technical Journal was a lesson in how to design stuff, and the HP catalogue was way more exciting than anything that Sears-Roebuck could ever put out. (I'm exaggerating slightly, but you get the idea).<br /><br />In the 1990s HP became (much) more consumer oriented, with printers, scanners, as well as Wintel-desktops and laptops. A lot of it was generic ho-hum stuff. After a number of very unhappy purchases I came to avoid the HP brand for these products.<br /><br />The nerdy stuff (test and measurement equipment; medical apparatus) was eventually spun-off in 1999 to a separate company called "Agilent". More recently, Agilent itself was split. It kept the medical products, but the T&M equipment (which originally made HP's fortune and reputation) was spun-off to yet another entity called "Keysight".<br /><br />So what is the brand "HP" or "Hewlett Packard" supposed to mean today?<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-41124260330557557312016-08-21T21:35:04.638+01:002016-08-21T21:35:04.638+01:00But rather ironically, no longer has a description...But rather ironically, no longer has a description of its quality in French on one side of the label, for which it was well known from at least the late 1950's. It even got an anonymous mention (the old BBC had strict rules on the use of trade names for fear of being accused of advertising) in one of the "Hancock" radio shows, where Bill Kerr speaks a few words of French and admits to Hancock that he got it from the side of a sauce bottle.Ronnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-30443111129823814132016-08-21T14:36:30.204+01:002016-08-21T14:36:30.204+01:00With "was" being the correct tense, now ...With "was" being the correct tense, now made by Heinz in the Netherlands.Kantnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-78183190647145857242016-08-19T14:11:50.803+01:002016-08-19T14:11:50.803+01:00I thought HP was a sauce company!I thought HP was a sauce company!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5574479.post-38730737908788022222016-08-19T14:09:46.697+01:002016-08-19T14:09:46.697+01:00Both Volvo and Saab did the same thing.Both Volvo and Saab did the same thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com