What goes around, comes around

[Taro Toporific]

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Texas Pacific, Permira May Bid for Victor of Japan, Asahi Says
Bloomberg.com: Japan, Feb. 3 --Texas Pacific Group, European investment fund Permira and CCMP Capital Asia are among potential bidders for Victor Co. of Japan Ltd., which makes JVC brand electronics, the Asahi newspaper reported...more...



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Here's just some of the insanely confusing history of the "Victor"and Nipper brands.

• Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901 started selling the "Victrola"
• In 1929, RCA, Radio Corporation of America, purchased Victor Talking Machine Company and became RCA-Victor using "Nipper, "His Master's Voice (HMV)" branding
• In World War II, RCA Victor's Japanese subsidiary The Victor Company of Japan (JVC) became independent, and today they still use the "Victor" brand and Nipper in Japan only
• In 1953, the a majority stake of JVC has been owned by Matsushita
• RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony BMG Music Entertainment
• In 1968, RCA modernized its image with a new logo, replacing the old lightning bolt logo, and the virtual retirement of both the "Victor" and Nipper trademarks. RCA Records reinstated Nipper to most of its record labels beginning in 1976 in countries where RCA had the rights to the Nipper trademark
• In 1986, General Electric acquired RCA and spun off RCA Records to BMG Music who revived the "RCA Victor" brand
• In 2003 Thomson SA bought the RCA trademarks, including Nipper in the Americas, from GE
• In August 2004 BMG Entertainment joined with Sony Music Entertainment to become Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Inc. and now own the reconding labels RCA Victor Records and RCA Records.

[Doctor Stop]

[Mulboyne]

I was talking about this only a couple of weeks ago with a Japanese friend. For most British, the logo is associated with EMI and the HMV record shops, not RCA and Victor.

It turns out that the UK rights were bought separately to the US rights. Victor did end up acquiring the UK operation (then called "The Gramophone Company"). RCA bought the whole shebang and started up EMI in Britain. The then sold both EMI and Victor Japan in separate transactions. EMI later sold HMV records so they are also separate companies now.

Neither EMI (who recently bought out Toshiba's stake in Toshiba-EMI) nor HMV records can use the Nipper logo in Japan because Victor owns the rights in that territory. HMV no longer operates in the US but EMI does and cannot use the logo there either.

HMV in Britain:


HMV in Japan - no Nipper:


You can see the Victor Japan Nipper in Dimwit's recent contribution to Randon Gaijin: