Audiovox buys out Thomson's accessory biz, including RCA brand
It hasn't been all glimmer and glam for RCA of late, with the ancient consumer electronics brand lagging behind innovators in the field, being mostly relegated to cheap also-rans. But there's hope for that once-great purveyor of radios: Audiovox just snapped up the rights to RCA-branded accessories from Thomson to the tune of $50 million, which hopefully means a mild cred boost for the brand. We really couldn't have said it better than Patrick Lavelle, President and CEO of Audiovox: "We believe the acquisition of this business will enhance both our top and bottom line performance and create powerful marketing synergies for our organization." Gotta love those powerful marketing synergies. The acquisition includes 115 employees in North America and Asia, and Thomson also threw in Recoton, Spikemaster, Ambico and Discwasher brands for use on any products and the Jensen, Advent, Acoustic Research and Road Gear brands for accessory products. Audiovox expects the acquisition to pay off in over $150 million of sales in 2007.
