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The 5th largest brand name in the UK, Packard Bell could be up for grabs to the highest bidder

Once a strong player in the computer industry, Packard Bell has since been overshadowed by many, including Dell, IBM and others, at least in North Amercia. In the UK however, Packard Bell is the region's 5th largest brand in computers and is actually doing very well -- selling 54% more in 3rd quarter 2005 than it did in the same quarter a year earlier. Parent company NEC however, has been transforming its NEC/Packard Bell business into a PB only firm.

NEC's Livingston factory, which once produced both PB and NEC computers is now just producing PB machines. Meanwhile, executive management has been changing as well, with new appointments in marketing, business development and sales. NEC has also renamed its Scotland based facility from NEC Computers Scotland to Packard Bell Scotland. Reports are popping up on the web talking about NEC selling Packard Bell, but there has been no word yet on whether or not this sale will actually go through. With excellent sales growth and a very influential brand name, the sale of NEC's Packard Bell division could bring in quite a sum of money.

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Havent heard the name in a while
By bbomb on 1/23/2006 4:40:32 PM , Rating: 2
LOL Packard Bell PC's where pieces of crap and thats why they stopped making them here. US companies would pay what 1 or 300 grand for the company? LOL





RE: Havent heard the name in a while
By deeznuts on 1/23/2006 4:43:48 PM , Rating: 2
My very first computer ... Packard Bell 486-66. Oh man, I was on that damn thing for hours trying out this new AOL internet thing, but couldn't find the world wide web no matter what i tried. Whew, good 'ol 1994-1995.


By knowyourenemy on 1/23/2006 4:53:42 PM , Rating: 3
I was only 8 during those days. I was busy playing Paperboy and Rescue Rangers on my old 386.


RE: Havent heard the name in a while
By dextrous on 1/23/2006 7:12:33 PM , Rating: 2
I have a PB 233MHz P1 and it was a POS. However, that was before NEC bought them out. Apparently NEC has really brought up the quality of PB machines a lot or the PB name would have died long long ago.


RE: Havent heard the name in a while
By Samus on 1/24/2006 6:03:56 AM , Rating: 2
However, that was before NEC bought them out.

Packard Hell has always been a division of NEC. You really think they were their own company? They didn't even enter the US Market until 1988. They'd been in Asia since 1982 to compete with KDS, Toshiba, RadioShack, Commidore...and Apple.


RE: Havent heard the name in a while
By MrEMan on 1/24/2006 8:59:06 AM , Rating: 2
I disagree with your claim that Packard Bell was always a division of NEC.

From http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=Pa...

"Definition of: Packard Bell NEC

(Packard Bell, The Netherlands, www.packardbell.co.uk) A major PC manufacturer that is the consumer brand of NEC Computers International and the home computing market leader in the U.K. and much of Western Europe.

Packard Bell's history dates back to 1926 when it was founded as a consumer radio manufacturer and later entered the defense electronics industry. It was acquired by Teledyne in 1968. In 1986, Beny Alagem and a group of partners acquired the Packard Bell name from Teledyne and formed Packard Bell Electronics. This company pioneered sales into the mass-market retail chains in the late 1980s and was the first to offer toll-free support to end users. In 1995, Packard Bell acquired Zenith Data Systems and, in 1996, merged with NEC's personal computer operations to become Packard Bell NEC. NEC reorganized its PC business worldwide in 2000, with Packard Bell closing its U.S. offices and focusing exclusively on Europe's consumer market. See NEC. "


I remember the good old days
By rumptis on 1/23/2006 4:35:56 PM , Rating: 2
The very first computer I ever bought was a PB P166...that I hated...but it work and...I didn't realize they where still going. Thats really too bad.




oh I remember those days
By superaggie on 1/23/2006 7:12:17 PM , Rating: 2
my PB had a WHOPPING state-of-the-art 500mb hard drive!




lol
By phaxmohdem on 1/23/2006 10:11:21 PM , Rating: 2
My best friend back in the day got a Packard Bell P166MMX w/ 16X Cd-ROm drive & 32MB RAM. I was so jealous lol. (I had a 486 DX33 OC'd to 40 :P )




I actually had good luck with them
By Alexvrb on 1/24/2006 1:40:24 AM , Rating: 2
I've had three Packard Bells before I exclusively built my own - a 386 16Mhz SX, a 486 (DX/2 66), and a P166 MMX w/ an FM530 mainboard. They were all very solid PCs and underwent upgrades. The 166MMX started life at like 24MB of RAM, and ended up with a 400Mhz K6-2, 128MB 66Mhz SDR, and a PCI geforce of some variety. I can't remember what else, although I replace the HD too. Anyway, they were all solid and still ran great when I sold them or gave them away.




Oh PB
By littlebitstrouds on 1/24/2006 1:44:15 AM , Rating: 2

The only reason I know anything about computers today is because of PB... because my friends PB broke so many times I had to learn everything about computers so I could fix it for him. That thing was suck a piece of junk. I'd like to see a modern day PB. Do they still use that stupid case with the ridges? By far one of the ugliest cases I'd ever seen.




By MrEMan on 1/24/2006 8:21:26 AM , Rating: 2
I worked on a few Packard Bell's in the 90s and they weren't that bad for low end PCs.

What really surprised me is that they were able to make any money considering most of their users were totally computer illiterate. I wonder how many thin-margin systems they would have to sell to make up for the restocking costs of all the systems returned because the home user had no idea what they were doing and didn't read the instructions?

If I recall correctly, PB was the first to come up with color-coded mouse and keyboard connectors (it was sort of dumb for IBM to use the same connector mini-DIN for both when they were not interchangable, but I guess IBM probably justified it for the corporate marked due to most businesses having IT departments).




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