RCA Corp.

Major U.S. electronics and broadcasting conglomerate that was purchased by the General Electric Co. (GE) in 1986. RCA's subsidiaries at the time of the acquisition included NBC, which is managed as a separate division within GE. RCA was founded as the Radio Corp. of America by General Electric in 1919 to acquire Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co. of America, at that time the only company capable of handling commercial transatlantic radio communications. RCA founded NBC in 1926 to manage radio broadcasting operations for GE, AT&T, and Westinghouse. An antitrust suit against the three latter companies in 1932 caused RCA and its NBC unit to become independent. In 1939 RCA developed the first experimental television set, and its black-and-white sets went on the market seven years later. After consolidating most of RCA's operations into GE's businesses, in 1987 General Electric sold RCA's consumer-electronics division to the French corporation Thomson-Brandt, SA (later Thomson SA). Within GE, RCA's core products are in military and space electronics and satellite communications.