ABSTRACT
In early 1996, Daewoo Electronics joined forces with the Lagardère Group to bid for Thomson SA, which the French government was in the process of privatizing. Daewoo was interested in the consumer electronics subsidiary, Thomson Multimedia (TMM), while Lagardère was to get control of the defense business. TMM was the second largest consumer electronics company in Europe after Philips and the fourth largest in the world. It had a broad array of middle– to upper-range production, including TVs, video, audio and digital equipment, along with brands well known in both Europe and the United-States, including RCA, an icon in American electronics. The company was heavily indebted, but was developing products in future high-growth markets. In October 1996, TMM launched the digital video disc (DVD), the first truly multimedia product.
