THE RISE AND FALL OF PACKARD BELL

In this new series, we’ll be exploring the companies and tech that made an impact on the computing landscape, but faded away. This month, we’ll be covering Packard Bell—a PC brand that dominated desktop computing, and should be familiar to anyone who experienced desktop multimedia in the ‘90s

THE BEGINNING The Packard Bell name existed long before home computing ever started. The original Packard Bell Corporation was founded in 1933 by Leon Packard and Herb Bell. It was a producer of radios for homes and cars at a time when radios were covered in wood paneling and cars had swooping curves and chrome. The company later moved into other consumer electronics, such as television sets, and even military equipment. Of note to this story, in 1957, a subsidiary was formed to produce computers. However, in 1968, Packard Bell was bought out by an American industrial conglomerate, Teledyne Technologies, after which the name was essentially abandoned. The Packard Bell our readers may know began in 1986. A trio of Israeli-American investors—Beny Alagem, Jason Barzilay, and Alex Sandel—had plans for…

You're reading a preview of

Maximum PC (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.