Technicolor is a creative services company providing communications, media, and entertainment technology based in Paris, France. With over a century in the business, its journey began in 1893 as Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH), a General Electric sister company. After a series of mergers over decades, it grew into Thomson Multimedia, which bought and then adapted the Technicolor designation in 2009.
Following bankruptcy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Technicolor had to undergo restructuring and rebranding in September 2022. The company’s products and services include designing gateway boxes, Android TV solutions, and set-top boxes. It also provides supply chain solutions for packaged media products, including mastering, replication, direct-to-retail, and direct-to-customer distribution of products.
Before becoming an international tech brand, Technicolor’s history began in 1893 as Thomson SARL.
Behind the Techhicolor’s Journey, A Merger’s Nightmare
Born in 1853, Elihu Thomson formed the Thomson-Houston Electric Company with Edwin Houston in 1879. Three years later, the firm merged with the Edison General Electric Company, birthing the General Electric Company (GE). A year later, the sister company “Compagnie Francaise Thomson-Houston (CFTH)” was established in Paris. It marked the beginning of a company going through many mergers and name changes while it paved its way to success.
Many years of continuous business passed before CFTH became the Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brandt company. It merged with Hotchkiss-Brandt in 1966, and soon, the newly merged firm was renamed to Thomson-Brandt, an electronics-focused business. Two years later, the brand became Thomson-CSF after it joined with the Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil or CSF.
It wasn’t until 1982 that Thomson-Brandt and Thomson-CSF became nationalized. The former became Thomson SA (Société Anonyme) before it merged with the latter. Thomson bought its consumer electronics division and RCA assets a couple of years after GE bought out RCA. The same year saw the formation of Thomson Consumer Electronics.
As the century closed, the French government divided Thomson Multimedia and Thomson-CSF’s consumer electronics arm from their defense businesses, and then privatization occurred in 1999. After privatization, Thomson-CSF worked with several other brands before it became Thales in 2000, a company for electrical systems, aerospace, defense, security, and transportation.
Becoming Technicolor and Turning into Vantiva
In 2005, Nicholas de Wolff, the company’s marketing executive, planned and launched interactive Innovation centers in Burbank, USA, Rennes, France, Hannover, Germany, and Beijing, China. These centers showcased the brand’s early research projects to industry leaders and clients close up. Even with the opposition of some business units, de Wolff launched the research demos at trade shows like the IBC and NAB. It boosted the firm’s sales and reputation in developing product roadmaps.
After decades of keeping the Thomson name, the company rebranded in January 2009 due to the financial crisis and to avoid bankruptcy. Thomson had to sell some of its acquisitions and assets. It also involved divesting Technicolor’s assets to other companies. One of them was Ericsson’s acquisition of the Technicolor broadcast services division.
In the following years, Technicolor acquired various companies while letting go of older assets. For example, the brand shut down its last film lab in 2014 and focused solely on digital technology. In 2018, the company sold off its Patent Licensing business to InterDigital for $475 million.
On September 2022, Technicolor changed its name to VANTIVA. It trades on the Euronext Paris stock market under the ticker symbol VANTI. It has also launched a new global website that shares its new moniker. This development occurred after Technicolor Creative Studios spun off as a public company (with a Euronext Paris ticker code: TCHCS) focused on film, games, advertising, testing, and other development services. Vantiva would retain 35% of TCS’s capital while the spin-off company operates independently from Vantiva.
Noteworthy Acquisitions and Mergers
Most of Technicolor’s key mergers occurred in the decades following its foundation. One of the most critical mergers in its history is the 1966 Thomson-Houston-Hotchkiss-Brand merger. In 200, Thomson Multimedia bought Corinthian Television and Technicolor from the UK telecommunications company Carlton Television. It marked the beginning of the firm’s move into the broadcast management, facilities, and services market.
In 2004, Thomson joined TCL in manufacturing television and DVD products in a joint venture called TTE. The endeavor involved Thomson giving all the RCA and Thomson products manufacturing to TCL. In exchange, Thomson would maintain control of the brands. TCL became a global leader in TV manufacturing and the first Chinese company to compete against large international corporations worldwide. Meanwhile, Thomson controlled the brands and licensed them to TTE.
A year later, Thomson bought the Broadcast Division of Koninklijke Philips (Philips Broadcast) and the Grass Valley Group, Inc. in 2002. The purchases gave the company more opportunities in the broadcasting market. Dipping its toes into the industry further, Thomson bought the Moving Picture Company from ITV in 2004. The latter provided visual effects, CGI, motion design, animation, and other similar services for film, advertising, and TV. It also bought Singingfish, an internet startup created as an audio/video search engine.
Several years later, Thomson Multimedia expanded its entertainment service capabilities further. Its Technicolor Content Services arm invested in an Indian animation studio named Paprikaas and bought out the company later. The firm also partnered with DreamWorks Animation to further develop Paprikaas. Later, the company rebranded the Indian studio as Technicolor India. Thomson also sold its non-Europe-based consumer electronics audio-video businesses to Audiovox, including the RCA brand.
In 2005, the firm bought Cirpack and Inventel. The French company Inventel developed consumer electronics and communication systems and was a known primary architect of Triple play in Europe. Cirpack manufactured soft switches, a call-switching node running on software for telecommunications networks instead of switching hardware. The two telecommunications businesses boosted Technicolor’s power in the broadcasting industry.
Newer notable acquisitions occurred between 2014 and 2015. It acquired the VFX studio called Mr. X Inc. The Toronto-based studio was essential to Technicolor’s pursuit of high-concept TV, genre features, production, and international film co-productions.
Next was the French animation production company OuiDo! Productions in 2015. It later became a part of the Technicolor Animation Productions group. Cisco Systems also sold its TV set-top box and cable modem arm for $600 million to Technicolor in 2015. Following this sale was the company’s acquisition of The Mill for $292 million. Based in London, The Mill was a leading visual effect and content creation studio for advertising. Finally, it acquired Toronto-based Cinram Group, Inc. for $40 million, an optical disc and cassette tape manufacturer.
The Technicolor-Quinta Scandal
A noteworthy Technicolor scandal occurred in 2019 when the company and Frederic Rose, its former CEO, were accused of fraud and breach of trust regarding their role in the bankruptcy of Tarak Ben Ammar. It began in April 2012 when Quinta Communications filed a criminal complaint against its parent company. After a series of investigations, French authorities found and examined computer and phone records of executives, including Rose’s. The high court of Nanterre suspected that Technicolor played a key role in Quinta Industries’s undoing to take advantage of its assets at low prices. Technicolor bought the assets for some $1.1 million, while Quinta Industries was valued at around $57 million.
Nanterre’s high court also indicted the company for failing to release its plan to launch Technicolor Entertainment Services France, a post-production facility. The court also suspected that the brand intentionally withheld information about its joint venture negotiations with Deluxe, a former rival. When it became a Quinta shareholder, Ben Ammar’s company was banned from negotiating with Deluxe, a move that could have helped Quinta Industries rise out of bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy and Restructuring
The COVID-19 pandemic caused Technicolor to file for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in June 2020. A restructuring process followed after Richard Moat became the new CEO. In 2021, Streamland Media bought Technicolor’s post-production brand to focus on visual effects and animation for advertising, gaming, film, and live events.
In May 2021, the company launched Technicolor Creative Studios as a global umbrella structure for its family of studios like The Mill, Mr. X, MPC, and Mikros Animation. The third quarter of 2021 yielded a positive result for the brand. By February 2022, it released news of the Technicolor Creative Studios division’s spin-off into an independent entity on Euronext Paris. It was concluded on the September 27 2022, the very day the company parent publicized its rebranding to Vantiva.
Vantiva Today
Vantiva has a few major divisions: Connected Home and Home Entertainment Services. The first is dedicated to the design of broadband gateway boxes, set-top boxes, and Android TV solutions. Outside of China in September 2020, it had the highest market share for modems and broadband gateways.
The Home Entertainment Services division manufactures, distributes, and manages DVD and Blu-Ray disc supply chains for US film studios, and the CD and games industry. It diversified beyond media and entertainment and manufactured components and consumables for the life science and medical devices industries.
Vantiva’s products today include broadband, video, supply chain solutions, and IoT for verticals, and honestly we can’t wait to see what’s next for the project.
