1986–1987: Foundation The Packard Bell computer company was incorporated in
Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, in 1986 by
Beny Alagem, Jason Barzilay, and Alex Sandel, three Israeli-born United States businessmen based in California. Packard Bell was previously the namesake of an American
consumer electronics company founded in the 1920s,
Packard Bell Electronics. The latter made a name for itself for its radios before branching out to television sets in the 1950s. Alagem later found that brand recognition for Packard Bell was at 70 percent, among a random sampling of adults in the United States. Alagem and Barzilay met in the 1970s after the former had graduated from
Cal Poly. Together, they founded a semiconductor distribution company. In 1983, they merged with another electronics supplier owned by Sandel to form Cal Circuit Abco, Inc., in Woodland Hills, California. Cal Circuit Abco sold computer peripherals on top of semiconductor and had generated over $500 million in annual revenues by 1985. Seeing the increasing commodification of the
IBM Personal Computer standard by way of
clone makers, or companies that manufactured systems which were plug- and software-compatible with the
IBM PC architecture, the three businessmen decided they wanted in and reincorporated Cal Circuit Abco as Packard Bell Electronics in 1986, after Alagem had bought the Packard Bell name from Teledyne. The three leveraged their business connections with Asian electronics companies formed through Cal Circuit Abco to contract the production of an IBM PC clone. They settled on several companies, most prominently
Samsung Electronics of Korea and
Tatung Company of Taiwan—the former designing and manufacturing the
desktop chassis and motherboards and the latter supplying their monitors. As the hardware was largely bare-bones and derivative, the company could not market the computer based on technical merit, nor could they stand to profit from royalties on patents. Instead, the founders were forced to rely on a low price tag for the system, as well as the founders' shared knowledge of marketing and merchandising learned from their electronics vending businesses. In selling the computer it developed three core strategies: equipping its computer systems with various value-adds while selling the complete bundle at a low cost, leaning on the history of the Packard Bell name, and vending the computers at mass retailers. Instrumental to Packard Bell's early success was its decision to distribute its systems to mass market retailers such as
Sears, as well as
wholesale clubs and consumer electronics stores. While the established name-brand PC vendors were reluctant to sell their systems at these types of retailers in favor of cultivating lucrative service contracts with their customers, the percentage of PCs sold through mass market retailers rose threefold between 1987 and 1992—from 4 percent to 12 percent—with Packard Bell dominating within this niche. Within less than three years of the company's incorporation, Packard Bell saw an annual sales figure of US$600 million in 1989. Sales were helped along by Packard Bell's penetration into new markets—such as
local area network systems for enterprises and
CPU cards for power users—as well as the company's extensive customer support package for all customers, offering live technical support over the phone, toll-free and around the clock. Packard Bell dubbed its customer support system Infinitech, which provided prerecorded troubleshooting tips in addition to a line to staffed technical support. The company also provided Infinitech through its bulletin-board systems hosted on
CompuServe and
Prodigy. It was eventually cancelled altogether, Packard Bell remaining a private company throughout the rest of its existence. from 1996Packard Bell's growing adoption rates into the mid-1990s were helped along by a new industrial design language and user-friendly software. In 1993, the company introduced
Navigator, a
shell replacement for
Windows 3.1 intended for novice computer users that provides simple screens of large icons to launch their commonly used application software. In 1994, it released Navigator 2, replacing the icons with a hyper-
skeuomorphic house metaphor, in which every screen of icons is within a prerendered
3D-CGI room in a house. Packard Bell acquired the software firm responsible for Navigator, Ark Interface of
Seattle, Washington, in May 1994. That same year, Packard Bell acquired Active Imagination, Inc., of
Westlake Village, California, a developer of
edutainment video games for children. With this acquisition, Packard Bell made the shift toward providing standalone software packages in retail outlets for the first time. Also in 1994, Packard Bell hired industrial design firm
Frog Design, known for its work with Apple and
NeXT, to redesign Packard Bell's personal computer line. With these redesigned cases, Packard Bell was the first company to use a color-coding system for the external connectors on the rear of the computer, corresponding with the color of the shroud of the plugs on the devices that Packard Bell provided with its computers (e.g., purple for keyboards, teal for mice). This innovation was intended to make installation of peripherals easier and predated the
PC System Design Guide standard for color-coding connectors, introduced in 1999. Packard Bell's Chatsworth headquarters were seriously damaged in the
January 1994 Northridge earthquake—the epicenter of which was located just a few blocks from their six-building complex—grinding operations to a halt and putting 1,500 employees temporarily out of work. Buckling racks destroyed factory equipment and inventory, The company later relocated its operations to a new headquarter complex in Sacramento (the former property of the
Sacramento Army Depot), in summer 1995. Its customer service team meanwhile was relocated to an out-of-state office in Utah. In April 1995, Compaq launched a lawsuit against Packard Bell for not disclosing that Packard Bell computers incorporated used parts, claiming that this practice of
refurbishment without disclosure allowed Packard Bell to unfairly undercut its competition. This practice was, in fact, widespread in the computer industry, including Compaq itself. However, unlike its rival companies, Packard Bell was judged not to have advertised the practice sufficiently in its warranties—Compaq, for instance, placed numerous stickers on boxes of its refurbished hardware indicating this status. Attorneys general across 12 states launched investigations into Packard Bell in June 1995; the following month, Packard Bell settled nine class-action suits in three states, including California, providing reimbursement in the form of $50 worth of repairs for free in the short term, establishing a $1-million fund for monetary reimbursement in the long term, and changing its warranty policy. Packard Bell eventually paid $5 million to 22 states to settle the issue in September 1996. Packard Bell countersued Compaq in October 1995, citing "unfair competition and defamation". They settled out of court in February 1996, after Compaq themselves were facing heat from multiple states for its own refurbishment practices. In early 1996, Packard Bell acquired
Zenith Data Systems from
Groupe Bull of France, in a three-way deal which saw Groupe Bull and Japanese electronics conglomerate
NEC increasing their existing stakes in Packard Bell. Shortly after, in June 1996, NEC announced that it would acquire Packard Bell, merging it with NEC's global personal computer operations. The merger was finalized in July 1996; the resulting division became known as Packard Bell NEC, selling computer systems under both NEC and Packard Bell faceplates. it was also the third largest PC vendor in the world in terms of sales at the end of 1996. However, Compaq overtook the number one spot from Packard Bell NEC in early 1997, at which point the latter fell behind Apple in retail sales to the number three spot. Between 1997 and 1998, Packard Bell posted losses totaling more than $1 billion. In the United States, price pressure from Compaq and, later,
eMachines, along with continued poor showings in consumer satisfaction surveys made it difficult for the company to remain profitable and led to Alagem's departure in 1998. In 1999, NEC began withdrawing the Packard Bell name from the American market, while keeping it in Europe, where the brand was untainted by allegations of substandard quality.
2001–2006: NEC Computers shipped Packard Bell operated as NEC Computers, a division of NEC created to consolidate the company’s personal computer business outside of
Japan and
China. This structure followed NEC's earlier acquisition of Packard Bell NEC in 1998. During this period, the brand concentrated its efforts in the European market, where it maintained consumer presence after discontinuing its operations in North America around 2000 due to financial challenges and market competition. By 2003, Packard Bell had offices in 24 countries, excluding the United States.
2006–2009: Divestiture from NEC and acquisition by Acer In 2006, the chairman of the California-based Clifford Holdings,
Lap Shun Hui, acquired the rights to the Packard Bell name from NEC for an undisclosed sum, establishing PB Holdings in the process. Hui was in talks with
Lenovo Group of China to sell the rights to the Packard Bell name to the latter in early 2007. However,
Acer of Taiwan ultimately intervened, making a binding offer to acquire PB Holdings in October 2007. Acer's acquisition of Packard Bell occurred in the aftermath of its recent takeover of
Gateway in August 2007 and was said to be a strategic deal to prevent Lenovo's expansion into Europe, where Acer had a strong presence. The deal was finalized between January and February 2008, Hui receiving $48.5 million in cash. With the purchases of Packard Bell and Gateway, Acer arranged its marketing strategy so that Gateway products were sold in the Americas and Asia, while Packard Bell products were sold in Africa, Europe and the Middle East; Acer-branded products meanwhile were sold worldwide. In 2013, Acer announced that the
eMachines brand will be discontinued in the low-end market but that both Packard Bell and Gateway would continue. In 2018, the company announced the release of new Packard Bell-branded computers.
2019–present: Revival in Africa Since 2019 Packard Bell has been manufactured under license by Universal Exports Group Limited from Acer Taiwan in the SADC region, Universal has released new models of Phones, Tablets and Laptops which are most prominently available in South Africa. ==Notable products==