The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was formed in 1883 from the merger of the Elihu Thomson's American Electric Company and the interests of Edwin Houston .
Thomson-Houston merged with the Edison General Electric Company to form the General Electric Company in 1892.
International companies
British Thomson-Houston
British Thomson-Houston (BTH) was created as a subsidary of General Electric in May 1896. It was previously known as Laing, Wharton and Down which was founded in 1886. BTH became part of Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) in 1959, which saw BTH merged with its rival Metropolitan-Vickers. AEI would itself be acquired by the General Electric Company plc or GEC (not related to GE of the United States) in 1967. GEC demerged its defence businesses in 1999 to become Marconi plc, now Marconi Corporation plc.
Compagnie Francaise Thomson-Houston
In 1893, the Compagnie Francaise Thomson-Houston (CFTH) was formed in Paris, a sister company to GE in the United States. It is from this company that the modern Thomson Group would evolve; demerged in 1999 to form Thomson Multimedia and Thomson-CSF (now Thales Group).
