====== Thomson - CSF ======
Thomson-CSF is a French telecommunications and defence technology group created by a French branch of General Electric; the company was renamed **Thales** at the end of 2000.

===== Company history =====
In 1879, E. Thomson and E. Houston founded the Thomson - Houston Electric Company in Lynn, USA. This company merged with the Edison General Electric Company in 1892 to form **General Electric**, which founded a French offshoot in 1893 in the form of **Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston**.

In 1968, the electronics group Thomson-Brandt and **Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil** became **Thomson - CSF**, which was nationalised in 1982 under François Mitterand.

Major reorganisations took place in the following years, the telecommunications and medical technology divisions were spun off, but Thomson was able to take over the **[[RCA]]** branch from General Electric. The consumer electronics business was spun off as Thomson Multimedia (later Technicolor SA) and the defence division was privatised in 1999.

In 2000, Thomson-CSF was able to take over the British **[[Racal]]**, which subsequently traded as Thomson-CSF Racal Plc. In December 2000, the group was renamed **Thales** and now primarily produces defence equipment and, in this context, military communications equipment, which includes the **PR4G** system introduced in Switzerland as **[[SE-235]]**.


==== Further information ====