55-655: Granada plc (previously called Granada Ltd , Granada Group plc , and Granada Media plc ) was a British conglomerate best known as the parent from 1954 to 2004 of the Manchester -based Granada Television . The company agreed a corporate takeover of Carlton Communications in 2004 and Granada plc subsequently became ITV plc on 2 February 2004. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index . Granada has its origins in Sidney Bernstein 's Granada Theatres Ltd ,
110-705: A cinema company founded in Dover in 1930. The company was incorporated as Granada Ltd in 1934, with Granada Theatres Ltd turned into a subsidiary. Granada has been listed on the London Stock Exchange in one form or another since 1935. It was awarded the North of England ITV franchise in 1954, broadcasting as Granada Television . The company also established a chain of television rental shops from 1959 onwards, expanding in 1968 by purchasing Robinson Rentals for £8 million from David Robinson . Granada entered
165-429: A market inefficiency , which undervalues the true strength of these stocks. In her 1999 book No Logo , Naomi Klein provides several examples of mergers and acquisitions between media companies designed to create conglomerates to create synergy between them: A relatively new development, Internet conglomerates, such as Alphabet , Google's parent company belong to the modern media conglomerate group and play
220-625: A British consortium of cable channels formed Granada Media Group plc , which a year later acquired Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc . In 1997, Granada expanded onto the North American market by launching Granada Entertainment USA . In March 1998, Granada announced their plans to launch a home video unit, eventually signing a five-year deal with Video Collection International to launch Granada Video in September. Granada also bid together with Carlton Communications and BSkyB for one of
275-486: A disorienting and demoralizing experience for executives at acquired companies—those who were not immediately laid off found themselves at the mercy of the conglomerate's executives in some other distant city. Most conglomerates' headquarters were located on the West Coast or East Coast , while many of their acquisitions were located in the country's interior. Many interior cities were devastated by repeatedly losing
330-549: A focus in Asia.) In Japan, a different model of conglomerate, the keiretsu , evolved. Whereas the Western model of conglomerate consists of a single corporation with multiple subsidiaries controlled by that corporation, the companies in a keiretsu are linked by interlocking shareholdings and a central role of a bank. Mitsui , Mitsubishi , Sumitomo are some of Japan's best-known keiretsu, reaching from automobile manufacturing to
385-472: A major role within various industries, such as brand management . In most cases, Internet conglomerates consist of corporations that own several medium-sized online or hybrid online-offline projects. In many cases, newly joined corporations get higher returns on investment , access to business contacts, and better rates on loans from various banks. Similar to other industries many companies can be termed as conglomerates. Radio Rentals Radio Rentals
440-503: A monthly rental price which was much more affordable. With the coming of colour services, initially only on BBC2 , a further opportunity for renting was created. On 15 November 1969 colour broadcasts on both BBC channels and the ITV network became available from the main transmitter sites around the UK. This led to a boom in rentals of TV sets. By the late 1970s videorecorders had appeared on
495-414: A red version of Granada's north-pointing arrow as its logo. This was a home entertainment equipment rental chain, similar to Radio Rentals and Rediffusion . The mainstay of the business from the late 1950s, and through the 1960s and 70s, was television set rental; during this period television receivers were expensive to purchase and were often unreliable. In 1978, the company expanded its operations into
550-491: A similar name. Aside from media, Granada's other main strength was in the catering business. It opened its first motorway service area in 1964, and established a chain of service areas across the British motorway network. Granada was the first British service station operator to move away from fancy dining and instead offer a basic but quicker service. Soon, all the other operators took on this idea. Granada's hospitality arm
605-722: A small range of white goods , mainly from Philips/Whirlpool. Radio Rentals claimed that at its peak it had more than two million customers, more than 500 shops, 3,600 technicians, 2,700 skilled installers and a large ancillary staff. It had sales and service locations across the UK, the Radio Rentals logo being a common sight on many High Streets . The urge to rent instead of buy reduced as domestic electronics became cheaper and more reliable, with greater use of integrated circuits and improved design. The company went through many restructurings, shedding staff and rebranding itself. In common with other rental brands, it could not sustain
SECTION 10
#1732780054432660-639: A small slice of many companies in a fund rather than owning shares in a conglomerate. Another example of a successful conglomerate is Warren Buffett 's Berkshire Hathaway , a holding company which used surplus capital from its insurance subsidiaries to invest in businesses across a variety of industries. The end of the First World War caused a brief economic crisis in Weimar Germany , permitting entrepreneurs to buy businesses at rock-bottom prices. The most successful, Hugo Stinnes , established
715-402: A strategy to separate Granada's media and catering interests. The demerger took place in early 2001, with the media business becoming Granada Ltd . The motorway service stations were soon rebranded as Moto . In 2002 speculation began to centre on when, not if, Carlton and Granada would merge. In 2003 a merger was agreed between the two companies, with Granada shareholders owning two-thirds of
770-637: A viable business model and ceased to trade, merging with Granada Limited 's rental arm in 2000 to form Boxclever . Thorn operated over 90 Radio Rentals stores within Australia, and 28 stores in New Zealand under the name DTR. Radio Rentals stores in South Australia trade under the name RR Rentlo Reinvented due to an independent business trading as Radio Rentals. An independently owned chain operated 19 stores within South Australia ; however
825-472: Is currently China's largest civilian-run conglomerate by revenue. In South Korea , the chaebol is a type of conglomerate owned and operated by a family. A chaebol is also inheritable, as most of the current presidents of chaebols succeeded their fathers or grandfathers. Some of the largest and most well-known Korean chaebols are Samsung , LG , Hyundai Kia and SK . In India, family-owned enterprises became some of Asia's largest conglomerates, such as
880-459: Is not in any way related to Radio Rentals owned by Thorn Australia Pty Ltd, and was placed into administration in 2019 and closed its stores including areas like Queensland. Radio Rentals also closed all its stores in 2020 but continues to trade. The Australian branch of Radio Rentals began in 1937 with the opening of a single store on Market Street, Sydney. Since this date, Radio Rentals continued to expand and open stores across Australia, including
935-571: The Aditya Birla Group , Tata Group , Emami , Kirloskar Group , Larsen & Toubro , Mahindra Group , Bajaj Group , ITC Limited , Essar Group , Reliance Industries , Adani Group and the Bharti Enterprises . In Brazil the most important conglomerates are J&F Investimentos , Odebrecht , Itaúsa , Camargo Corrêa , Votorantim Group , Andrade Gutierrez , and Queiroz Galvão. In New Zealand, Fletcher Challenge
990-677: The ITV Digital Channels Ltd pay-TV business, which at the time offered two channels, Men and Motors and Granada Plus . ITV plc has since taken full control of GSB and closed down archive channel Plus in favour of ITV3. Granada also owned 50% shares in ITV2 and the ITV News Channel , and a 20% share of Independent Television News . It also owned 45% of TV3 , Ireland. Charles Allen was chief executive of Granada until 2 February 2004, when he became chief executive of
1045-652: The United States , conglomerates became popular in the 1960s as a form of economic bubble driven by low interest rates and leveraged buyouts. However, many of them collapsed or were broken up in the 1980s due to poor performance, accounting scandals, and antitrust regulation. In contrast, conglomerates have remained prevalent in Asia, especially in China , Japan , South Korea , and India . In mainland China , many state-affiliated enterprises have gone through high value mergers and acquisitions , resulting in some of
1100-579: The highest value business transactions of all time. These conglomerates have strong ties with the government and preferential policies and access to capital. During the 1960s, the United States was caught up in a "conglomerate fad " which turned out to be a form of an economic bubble . Due to a combination of low interest rates and a repeating bear-bull market , conglomerates were able to buy smaller companies in leveraged buyouts (sometimes at temporarily deflated values). Famous examples from
1155-440: The 1960s include Gulf and Western Industries , Ling-Temco-Vought , ITT Corporation , Litton Industries , Textron , and Teledyne . The trick was to look for acquisition targets with solid earnings and much lower price–earnings ratios than the acquirer. The conglomerate would make a tender offer to the target's shareholders at a princely premium to the target's current stock price. Upon obtaining shareholder approval,
SECTION 20
#17327800544321210-627: The 1980s, General Electric also moved into financing and financial services , which in 2005 accounted for about 45% of the company's net earnings. GE formerly owned a minority interest in NBCUniversal , which owns the NBC television network and several other cable networks . United Technologies was also a successful conglomerate until it was dismantled in the late 2010s. With the spread of mutual funds (especially index funds since 1976), investors could more easily obtain diversification by owning
1265-691: The British High Street but have long since vanished along with Radio Rentals. The last Baird TV models that were supplied by Radio Rentals to contain a genuine Baird (rather than a Thorn)-manufactured chassis was the dual-standard (405 and 625-line) 710 series. Legend has it that in the 1970s, Radio Rentals was the only TV rental company under the TTR umbrella who were allowed to produce full (from floor to waist) height cabinets on castors. The other companies had to use more squat cabinets placed on stands. In 1980 TTR and thus Radio Rentals became part of
1320-542: The COVID-19 induced retail downturn, Radio Rentals announced the permanent closure of its 62 bricks-and-mortar stores and selected warehouses, continuing as a purely online business. In 2008, the Thorn Group, who operates Radio Rentals, launched Big Brown Box ; an online retailer of brown goods and consumer technology gadgets. The site later expanded to include computers and whitegoods. Thorn Group decided to offload
1375-416: The UK digital terrestrial television licences. They won the licence, though BSkyB was excluded from the company, ONdigital , on competition grounds. It went on air in 1998, was rebranded to ITV Digital in 2001, then entered voluntary liquidation before closing in 2002. In 2000, Granada purchased United News & Media's television interests, namely Meridian Broadcasting and Anglia Television ; Granada
1430-603: The United States, some of the examples are The Walt Disney Company , Warner Bros. Discovery and The Trump Organization (see below). In Canada, one of the examples is Hudson's Bay Company . Another such conglomerate is J.D. Irving, Limited , which controls a large portion of the economic activities as well as media in the Province of New Brunswick . Some cite the decreased cost of conglomerate stock (a phenomenon known as conglomerate discount ) as evidential of these disadvantages, while other traders believe this tendency to be
1485-693: The business in November 2010, with the CEO, John Hughes, saying that while Thorn Group "still believes strategically in online and the potential of BigBrownBox.com.au" the company had to take a pragmatic view on the business given the group's limited resources. Big Brown Box was later purchased and relaunched by Appliances Online . In 2015, a report by Credit Suisse found that for the financial year 2014/15, A$ 90 million of Radio Rentals and RR Rentlo Reinvented Australia's total revenue of A$ 197 million came from payments made by government benefit recipients using
1540-455: The conglomerate usually settled the transaction in something other than cash, like debentures , bonds , warrants or convertible debentures (issuing the latter two would effectively dilute its shareholders down the road, but many shareholders at the time were not thinking that far ahead). The conglomerate would then add the target's earnings to its earnings, thereby increasing the conglomerate's overall earnings per share . In finance jargon,
1595-559: The decline of this chain and others. Granada purchased Telefusion (a Blackpool-based rental company) and DVR. It went on to merge with Robinson Rentals, moving the Granada base from Sharston Road, Manchester, to the Robinson building on Ampthill Road, Bedford . The two main players at this time were Granada TV Rental (GTVR) and Radio Rentals. Both were experiencing a decline in business and in 2000 they merged to form Boxclever . Red Arrow
1650-537: The domestic videocassette recorder (VCR) rental market. This new household item was also a high-cost purchase: for example, a JVC HR-3300 VHS recorder cost £680 in 1978, equivalent to £4,900 in 2023. In the 1980s, the rental of satellite TV reception equipment became another opportunity for the company to supplement its declining income. As electronic product prices fell and their reliability improved, consumer behaviour changed from renting to buying electrical goods. This drift away from rental eventually resulted in
1705-608: The editorial offices' address. During the 1980s, Granada became involved in the British Satellite Broadcasting satellite television company. This went on air in March 1990, but merged with Sky Television in November 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), in which Granada had a minority shareholding for some time. In 1991, Granada Theatres Ltd was sold to Bass . In 1994, Granada acquired London Weekend Television . Two years later, Granada, LWT and
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1760-467: The end came in January 1968, when Litton shocked Wall Street by announcing a quarterly profit of only 21 cents per share, versus 63 cents for the previous year's quarter. This was "just a decline in earnings of about 19 percent", not an actual loss or a corporate scandal, and "yet the stock was crushed, plummeting from $ 90 to $ 53". It would take two more years before it was clear that the conglomerate fad
1815-771: The examples are Adamjee Group , Dawood Hercules , House of Habib , Lakson Group and Nishat Group . In the Philippines , the largest conglomerate of the country is the Ayala Corporation which focuses on malls , bank , real estate development , and telecommunications . The other big conglomerates in the Philippines included JG Summit Holdings , Lopez Holdings Corporation , ABS-CBN Corporation , GMA Network, Inc. , MediaQuest Holdings , TV5 Network, Inc. , SM Investments Corporation , Metro Pacific Investments Corporation , and San Miguel Corporation . In
1870-719: The headquarters of corporations to mergers, in which independent ventures were reduced to subsidiaries of conglomerates based in New York or Los Angeles. Pittsburgh, for example, lost about a dozen. The terror instilled by the mere prospect of such harsh consequences for executives and their home cities meant that fending off takeovers, real or imagined, was a constant distraction for executives at all corporations seen as choice acquisition targets during this era. The chain reaction of rapid growth through acquisitions could not last forever. When interest rates rose to offset rising inflation, conglomerate profits began to fall. The beginning of
1925-534: The launch of 'Rentlo' in South Australia. In April 2015 Rentlo was rebranded to RR Rentlo Reinvented. Radio Rentals is a household appliance, technology and furniture rental service. Today, Radio Rentals and RR Rentlo Reinvented have more than 90 stores Australia wide and more than 500 employees. The Australian stores continued to trade under the Thorn Group, with James Marshall as the current CEO and managing director, appointed in 2014. On 23 April 2020, due to
1980-499: The market, but at first they were expensive. Only 5% of UK households had videorecorders in 1980. Radio Rentals elected to offer Baird branded JVC VHS machines from 1977 onwards. With the advent of satellite broadcasting in the 1980s Radio Rentals offered a range of equipment for rent, enabling more viewers to watch both Sky Television services and British Satellite Broadcasting services (these broadcasters later merged to form British Sky Broadcasting ). Radio Rentals also offered
2035-603: The merged Thorn EMI , and in 2000 it merged with Granada Limited to form Boxclever . The company still trades as Radio Rentals in Australia. Radio Rentals operated mainly in the UK, having started life in Boyces Street, Brighton , Sussex, England. The growth of BBC Television and then ITV after the Second World War encouraged more people to want TV sets, but they were expensive, creating an opportunity for Radio Rentals and its competitors to offer them at
2090-503: The most powerful private economic conglomerate in 1920s Europe – Stinnes Enterprises – which embraced sectors as diverse as manufacturing, mining, shipbuilding, hotels, newspapers, and other enterprises. The best-known British conglomerate was Hanson plc . It followed a rather different timescale than the U.S. examples mentioned above, as it was founded in 1964 and ceased to be a conglomerate when it split itself into four separate listed companies between 1995 and 1997. In Hong Kong, some of
2145-652: The new businesses they had recently purchased, and by the mid-1970s most conglomerates had been reduced to shells. The conglomerate fad was subsequently replaced by newer ideas like focusing on a company's core competency and unlocking shareholder value (which often translate into spin-offs ). In other cases, conglomerates are formed for genuine interests of diversification rather than manipulation of paper return on investment. Companies with this orientation would only make acquisitions or start new branches in other sectors when they believed this would increase profitability or stability by sharing risks. Flush with cash during
2200-566: The new company. That the new company was in effect a takeover by Granada of Carlton was admitted in the first annual report of the new company, ITV plc , which treated the company as effectively a continuation of Granada plc (with the Carlton merger regarded as an acquisition) for accounting purposes. The Granada name continues on as the official name of the North West ITV region and its on air regional news programme Granada Reports and
2255-478: The newly created ITV plc , a post he retained until 1 October 2006. Conglomerate (company) A conglomerate ( / k ə ŋ ˈ ɡ l ɒ m ə r ə t / ) is a type of multi-industry company that consists of several different and unrelated business entities that operate in various industries. A conglomerate usually has a parent company that owns and controls many subsidiaries , which are legally independent but financially and strategically dependent on
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2310-731: The parent company. Conglomerates are often large and multinational corporations that have a global presence and a diversified portfolio of products and services. Conglomerates can be formed by merger and acquisitions , spin-offs , or joint ventures . Conglomerates are common in many countries and sectors, such as media , banking , energy , mining , manufacturing , retail , defense , and transportation . This type of organization aims to achieve economies of scale , market power, risk diversification , and financial synergy. However, they also face challenges such as complexity, bureaucracy , agency problems, and regulation . The popularity of conglomerates has varied over time and across regions. In
2365-714: The production of electronics such as televisions. While not a keiretsu, Sony is an example of a modern Japanese conglomerate with operations in consumer electronics , video games , the music industry , television and film production and distribution , financial services , and telecommunications . In China, many of the country's conglomerates are state-owned enterprises , but there is a substantial number of private conglomerates. Notable conglomerates include BYD , CIMC , China Merchants Bank , Huawei , JXD , Meizu , Ping An Insurance , TCL , Tencent , TP-Link , ZTE , Legend Holdings , Dalian Wanda Group , China Poly Group , Beijing Enterprises , and Fosun International . Fosun
2420-608: The publishing business in the 1960s: it bought Mayflower Books from their founding U.S. publisher, Dell Publishing, and Panther Books (including Paladin Books , founded 1966 by Sonny Mehta ) by 1968, which imprints continued to be run separately editorially, and added Rupert Hart-Davis and MacGibbon and Kee which it combined to form Hart-Davis, MacGibbon in 1972. Eventually the various publishing companies were combined as Granada Publishing . William Collins, Sons acquired Granada Publishing in 1983, renaming it Grafton Books after
2475-406: The transaction was " accretive to earnings." The relatively lax accounting standards of the time meant that accountants were often able to get away with creative mathematics in calculating the conglomerate's post-acquisition consolidated earnings numbers. In turn, the price of the conglomerate's stock would go up, thereby re-establishing its previous price-earnings ratio, and then it could repeat
2530-496: The two companies were run completely separately, with different staff and vehicles. Two other, smaller High Street TV rental companies were also acquired/established by the Thorn Television Rentals group: these being Multi-Broadcast and the even smaller company Vistavison (not to be confused with Visionhire). Very little is known today about these two rental companies: in the 1970s they were well-known names on
2585-425: The well-known conglomerates include Jardine Matheson (AD1824), Swire Group (AD1816), (British companies, one Scottish one English; companies that have a history of over 150 years and have business interests that span across four continents with a focus in Asia.) C K Hutchison Whampoa (now CK Hutchison Holdings ), Sino Group , (both Asian-owned companies specialize business such as real estate and hospitality with
2640-668: The whole process with a new target. In plain English, conglomerates were using rapid acquisitions to create the illusion of rapid growth. In 1968, the peak year of the conglomerate fad, U.S. corporations completed a record number of mergers: approximately 4,500. In that year, at least 26 of the country's 500 largest corporations were acquired, of which 12 had assets above $ 250 million. All this complex company reorganization had very real consequences for people who worked for companies that were either acquired by conglomerates or were seen as likely to be acquired by them. Acquisitions were
2695-558: Was at its strongest in the 1990s under Gerry Robinson 's chairmanship of the group. At one time the company owned and operated 75% of the motorway service areas. It expanded into other areas of catering, including most notably the acquisition in 1996 of Forte Group . This included rival operator Welcome Break (later sold due to regulations), roadside chains Little Chef and Happy Eater , and Forte's hotels (including Travelodge and Le Méridien ). In July 2000, Granada merged with Compass Group plc to form Granada Compass plc , as part of
2750-591: Was forced to sell the HTV broadcasting business (to Carlton) for competition reasons, though it held onto HTV's network production business. It also acquired Border Television in 2001, from Capital Radio plc . Until 2000, there was a widespread high street chain called Granada TV Rental in the UK, Canada and in the US. The UK headquarters were originally in Manchester. The company started life as Red Arrow TV Rental, using
2805-462: Was formed in 1981 from the merger of Fletcher Holdings , Challenge Corporation, and Tasman Pulp & Paper, in an attempt to create a New Zealand-based multi-national company. At the time, the newly merged company dealt in construction, building supplies, pulp and paper mills, forestry, and oil & gas. Following a series of bungled investments, the company demerged in the early 2000s to concentrate on building and construction. In Pakistan , some of
SECTION 50
#17327800544322860-529: Was founded in 1930 by Percy Perring-Thoms in Brighton , Sussex, UK, to rent out radio sets, with a turnover in the first year of £780 (equivalent to £62,288 in 2023). It later offered televisions and videorecorders for rent. In 1964 it merged with RentaSet, Joseph Robinson's similarly formed company. Then, in 1968, it was acquired by Thorn Electrical Industries and joined with Thorn's DER chain (founded 1938) as part of Thorn Television Rentals (TTR), though
2915-487: Was on its way out. The stock market eventually figured out that the conglomerates' bloated and inefficient businesses were as cyclical as any others—indeed, it was that cyclical nature that had caused such businesses to be such undervalued acquisition targets in the first place —and their descent put "the lie to the claim that diversification allowed them to ride out a downturn." A major selloff of conglomerate shares ensued. To keep going, many conglomerates were forced to shed
2970-403: Was one of a number of experimental companies launched by Sidney and Alex Bernstein's Granada Group and was, apart from Granada Cinemas and Granada Television, by far the most successful. Others included Green Arrow – artificial plant and flower leasing to companies – and Black Arrow – office furniture and equipment leasing. This company was disposed of and has no connection with any other venture of
3025-626: Was used to brand productions of ITV plc companies on channels other than ITV branded channels in the United Kingdom until it was replaced by the ITV Studios brand in 2009. At the time of the merger with Carlton Communications, Granada was mainly involved in the television business. It owned seven ITV companies – Granada Television , London Weekend Television , Yorkshire Television , Tyne Tees Television , Meridian Broadcasting , Anglia Television and Border Television . It also owned
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