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| Industry | Manufacture of magnetic and optical media media industry  |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1893 |
| Founder | Carl Lindström |
| Defunct | 1926 |
| Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
| Parent | EMI |
Carl Lindström A.G. was a global record company founded in 1893 and based inBerlin,Germany.
Founded by Carl Lindström (1869–1932), a Swedish inventor living inBerlin, it originally producedphonographs orgramophones with the brand names "Parlograph" and "Parlophon" and eventually began producing records as well. It became the holding company forOdeon Records,Parlophone Records (originally "Parlophon"),Beka Records,Okeh Records,Fonotipia Records, Lyrophon, Homophon, and other labels. Lindström sold the company toMax Straus (Odeon co-founder), but Lindström remained with the company as an engineer and inventor.
World War I caused the company to cut back its holdings closing theUnited Kingdom branch of Odeon when war broke out. Okeh in theU.S. survived the war intact because its president,Otto Heinemann, was an American citizen. During the war, the Transoceanic Trading Company was set up in theNetherlands to look after its overseas assets. Lindström returned to the UK in 1923 with the establishment of a British Parlophone branch. Parlophone's "₤" trademark is not thelira sign but a stylisedblackletter "L" () for Lindström.[1] AmongParlophone's later claims to fame, it was the label for UK releases byThe Beatles andPeter Sellers.
The introduction of electrical recording withmicrophones andmixing consoles put Lindström at a disadvantage and they sold the company in 1926 to theColumbia Graphophone Company which had rights to electrical recording technology. In 1931, Columbia Graphophone merged with theGramophone Company to formEMI with the labels retaining their identities. EMI's German unit in 1931 was originally called "Lindström-Electrola" after the merger. Okeh became part of the American operations ofColumbia Records. Parlophone became a major powerhouse in the EMI portfolio of labels thanks to the company's signing in 1962 ofThe Beatles. As a condition ofUniversal Music Group acquiring EMI in 2012, European regulators forced EMI to spin off certain assets into a separate company called Parlophone Music Group. Parlophone was acquired byWarner Music Group in 2013.
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