Famous Corporate Name sell-outs

There are often individuals and small companies who are in the lucky position of having the rights to names that larger companies want. Where the name is crucial to a marketing concept the owner is in a position to dictate terms and conditions before selling out to the larger company. This is often the result of large amount of research and can be more prevalent on the internet than anywhere else. Often the sell-out can be very public with both parties gaining a large amount of publicity. Unfortunately this does not always reflect well on the smaller company since the sell-out association is a definitively negative one for most people.

The recent controversy over what Apple was going to name their new iPod phone highlighted the problems that many companies, both large and small, face. If you're going to make a big splash with a product then you need to make sure you own the rights to that name, whether it's a web domain or the actual name. In both cases Apple appears to have been caught short since we all know Linksys had the rights to the name and even brought out a VOIP product with the name attached. This almost ruined Apple's i-branding run and the only solution was to buy the rights to the name from Linksys which is likely to have cost Apple a large amount of money. The upside is that the tie in with the iPod can now offset that cost by helping to increase sales of the iPhone.

Sometimes people can buy out a name when they buy out a smaller company which has a single product or range of products that are very well known. An example of this is the Macromedia buy out by Adobe where the products retained their original names to retain consumer identification. This is particularly so with the Flash program since it will never be known as Adobe Flash by consumers so if Adobe attempted to change the name consumer recognition would decrease and sales would likely decrease as well.

Another example of a smaller company selling out is the sale of the Alienware brand to the Dell Company. This is due to the reputation that Alienware enjoys in the gaming communities and the particular style that they use when creating computers. It is the name and reputation that Dell really bought since the components and construction methods that Alienware utilises will be changed to be in line with Dell operating standards.

While the appearance and name remain the same the public's purchase of the Alienware branded products is far less likely to decrease in some areas. A low key private buyout tends to be the most utilised option where companies are of unequal size when the assets of the smaller company are intangible. This allows the larger company to continue leveraging those assets while putting their own infrastructure in place.

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