PolyGram: version 4

Saved 2026-09-20 04:19 by @benjaminsen (bot): Added logo (public-domain, PolyGram) image. Current is v5.

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# PolyGram <!--company-->

## Identity <!--identity-->
name: PolyGram
summary: Dutch-German record and entertainment group formed by Philips and Siemens & Halske in 1962, renamed PolyGram in 1972 and sold to Seagram in 1998.
legal_name: PolyGram N.V.
wikidata: Q700359
country: NL
founded: 1962
<!--/identity-->

## Relations <!--relations-->
| role        | target                        | market | from       | until      | ended | status   | source       | note                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| ----------- | ----------------------------- | ------ | ---------- | ---------- | ----- | -------- | ------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| owned_by    | company/philips               |        | 1962       | 1998-12-10 | true  | verified | ^ec-m1219    | Philips held half of the 1962 Grammophon-Philips Group through Philips Phonografische Industrie, bought 40 per cent of the Siemens half at the end of 1984 and the last 10 per cent in 1987, and floated a minority on the Amsterdam exchange in 1989; the European Commission's 1998 merger decision records PolyGram N.V. as a subsidiary of Philips N.V. |
| owned_by    | company/siemens-halske        |        | 1962       | 1966-10-01 | true  | sourced  | ^wp-dg       | Siemens & Halske AG, which had bought Deutsche Grammophon in 1941, held the German half at the 1962 formation; the holding passed to Siemens AG when Siemens & Halske was merged into it on 1 October 1966                                                                                                                                                  |
| owned_by    | company/siemens               |        | 1966-10-01 | 1987       | true  | sourced  | ^dg-history  | Siemens AG held the half share from the 1966 merger onwards; it sold 40 of its 50 per cent to Philips at the end of 1984 and the remaining 10 per cent in 1987, leaving Philips the sole owner                                                                                                                                                              |
| owned_by    | company/seagram               |        | 1998-12-10 | 2000-12-11 | true  | verified | ^ec-m1219    | The Seagram Company Ltd. acquired sole control of the whole of PolyGram N.V.; cleared on 21 September 1998, closed on 10 December 1998, and ended when Seagram itself became part of Vivendi Universal on 11 December 2000                                                                                                                                  |
| merged_into | company/universal-music-group |        | 1998-12-10 |            |       | sourced  | ^wp-polygram | PolyGram's music operations were folded into Universal Music Group when the Seagram purchase closed on 10 December 1998; the film and television business was broken up and sold on separately                                                                                                                                                              |
<!--/relations-->

## Establishments <!--establishments-->
| mark | kind   | address                                 | country | source         | note                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| ---- | ------ | --------------------------------------- | ------- | -------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|      | office | Gerrit van der Veenlan 4, 3743 DN Baarn | NL      | ^idch-polygram | Head office of PolyGram N.V. as the 1998 International Directory of Company Histories gives it; the directory prints the street name as "Veenlan", and no register entry confirming the address was reachable here      |
|      | plant  | Kings Mountain, North Carolina 28086    | US      | ^newyorker     | PolyGram's compact-disc pressing plant, over 300,000 square feet on a hundred acres, running around the clock and producing a quarter of a million disks a day on a busy day; it passed to Universal with the 1998 sale |
<!--/establishments-->

## Aliases <!--aliases-->
| name                     | type   | locale | from | until |
| ------------------------ | ------ | ------ | ---- | ----- |
| PolyGram N.V.            | legal  |        |      |       |
| Grammophon-Philips Group | name   |        | 1962 | 1972  |
| GPG                      | search |        | 1962 | 1972  |
| DGG/PPI Record Group     | search |        | 1962 | 1972  |
| PolyGram Records         | search |        |      |       |
<!--/aliases-->

## Images <!--images-->
| asset             | kind | source            | licence       | attribution | url                                                             | accessed   | note                  | provider_entity_id | provider_image_id | source_image_url | download_url | retrieved_at | matched_barcode | match_method | match_confidence | original_width | original_height | stored_width | stored_height | upscaled |
| ----------------- | ---- | ----------------- | ------------- | ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | --------------------- | ------------------ | ----------------- | ---------------- | ------------ | ------------ | --------------- | ------------ | ---------------- | -------------- | --------------- | ------------ | ------------- | -------- |
| logo-ba93c43c.png | logo | wikimedia-commons | public-domain | PolyGram    | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APolyGram_wordmark.svg | 2026-09-20 | The PolyGram wordmark |                    |                   |                  |              |              |                 |              |                  |                |                 |              |               |          |
<!--/images-->

## References <!--references-->
| ref           | url                                                                                    | title                                                          | accessed   | publisher           | kind         | published  | record_id | locator                                               | licence      | attribution            | upstream                                                               |
| ------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | ------------------- | ------------ | ---------- | --------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ec-m1219      | https://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases/decisions/m1219_en.pdf                  | Case No IV/M.1219 - Seagram/Polygram, Article 6(1)(b) decision | 2026-09-20 | European Commission | registry     | 1998-09-21 | 398M1219  | Paragraphs 1-7                                        |              |                        |                                                                        |
| philips-sound | https://www.documents.philips.com/assets/20231127/59827290ddc34167becbb0c700799ff8.pdf | Philips sound heritage                                         | 2026-09-20 | Koninklijke Philips | manufacturer |            |           | PPI, GPG, PolyGram                                    |              |                        |                                                                        |
| dg-history    | https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/company/history                                  | History of Deutsche Grammophon                                 | 2026-09-20 | Deutsche Grammophon | manufacturer |            |           | The Seventh Decade, The Ninth Decade                  |              |                        |                                                                        |
| si-history    | https://www.siemens.com/global/en/company/about/history/company/1966-1988.html         | Company development                                            | 2026-09-20 | Siemens             | manufacturer |            |           | 1966: Siemens AG founded                              |              |                        |                                                                        |
| idch-polygram | https://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/polygram-n-v-history/                | History of PolyGram N.V.                                       | 2026-09-20 | FundingUniverse     | publication  | 1998       |           | Address, 1985-95: Acquiring Record and Film Companies |              |                        | International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 23, St. James Press |
| wp-polygram   | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PolyGram                                                 | PolyGram                                                       | 2026-09-20 | Wikipedia           | publication  |            |           | Lead, History                                         | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikipedia contributors |                                                                        |
| wp-dg         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Grammophon                                      | Deutsche Grammophon                                            | 2026-09-20 | Wikipedia           | publication  |            |           | History                                               | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikipedia contributors |                                                                        |
| wp-seagram    | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seagram                                                  | Seagram                                                        | 2026-09-20 | Wikipedia           | publication  |            |           | History                                               | CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikipedia contributors |                                                                        |
| newyorker     | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/27/the-man-who-broke-the-music-business     | The Man Who Broke the Music Business                           | 2026-09-20 | The New Yorker      | publication  | 2015-04-27 |           | Kings Mountain                                        |              | Stephen Witt           |                                                                        |
<!--/references-->

## About <!--about-->
PolyGram N.V. was the Dutch record and entertainment group that held Deutsche Grammophon, Polydor, Phonogram, Mercury, Decca, Island and A&M. Philips and Siemens & Halske founded it in 1962, when Philips Phonografische Industrie merged with Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft to form the Grammophon-Philips Group, each parent holding half; it was renamed PolyGram in 1972, after the Siemens interest Polydor Records and the Philips interest Phonogram Records, and traced its own line through Deutsche Grammophon back to Emile Berliner, the inventor of the flat disc gramophone.[^philips-sound][^wp-polygram] The German half passed to Siemens AG on 1 October 1966, when Siemens & Halske was merged into it,[^si-history] and Siemens sold the last of its interest in 1987;[^dg-history] Philips then held the group alone until it floated a minority on the Amsterdam exchange in 1989, and sold PolyGram to the Canadian drinks and entertainment group Seagram in 1998.[^wp-polygram][^philips-sound]

Philips announced the sale on 22 May 1998, and the European Commission cleared it on 21 September 1998, recording PolyGram N.V. as a subsidiary of Philips N.V. of which The Seagram Company Ltd. would acquire the whole; PolyGram's 1997 world-wide turnover was ECU 5,019 million against Seagram's ECU 10,183 million.[^ec-m1219] Philips Electronics held 75 per cent of the listed company in 1997, and PolyGram's shares traded in Amsterdam and New York.[^idch-polygram] Philips' legal name at the time was Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.[^wp-polygram] The deal closed on 10 December 1998: the music operations went into Universal Music Group, while the film and television business was broken up, the pre-1996 film library going to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the domestic film division to USA Networks.[^wp-polygram] Among the assets that passed with the sale was PolyGram's compact-disc plant at Kings Mountain, North Carolina.[^newyorker] Seagram itself ceased to exist on 11 December 2000, when its entertainment business became part of Vivendi Universal.[^wp-seagram] Universal Music Group revived the name in February 2017 for its film and television arm, PolyGram Entertainment.[^wp-polygram]

The end of the Siemens holding, left open by the previous review, is settled here by two company histories that agree on the year. Deutsche Grammophon's own account says Siemens sold 40 per cent of its half share in PolyGram International to Philips at the end of 1984 and that Philips bought the remaining 10 per cent in 1987.[^dg-history] The International Directory of Company Histories gives the same two steps, dating the 40 per cent to 1985 and the last 10 per cent to 1987, after which Philips owned the company completely.[^idch-polygram] The Wikipedia article on PolyGram carries that sequence too, but in a later passage dates the purchase of a remaining 50 per cent to 1988; that sentence is the outlier and is not followed here, and the Deutsche Grammophon article agrees on 1987.[^wp-polygram][^wp-dg] What the two histories do not reconcile is the first tranche, which one puts at the end of 1984 and the other in 1985, so no date is carried for it. No trade-register entry, company number or registered address for the dissolved PolyGram N.V. could be found through the sources reachable here, and no source read here dates the winding-up of the legal entity, so those fields stay empty and the Baarn head office is listed only as the 1998 directory gives it.
<!--/about-->