How a Los Angeles radio maker ended up in every US electronics store
Packard Bell began in 1933, when Herb Bell and Leon Packard started building radios in Los Angeles. Teledyne bought the company in 1968 and eventually let the name go quiet.
In 1985 a group led by Beny Alagem, with Jason Barzilay and Alex Sandel, bought the dormant Packard Bell trademark from Teledyne for less than $100,000. They founded Packard Bell Electronics, Inc. in 1986 and aimed it at a customer nobody else wanted: the person buying a first computer from a store that had never sold one.
That meant Sears, Walmart, Best Buy and Circuit City rather than computer dealers. The machines shipped preloaded and cabled, ready to plug in, which mattered to buyers who had no idea what a sound card was.
It worked quickly. Fortune ran a feature on June 12, 1995 built around the fact that Packard Bell sold more PCs in the United States than anyone, and the brand's share of US units shipped passed 15 percent that year. Larry Mondry, then an executive at the retailer CompUSA, told the magazine: "In a business in which some companies can't put out a new line in six months, they did it in two weeks."
Why Packard Bell computers earned such a bad reputation
The complaints started early. In 1992 the company disclosed that 17 percent of the computers it sold came back, against an industry norm of 5 to 8 percent, and it shelved a plan to go public that year.
Reviewers noticed. PC World, PC Magazine and Consumer Reports rated the machines poorly through the decade, even as they outsold everything else on the shelf.
The bundled software did not help. Packard Bell shipped its own front end, Packard Bell Navigator, aimed at the same nervous first-time buyer that Microsoft Bob was chasing, and it drew the same complaint about standing between people and Windows.
Then came the parts. Attorneys general in 22 states found that Packard Bell stripped returned machines, tested the components and built them into computers sold as new. The case settled in 1998. The company paid $3.5 million to the federal government, $70,000 in fees and investigative costs to each of the 22 states, and more than $1 million in refunds and repair bills, without admitting wrongdoing. It also agreed that boxes for products sold after December 31, 1996 would disclose that the contents "may include components from previously sold computers."
What NEC actually bought when it merged its PC business in
NEC had been buying into Packard Bell for years. In April 1996 it added $283 million, lifting a 19 percent holding to roughly 40 percent once preference shares were counted.
Earlier that year Packard Bell had bought Zenith Data Systems from Groupe Bull of France, which handed it a business customer base and a European footprint it had never had.
In June 1996 the two sides announced they would combine their PC operations, with about $300 million of NEC assets transferred across. The merger closed that July and the business became Packard Bell NEC.
The combination briefly returned the company to the top of US unit shipments. It did not hold. Compaq took the number one spot in early 1997, and the squeeze underneath was brutal: Compaq from above, the discount maker eMachines from below, and a brand that could not charge a premium because nobody believed it had earned one. Packard Bell NEC lost more than $1 billion in 1997.
When did Packard Bell stop selling computers in the United States?
On November 3, 1999, NEC called it. It would close the Sacramento assembly plant, move the headquarters to Mountain View, and cut 80 percent of the 2,600 people still working there.
Forbes, writing the same day, put the bill at more than $2 billion poured in by NEC "only to have it continue to bleed red ink like a stuffed pig."
By 2000 the Packard Bell name was off the US market. The retail shelf space it had effectively invented for home computers did not vanish with it. That space went to Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and Gateway, and later to cheaper laptops from Acer and Dell.
No single decision killed it. A model built on volume at thin margins, a return rate that ate the margin, and a name that had become a joke in the same stores that made it are enough on their own.
How Acer ended up with the name
NEC kept the European business running for another six years, then sold that too. In 2006 it agreed to hand Packard Bell BV, run out of the Netherlands, to Lap Shun "John" Hui, co-founder of eMachines. Neither side disclosed a price.
Acer had bought Gateway in 2007, and Gateway held a right of first refusal over any sale of Packard Bell. When Hui opened talks with Lenovo, Acer used it. The takeover completed in 2008 and put Packard Bell, Gateway and eMachines under one Taiwanese owner.
Acer kept Packard Bell selling in Europe for a few more years, retired eMachines in 2013, and then let Packard Bell go quiet. The website stayed up. The products stopped. For roughly 13 years the brand existed as a trademark and little else, which is the usual fate of a name that outlives the company that earned it.
Can you buy a new Packard Bell in 2026?
Yes, if you live in Europe, the Middle East or Africa. At IFA in Berlin in September 2026, Acer relaunched Packard Bell as a budget lifestyle brand under the line "Tech it easy," timed to what it calls the brand's 100th anniversary.
That anniversary takes some liberties. Acer dates the founding to Los Angeles in 1926, while the Packard Bell partnership between Herb Bell and Leon Packard was formed in 1933. Bell had worked in radio since 1926, which appears to be where the round number comes from.
The relaunch covers nine products. The lead item is the DotBook, a 14.5-inch laptop starting at 499 euros and reaching European retail in the fourth quarter of 2026. Around it sit the DotLoop turntable, the DotTune speaker, the DotLine 4G feature phone, the DotLook audio glasses, the DotShine ring light, the DotCombo keyboard and mouse set and the DotBass headphones. Valerie Piau, EMEA vice president at Acer Europe, framed the pitch this way in 2026: "People need technology that helps them study, work, and stay in touch, all at a fair price." Acer has announced nothing for the United States.
Where to find one today: the beige machines are a separate market. Complete 1990s towers, keyboards, mice, restore discs and the occasional boxed system turn up through Etsy's vintage Packard Bell listings, mostly out of house clearances. Condition and completeness drive the asking price far more than the model does, so compare several listings and assume the hard drive is dead.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Packard Bell still in business in 2026?
Packard Bell exists in 2026 as a brand owned by Acer, not as an independent company. Acer relaunched it at IFA in September 2026 with nine budget products led by the DotBook laptop, sold across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The company founded as Packard Bell Electronics, Inc. in 1986 stopped selling computers in the United States in 1999.
Why did Packard Bell fail in the United States?
Packard Bell sold on price through general retail, and that model stopped working once Compaq attacked from above and eMachines from below in the mid 1990s. Quality was the other half of it: the company disclosed a 17 percent return rate as early as 1992, and in 1998 it settled with 22 state attorneys general over building parts from returned machines into computers sold as new. NEC closed the US business on November 3, 1999.
Can you buy a Packard Bell laptop in the United States?
No. The Packard Bell range Acer announced in September 2026, including the 499 euro DotBook, is sold only in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Acer has not announced a United States release. Anyone in the US who wants the name has to buy a 1990s machine second hand, because no new Packard Bell computer has been sold there since 2000.