Corporations: The RCA Reach

Under David Sarnoff, the Army Reserve officer who helped found the firm back in 1919, the Radio Corporation of America grew into a giant largely by feeding on itself: it manufactured radio and TV sets, then created a market for them by beaming programs over its NBC network subsidiary. "The General," 77 and ailing, is still board chairman, but RCA is now run by his son, President Robert W. Sarnoff, 50, who has chosen to move the firm into other fields. The younger Sarnoff, who has already engineered RCA's long-reach acquisitions of...

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