The French government made concessions, such as the partial privatisations of Aerospatiale and the Thomson electronics group.

ECONOMIST: European aerospace

For Toshiba and allies Time Warner, Hollywood studio MCA, France's Thomson Consumer Electronics and Japan's Matsushita Electric, Hitachi and Pioneer, the immediate challenge is to make sure SD becomes the industry standard.

CNN: ASIANOW - Asiaweek

"We have worked hand in hand with Hollywood to get some form of broadcast protection, " says Dave Arland, a spokesperson for Thomson Consumer Electronics (nyse: TMS - news - people ).

FORBES: Magazine Article

EADS, admits there is some attraction in getting closer to France's Thomson defence-electronics group, the last unaligned defence company of any significance in Europe.

ECONOMIST: European aerospace

In Paris, the blue-chip CAC 40 shed almost 4 percent, or 189.94 points, to a 17-month low of 4, 824.82, led by consumer electronics maker Thomson Multimedia ( PTMM) and insurer AXA ( PAXA).

CNN: European markets routed

The first transatlantic coupling could be an alliance of Thomson, a partly privatised French defence-electronics group, and Raytheon, America's fourth-biggest defence firm, with which it already collaborates on air-traffic-control and other systems.

ECONOMIST: Transatlantic aerobatics