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Coby Electronics Corporation was an American manufacturer of consumer electronics products headquartered in Lake Success, New York, with offices and factories around the world (including the United States, Mexico, and China). With the joint efforts of Coby Electronics Co. of
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
and Coby Electronics Corp. of the United States, the products reached consumers in Asia, North America, South America and Europe; however, the company mostly sold in Europe and the United States. Coby also served as an OEM manufacturer for brands including
Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
,
NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...
,
RadioShack RadioShack, formerly RadioShack Corporation, is an American retailer founded in 1921. At its peak in 1999, RadioShack operated over 8,000 worldwide stores named RadioShack or Tandy Electronics in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Austra ...
's Presidian brand and
Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate (" chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai A ...
. Coby formerly provided OEM manufacturing for
Daewoo Daewoo ( ; Hangul: , Hanja: , ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "dae" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerat ...
before it became defunct. Its products are still available today. Coby closed in June 2013 due to financial trouble. Gordon Brothers Group acquired all assets of Coby Electronics, in August 2013, resuming sales. Gordon Brothers Group purchase did not include liabilities such as customer warranties.


History

Coby was founded in 1990 by Young Dong Lee (born 1955 in South Korea), who owned 100 percent of its capital stock. Its name came from deleting the "w" and second "o" in
Cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaqu ...
. The logo was written in Bookman Old Style Bold, which resembles the serif font used in the
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
logo. Lee originally owned an electronics wholesaler called Cowboy.A Maker of $14.99 TV's Aims for Higher Ground - New York Times - April 5, 2006
/ref> The company's original headquarters was in an industrial area of Maspeth, Queens. In 2008, it moved the world headquarters to Lake Success, New York. The former headquarters remained as a company warehouse. With the establishment of a new factory and new manufacturing processes in early 2006, the company very publicly sought to re-brand itself as a maker of higher-quality goods; they tended, however, to be in the low-price range. Its main factory was on in
Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...
Province in China. It was designed to accommodate up to 5,000 employees. In March 2013, Coby Electronics lost a case in New York State by Koninklijke Philips Electronics, N.V for failure to pay DVD licensing fees.Decision and Order
NY Court law report
In April 2013, Coby Electronics laid off 35% of their work staff and closed a warehouse in Savannah, GA, citing slow economic times.


Closure

Due to severe financial problems following a contract dispute with
Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...
, on August 16, 2013, Coby Electronics Corporation went out of business, with
Gordon Brothers Group Gordon Brothers Group, which has its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, is a liquidation and restructuring firm that was founded in 1903 by Jacob Gordon. Notable liquidations *CompUSA * G.I. Joe's *KB Toys *Linens 'n Things *Music World *Th ...
acquiring inventory, fixtures, equipment, intellectual property, global trademarks and patents. Gordon Brothers have stated that they did not assume any of Coby's liabilities, including customer warranties, and they will attempt to revive the company as a consumer electronics firm.
hhgregg H. H. Gregg, Inc. (stylized as hhgregg or HHgregg on their website) is an American online retailer and former retail chain of consumer electronics and home appliances in the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast United States, that operated stores in ...
was the only known retailer honoring warranties for Coby products purchased from their stores, but the retailer has since gone out of business.


Television recall after closure

On December 13, 2013, the
Consumer Product Safety Commission The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC, CPSC, or commission) is an independent agency of the United States government. The CPSC seeks to promote the safety of consumer products by addressing “unreasonable risks” of inj ...
announced the recall of multiple Coby flat-screen television due to overheating and fire concerns. Due to Coby being out of business, select retailers who sold the TFTV3229 set have taken on the responsibility to replace each of the sets returned by their customers.


Products

Coby products spanned home and portable audio and video electronics plus accessories. Leading categories included LCD televisions, internet tablets, MP3 players, tablet DVD players, digital picture frames and surround-sound home theater systems. Available in metropolitan and regional brick and mortar storefronts or via the Internet, Coby's products were found in a wide range of locations.


Recalls

Coby voluntarily conducted four product recalls three years, on 10/22/2009, 10/8/2008, 11/8 and 4/18/2007. In all instances, Coby provided full refunds to all consumers. Some consumers have reported issues with the MP822-4G, and Coby used to have a downloadable "fix" on its website.


Company names

This company also did business under the name of Coby Electronics Inc. and Foshan Coby Electronics Corporation.


Domain name

In 2006, Coby Electronics Corporation unsuccessfully attempted to use the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy to acquire the "coby.com" domain from Coby O'Brien, an individual who had first registered it in 1996; this is commonly referred to as
reverse domain hijacking Reverse domain name hijacking (also known as reverse cybersquatting or commonly abbreviated as 'RDNH'), occurs where a rightful trademark owner attempts to secure a domain name by making cybersquatting claims against a domain name’s "cybersquatte ...
. But O'Brien successfully defended his registration of the domain. Coby Electronics Corporation used "cobyusa.com" instead.


References

{{reflist Electronics companies of the United States Electronics companies established in 1990 American companies disestablished in 2013 Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York (state) 1990 establishments in New York (state) 2013 disestablishments in New York (state) American companies established in 1990