[henrylr]

Hi all,
After much searching for tubes info it seems that Amperex in Heerlen Holland made tubes branded Amperex and Philips. So was Philips just a distributor and not a manufacturer?

[JackD]

Phillips owned Amperex as well as Mullard, Valvo, Tungsram, Miniwatt and eventually Sylvania but allowed them to continue to market under there original branding. With this group of tubes factory and date are sometimes more important than the name on the tube.

[henrylr]

So, if I understand correctly, I had it backwards and Amperex tubes were manufactured by Philips and rebranded as Amperex. Is that correct?

[JackD]

No they all had their own factories and produced their own tubes though not always in every category.  Being at the time one of the largest International Conglomerates in the world Phillips bought each one of the other companies but each company continued to make tubes in their own factory under their own name.  Phillips ownership was the big umbrella for all of them.  They bought Sylvania last when they decided they wanted to compete for US Military contracts which required you to have a US factory.  They later built another factory in the US but buying Sylvania got them in the door. The actual factory the tubes were built in will tell you which one of the individual companies actually built the tube regardless of the name on it.