This article is about the present-day Westinghouse Electric Corporation founded in 1998 primarily to license the Westinghouse brand to other manufacturers. For the historic company, see Westinghouse Electric (1886). For other uses, see Westinghouse.
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation (WEC) is a Delaware corporation founded in 1998 by CBS Corporation (the renamed 'original' WEC and predecessor of the current CBS Corporation) to manage the intellectual property assets relating to the Westinghouse brand.
CBS Corporation was purchased by Viacom, Inc. in 1999. Viacom renamed itself CBS Corporation in 2005 and spun off a new subsidiary which assumed the Viacom name. This new CBS Corporation retains ownership of Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
1997 - Original Westinghouse Electric Corporation changes its name to CBS Corporation, ending the reign of the 101-year old brand as the name of a major corporation
1998 - CBS Corporation founds the present-day subsidiary WEC whose sole role is to own the intellectual property assets of the Westinghouse brand and to license it to other manufacturers and distributors
1999 - CBS Corporation sells its remaining nuclear assets to BNFL who operates the business as Westinghouse Electric Company; the business is later sold to the Toshiba Group and currently operates under its present name. CBS is also acquired by Viacom.
2005 - Viacom changes its name to CBS Corporation and spins off a new subsidiary company that calls itself Viacom. CBS Corporation retains ownership of WEC.
Licensing of the Westinghouse brand
Starting in 1998, the new WEC has licensed the famous brand for use on a multitude of products, some (though not all) of which were in similar categories to those sold by the historic version of the company. It should be noted that, though these products advertise the Westinghouse name, they are neither manufactured by the historic Westinghouse company nor are the quality standards necessarily actively maintained by WEC.
