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The story
Founded by Li Dongsheng in 1981, in Huizhou.1
The company was founded in 1981 by two close friends, Tomson Li Dongsheng and Luca Situ, under the brand name TTK as an audio cassette manufacturer.
In 1985, after being sued by Japanese cassette manufacturer TDK for intellectual property violation, the company changed its brand name to TCL by taking the initials from Telephone Communcations Limited.
In 1999, TCL entered the Vietnamese market.
On 19 September 2002, TCL announced the acquisition of all consumer electronics-related assets of the former German company Schneider Rundfunkwerke, including the right to use its trademarks as Schneider, Dual, Albona, Joyce and Logix.
In July 2003, TCL chairman Li Dongsheng formally announced a "Dragon and Tiger Plan" to establish two competitive TCL businesses in global markets ("Dragons") and three leading businesses inside China ("Tigers").
In November 2003, TCL and Thomson SA of France (now part of Vantiva) announced the creation of a joint venture to produce televisions and DVD players worldwide. TCL took a 67 percent stake in the joint venture, with Thomson SA holding the rest of the shares, and it was agreed that televisions made by TCL-Thomson would be marketed under the TCL brand in Asia, and the Thomson and RCA brands in Europe and North America.
In April 2004, TCL and Alcatel announced the creation of a mobile phone manufacturing joint venture: Alcatel Mobile. TCL injected 55 million euros in the venture in return for a 55 per cent shareholding.
In April 2005, TCL closed its manufacturing plant in Türkheim, Bavaria, laying off 120 former Schneider employees.
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In May 2005, TCL announced that its Hong Kong-listed unit would acquire Alcatel's 45 per cent stake in their mobile-phone joint venture for consideration of HK$63.34 million ($8.1 million) worth of TCL Communication shares.
In June 2007, TCL announced that its mobile phone division planned to cease using the Alcatel brand and switch entirely to the TCL brand within five years.
In April 2008, Samsung Electronics announced that it would be outsourcing the production of some LCD TV modules to TCL.
In July 2008, TCL announced that it planned to raise 1.7 billion yuan ($249 million) via a share placement on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to fund the construction of two production lines for LCD televisions; one for screens of up to 42 inches, and the other for screens of up to 56 inches. TCL sold a total of 4.18 million LCD TV sets in 2008, more than triple the number during 2007.
In January 2009, TCL announced plans to double its LCD TV production capacity to 10 million units by the end of 2009.
In November 2009, TCL announced that it had formed a joint-venture with the Shenzhen government to construct an 8.5-generation thin film transistor-liquid crystal display production facility in the city at a cost of $3.9 billion.
In March 2010, TCL Electronics raised HK$525 million through the sale of shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in order to fund the development of its LCD and LED businesses and to generate working capital.
In May 2011, TCL launched the China Smart Multimedia Terminal Technology Association in partnership with Hisense Electric Co. and Sichuan Changhong Electric Co., with the aim of helping to establish industry standards for smart televisions.
In January 2013, TCL bought the naming rights for Grauman's Chinese Theatre for $5 million.
In 2014, TCL changed the meaning of its identifying initials from "Telephone Communication Limited" to a branding slogan, "The Creative Life", for commercial purposes.
In February 2014, TCL spent 280 million RMB to purchase 11 percent shareholdings of Tianjin 712 Communication & Broadcasting Co., Ltd, a Chinese military-owned company which produces communication devices and navigation systems for the Chinese army.
In August 2014, TCL partnered with Roku for use as TCL's primary smart TV platform. TCL Corporation and Tonly Electronics was implicated in bribing a government official in Guangdong province in exchange for government subsidies.
In October 2014, TCL acquired the Palm brand from HP for use on smartphones.
In 2016, TCL reached an agreement with BlackBerry Limited to produce smartphones under the BlackBerry brand, under BlackBerry Mobile. This deal ceased on 31 August 2020.
In 2019, due to restructuring, TCL completed the handover of major assets and was split into TCL Technology Group Corporation (TCL Technology) and TCL Industrial Holdings (TCL Industrials).
In 2020, TCL Technology acquired Samsung Display's assets in Suzhou, China, including a Gen 8.5 fab and a co-located LCD module plant.
In December 2025, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against TCL, alleging that the company illegally collects and shares viewer data with the Chinese government.
On 20 January 2026, TCL and Sony entered a joint venture agreement, according to which TCL will hold 51% and Sony 49% of its shares.
From Wikipedia’s article on TCL Technology, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4