What’s in a name? At times, confusion
Over the past several weeks, I’ve received many e-mails regarding Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems, better known in the wireless industry as M/A-COM. While most of these e-mails are focused on the company’s struggles to retain the $2 billion contract in New York for a statewide land-mobile-radio system, some have expressed confusion regarding the company’s name.
M/A-COM is the name still used by the state of New York, but the company has been transitioning to the Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems name for months. In fact, at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) show in August, the word M/A-COM was nowhere to be found around the company’s booth.
The reason for the name change is that the M/A-COM name was sold by Tyco Electronics as part of the $425 million deal with Cobham for “old M/A-COM”—the RF components and microwave subsystems portion of the company. That portion of the company includes a lot of aerospace and defense work, including the design and manufacturing of an affordable cognitive radio for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
While the name M/A-COM will live on with the Cobham-owned entity (the sale closed a little more than a month ago), the rest of the business will continue operating under the Tyco Electronics name. For the moment, we at Urgent Communications are referencing the company as Tyco Electronics M/A-COM to help ensure that readers know which company we’re talking about during this transitional phase.
At some point, we’ll use the Tyco Electronics name exclusively, perhaps with a “formerly known as M/A-COM” reference on occasion (much like a magazine that happens to employ me). Eventually, officials for the vendor say they want the company to be known as TE Wireless Systems, but we probably need to get readers accustomed to the Tyco Electronics moniker before shortening it.
