Acorn Group Plc is planning to change its name – to reflect the company’s change of focus to a developer of products for set-top box makers and other consumer electronics devices. The company’s scheme was spotted when it registered e-14.com as an internet address – and observers were quick to spot that silicon is the 14th element of the Periodic Table. However, while confirming that the group was planning to announce a new name, a spokeswoman denied that Element 14 will definitely be their new title. Others names are also under consideration. We’ll be making an announcement in due course when the name has been agreed and decided upon. The company made it name as a supplier of RISC-based PCs with the company’s own operating system, primarily to the education market. But the market finally collapsed in the first half of 1998, the then CEO and three senior staff quit, and new CEO Stan Boland focused the company on the digital TV market. His ambitions were strengthened in December 1998 when Acorn poached a key design team from ST Microelectronics to be the core of a new system on a chip center the company plans to base in Bristol, UK. Whatever name is chosen to reflect the company’s new ambitions will be announced next week.
