Western Union Tries to Save Its Good Name
Western Union Corp. hopes that its expected bankruptcy filing later this year won’t tarnish its good name.
Therefore, it’s changing its name.
Thursday, the 140-year-old company that gave the United States its first coast-to-coast communications wire line link became New Valley Corp.
The change was sought by directors of the debt-laden company so as not to sully the Western Union name if the company files for bankruptcy protection in June, when a $42.2-million debt payment is due. President Robert Amman warned that such a filing is likely.
The company wants to avoid tarnishing its old name because its two remaining profitable operations--money transfers and Mailgrams--will continue to operate under the Western Union label.
Under protective federal regulators, Western Union managed until the late 1970s to carve out a profitable business wiring money around the world or sending written messages by wire through its telex network. But then Western Union got left behind as exploding new technology frontiers ushered in cellular telephones, facsimile machines, satellite communications and computer networks, all suitable substitutes for the standard telegram or telex.
The company scrambled to enter the new businesses. But unable to decide where to place its bets, the company tried everything and paid for its ventures by taking on increasing debt. When its new ventures failed to pan out, the company sold them.
It was not the first time Western Union, based in Upper Saddle River, N.J., failed to latch on to emerging new communication systems. Since its early years, the company has the dubious honor of missing some of society’s largest technological shifts.
In 1876, when it was sending messages across the country by Morse code, the company turned down rights to the telephone, sending Alexander Graham Bell on his way with Western Union’s observation that voice communication would never replace the telegraph, particularly in business.
Why change to New Valley, which carries no connotations to high technology?
The company said the new name retains a link to its deepest roots. For the first five years after its original organization in 1851, the company was known as the New York & Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Co.
