Completely separate companies, both called Yamaha. One was spun off from the other, but I don't think there was ever a time when the same company sold both. (Basically, the musical instrument company was redirected to making war materiel during WWII. After the war, they didn't want to just throw away all of their new industrial capacity so they spun off a company to make use of all their new equipment and expertise and then went back to making instruments.)
Not sure about the meaning of your asterisk, but the Nokian Tyres corporation is not related to Nokia the telecoms co, other than being founded in the same town.
Nokia did manufacture rubber boots though, before they spun off the footwear division in 1990 and went all in on electronics.
This changed in 1988 with the formation of an LLC, in 1995 they went public and in 2003 shares still held by the parent company were sold off to Bridgestone.
>I had no idea you've never heard of it. Thanks for keeping us informed.
I see.
In that case, you'll appreciate the fact that the Three Musketeers chocolate bar bears no relationship to Alexander Dumas, the author of the famed book series featuring D'Artagnan and three musketeers.
You might also be interested to learn that Zenit launch vehicles are not made by the organization that produces Zenit optics and cameras.
Most crucially, Lucky grocery store chain in California turns out to be completely different from the Korean Lucky chemical products and electronics conglomerate (known as "Lucky GoldStar" after merging its chem and electronics wings, and, currently, "LG").
I didn't realize when I was a kid that the Yamaha music company came first.
I remember being confused when looking at high end saxophones that one was made by an old French company (that made sense, France makes many fine luxury goods including instruments) and the other was (in my mind) made by a motorcycle company. How could a motorcycle company possibly have compiled the expertise to make high end musical instruments when most musical instrument companies were chasing the low end of the market at the time?
But Yamaha music (1887) was started only 2 years after Selmer (1885). They got their start making reed organs. Reed organs (1) are technical, (2) make sound with reeds, and (3) are luxury items. So their expertise in sax (a reed instrument) and synthesizers (technical keyboard instruments) makes a ton of sense.
It even says in your link "The former motorcycle division was established in 1955 as Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., which started as an affiliated company but has been spun-off as its own independent company. "
