Columbia Records owned the Climax label and marketed its first 7-inch and 10-inch discs in 1901 with it. Columbia avoided using its own proper name until further legalities with its great disc rival, Victor, could be settled. They were manufactured by a subsidiary, the Globe Record Company, which was then bought out by Victor when Columbia fell behind financially. Victor then sold it back in 1903 with an agreement that the two cross-license their patents. From then on, Columbia could market discs and disc phonographs under its own name.
Columbia revived Climax in 1909 as a client label for Sears, Roebuck and Company. Alongside other subsidiaries like Standard, Harmony and United, these discs drew from material issued on Columbia proper. They were all replaced in 1916 by one budget subsidiary, the Consolidated Talking Machine Company. However, Consolidated itself went out of business in 1918 as World War I made materials scarce and the second generation of record companies came into being.
