Well, in the publishing world, a "brand name" is known as an imprint, and many major publishers fall into that category. For example, Penguin and Viking are also imprints of Pearson. Random House, Doubleday, Knopf, Bantam, Ballantine, Pantheon, and Vintage are all imprints of Bertelsmann. And so on...
And I apologize if my original response came across as snarky-- I was aiming for jovial.
No problem, I guess I am concerned about names like AW becoming not just acquired but absorbed in such a way that makes me wonder about the future. When I'm interested in a book, one of the things I look at is the publisher - if it is one of the names I respect, then they probably took the time to make sure the book isn't a waste of time.
No doubt staff is drastically reduced in these acquisitions. How does a high-quality name avoid falling apart? Do they start shoveling crap to compete?
The available titles in computing have certainly vastly increased since I started out (for that I am thankful), but for many publishers the quality of editing is very poor.
And I apologize if my original response came across as snarky-- I was aiming for jovial.