ITT Corporation (NYSE: ITT) is a global diversified manufacturing company with 2008 revenues of $11.7 billion. ITT participates in global markets including water and fluids management, defense and security, and motion and flow control. Forbes.com named ITT Corporation to its list of "America's Best Managed Companies" for 2008, and awarded the company the top spot in the conglomerates category.
ITT's water business is the world's largest supplier of pumps and systems to transport, treat and control water, and other fluids. The company's defense electronics and services business is one of the ten largest US defense contractors providing defense and security systems, advanced technologies and operational services for military and civilian customers. ITT's motion and flow control business manufactures specialty components for aerospace, transportation and industrial markets.
In 2008, ITT was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) for the tenth time in recognition of the company's economic, environmental and social performance. ITT is one of the few companies to be included on the list every year since its inception in 1999.
The company was founded in 1920 as International Telephone & Telegraph. During the 1960s and 1970s, under the leadership of its CEO Harold Geneen the company rose to prominence as the archetypal conglomerate, deriving its growth from hundreds of acquisitions in diversified industries. ITT divested its telecommunications assets in 1986, and in 1995 spun off its non-manufacturing divisions, later to be purchased by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.
In 1996, the company became ITT Industries, Inc., but changed its name back to ITT Corporation in 2006.
History
ITT was formed in 1920, created from the Puerto Rico Telephone Company co-founded by Sosthenes Behn.[1] Its first major expansion was in 1923 when it consolidated the Spanish Telecoms market into what is now Telefónica.[2] From 1922 to 1925 it purchased a number of European telephone companies. In 1925 it purchased the Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company of Brussels, Belgium, which was formerly affiliated with AT&T, and manufactured rotary system switching equipment. In the 1930s, ITT grew through purchasing German electronic companies Standard Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft (SEG) and Mix & Genest, both of which were internationally active companies. Its only serious rival was the Theodore Gary & Company conglomerate, which operated a subsidiary, Associated Telephone and Telegraph, with manufacturing plants in Europe.
In the United States, ITT acquired the various companies of the Mackay Companies in 1928 through a specially organized subsidiary corporation, Postal Telegraph & Cable. These companies included the Commercial Cable Company, the Commercial Pacific Cable Company, Postal Telegraph, and the Federal Telegraph Company.
International telecommunications
International telecommunications manufacturing subsidiaries included STC in Australia and Britain, SEL in Germany, BTM in Belgium, and CGCT and LMT in France. Alec Reeves invented Pulse-code modulation (PCM), upon which future digital voice communication was based. These companies manufactured equipment according to ITT designs including the (1960s) Pentaconta crossbar switch and (1970s) Metaconta D, L and 10c Stored Program Control exchanges, mostly for sale to their respective national telephone administrations. This equipment was also produced under license in Poznań (Poland), and in Yugoslavia, and elsewhere. ITT was the largest owner of the LM Ericsson company in Sweden but sold out in 1960.
1989 breakup
In 1989 ITT sold its international telecommunications product businesses to Alcatel, now Alcatel-Lucent. ITT Kellogg was also part of the 1989 sale to Alcatel. The company was then sold to private investors in the U.S. and went by the name Cortelco Kellogg. Today the company is known as Cortelco (Corinth Telecommunications Corporation, named for Corinth, MS headquarters). ITT Educational Services, Inc. (ESI) was spun off through an IPO in 1994, with ITT as an 83% shareholder. ITT merged its long distance division with Metromedia Long Distance, creating Metromedia-ITT. Metromedia-ITT would eventually be acquired by Long Distance Discount Services, Inc. (LDDS) in 1993. LDDS would later change its name to Worldcom in 1995.
In 1995, ITT Corporation split into 3 separate public companies:
* ITT Corp. — In 1997, ITT Corp. completed a merger with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, selling off its non-hotel and resorts business. By 1999, ITT completely divested from ITT/ESI; however, the schools still operate as ITT Technical Institute using the ITT name under license.[1] Also in 1999, ITT Corp. dropped the ITT name in favor of Starwood.[7]
* ITT Hartford (insurance) — Today ITT Hartford is still a major insurance company although it has dropped the ITT from its name altogether. The company is now known as The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.
* ITT Industries — ITT operated under this name until 2006 and is a major manufacturing and defense contractor business.
o On July 1, 2006, ITT Industries changed its name to ITT Corporation as a result of its shareholders vote on May 9, 2006.
Purchase of International Motion Control (IMC)
An agreement was reached on June 26, 2007 for ITT to acquire privately held International Motion Control (IMC) for $395 million. The deal was closed and finalized in September 2007. An announcement was made September 14, 2010, to close the Cleveland site.
Purchase of EDO
An agreement was reached September 18, 2007 for ITT to buy EDO Corporation for $1.7 billion.[12] After EDO shareholders' approval, the deal was closed and finalized on December 20, 2007.
Purchase of Laing
On April 16, 2009, ITT announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Laing GmbH of Germany, a privately held leading producer of energy-efficient circulator pumps primarily used in residential and commercial plumbing and heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
2011 breakup
On January 12, 2011, ITT announced a transformation to separate the company into 3, stand-alone, publicly-traded, and independent companies.
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