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68-531: Hong Leong Company (Malaysia) Berhad , more commonly known as Hong Leong Group, is a conglomerate based in Malaysia . Founded as a trading company in 1963 by Quek Leng Chan and Kwek Hong Png , the company controls 14 listed companies involved in the financial services, manufacturing, distribution, property and infrastructure development. The group's shares are listed on stock exchanges of Malaysia , Singapore , Hong Kong , and Europe . Hong Leong Financial Group

136-429: A market inefficiency , which undervalues the true strength of these stocks. In her 1999 book No Logo , Naomi Klein provides several examples of mergers and acquisitions between media companies designed to create conglomerates to create synergy between them: A relatively new development, Internet conglomerates, such as Alphabet , Google's parent company belong to the modern media conglomerate group and play

204-871: A parent company that owns and controls many subsidiaries , which are legally independent but financially and strategically dependent on the parent company. Conglomerates are often large and multinational corporations that have a global presence and a diversified portfolio of products and services. Conglomerates can be formed by merger and acquisitions , spin-offs , or joint ventures . Conglomerates are common in many countries and sectors, such as media , banking , energy , mining , manufacturing , retail , defense , and transportation . This type of organization aims to achieve economies of scale , market power, risk diversification , and financial synergy. However, they also face challenges such as complexity, bureaucracy , agency problems, and regulation . The popularity of conglomerates has varied over time and across regions. In

272-678: A 1946 banking investigation report by the Office of Military Government, United States. In 1943, ITT became the largest shareholder of Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH with 29%, and remained so for the duration of the war. This was due to Kaffee HAG 's share falling to 27% after the death in May of Kaffee HAG chief Dr. Ludwig Roselius . OMGUS documents reveal that the role of the HAG conglomerate could not be determined during WWII. In 1951, ITT purchased Philo Farnsworth 's television company to break into that market. At

340-467: A contract to ITT Avionics for production of an Airborne Self-Protection Jammer (ASPJ), and a similar contract was issued to Westinghouse Electric Corporation . Westinghouse and ITT had worked together with the U S Government to develop the ASPJ. The contract was later terminated by the government for convenience because the ASPJ failed independent operational test and evaluation (OPEVAL) procedures. In 1991,

408-480: A disorienting and demoralizing experience for executives at acquired companies—those who were not immediately laid off found themselves at the mercy of the conglomerate's executives in some other distant city. Most conglomerates' headquarters were located on the West Coast or East Coast , while many of their acquisitions were located in the country's interior. Many interior cities were devastated by repeatedly losing

476-540: A focus in Asia.) In Japan, a different model of conglomerate, the keiretsu , evolved. Whereas the Western model of conglomerate consists of a single corporation with multiple subsidiaries controlled by that corporation, the companies in a keiretsu are linked by interlocking shareholdings and a central role of a bank. Mitsui , Mitsubishi , Sumitomo are some of Japan's best-known keiretsu, reaching from automobile manufacturing to

544-718: A major role within various industries, such as brand management . In most cases, Internet conglomerates consist of corporations that own several medium-sized online or hybrid online-offline projects. In many cases, newly joined corporations get higher returns on investment , access to business contacts, and better rates on loans from various banks. Similar to other industries many companies can be termed as conglomerates. ITT Corporation ITT has over 10,000 employees in more than 35 countries and serves customers in well over 100 countries. The company's long-standing brands include Goulds Pumps, Cannon connectors, KONI shock absorbers and Enidine energy absorption components. The company

612-481: 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 . On January 12, 2011, ITT announced a transformation to separate the remaining company into three publicly traded independent companies. On July 14, 2011, ITT announced the names of the three companies: Then-ITT stockholders subsequently owned shares in all three companies following

680-915: A reported $ 90 million. In 1972 the KONI Group, manufacturer of shock absorbers was added to the list of ITT's acquisitions. International telecommunications manufacturing subsidiaries included Standard Telephones and Cables in the United Kingdom and Australia, Indosat in Indonesia, Standard Elektrik Lorenz (today part of Nokia Germany) and Intermetall Gesellschaft für Metallurgie und Elektronik mbH (acquired from Clevite in 1965; now TDK-Micronas) in Germany, BTM in Belgium, and CGCT and LMT in France. These companies manufactured equipment according to ITT designs including

748-625: A small slice of many companies in a fund rather than owning shares in a conglomerate. Another example of a successful conglomerate is Warren Buffett 's Berkshire Hathaway , a holding company which used surplus capital from its insurance subsidiaries to invest in businesses across a variety of industries. The end of the First World War caused a brief economic crisis in Weimar Germany , permitting entrepreneurs to buy businesses at rock-bottom prices. The most successful, Hugo Stinnes , established

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816-584: A subsidiary of Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE), resulting in the establishment of Alcatel N.V. (Netherlands) in 1986. This transaction positioned Alcatel N.V. as the world's second-largest telecommunications company at that time. Initially, ITT retained a 37% ownership stake, but in March 1992, it proceeded to sell off its remaining 30%, effectively ceasing its participation in the telephone industry. In 2006, Alcatel Alsthom S.A. acquired with Lucent to form Alcatel-Lucent . ITT Educational Services, Inc. (ESI)

884-472: Is currently China's largest civilian-run conglomerate by revenue. In South Korea , the chaebol is a type of conglomerate owned and operated by a family. A chaebol is also inheritable, as most of the current presidents of chaebols succeeded their fathers or grandfathers. Some of the largest and most well-known Korean chaebols are Samsung , LG , Hyundai Kia and SK . In India, family-owned enterprises became some of Asia's largest conglomerates, such as

952-455: Is the holding company for Hong Leong Group's banking and financial services. This Malaysian corporation or company article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Conglomerate (company) A conglomerate ( / k ə ŋ ˈ ɡ l ɒ m ə r ə t / ) is a type of multi-industry company that consists of several different and unrelated business entities that operate in various industries. A conglomerate usually has

1020-555: The Aditya Birla Group , Tata Group , Emami , Kirloskar Group , Larsen & Toubro , Mahindra Group , Bajaj Group , ITC Limited , Essar Group , Reliance Industries , Adani Group and the Bharti Enterprises . In Brazil the most important conglomerates are J&F Investimentos , Odebrecht , Itaúsa , Camargo Corrêa , Votorantim Group , Andrade Gutierrez , and Queiroz Galvão. In New Zealand, Fletcher Challenge

1088-761: The Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company (BTM) of Antwerp, Belgium, which manufactured rotary system switching-equipment, and the British International Western Electric , which was renamed Standard Telephones and Cables (STC). Compagnie Générale d'Electricité later purchased BTM; Nortel later purchased STC. In the 1930s, ITT purchased German electronic companies Standard Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (SEG) and Mix & Genest (both of which were internationally active companies) and Romanian telecommunications monopoly Societatea Anonima Română de Telefoane . Its only serious rival

1156-600: The Federal Telegraph Company . On August 3, 1933, Adolf Hitler received Sosthenes Behn (then the CEO of ITT) and his German representative, Henry Mann, in one of his first meetings with US businessmen . In his book Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler , Antony C. Sutton claims that ITT subsidiaries made cash payments to SS -leader Heinrich Himmler . ITT, through its subsidiary C. Lorenz AG , owned 25% of Focke-Wulf ,

1224-522: The ITT Schaub-Lorenz brand, such as Touring radio receivers and Ideal Color television sets employing Heliochrom picture tubes. Some television models feature the Ideal-Computer cartridge system, featuring a slot suitable for housing an ultrasonic remote control (acting as front panel buttons while docked), a teletext decoder, or Tele-Match video game dedicated consoles (unrelated to

1292-582: The People's Republic of China , and the United Kingdom . They were fined US$ 100 million although they were also given the option of spending half of that sum on research and development of new night vision technology. The United States government will assume rights to the resulting intellectual property. In its investigation and subsequent ruling, the United States Department of Justice found that

1360-793: The Puerto Rico Telephone Company in 1914, along with the Cuban-American Telephone and Telegraph Company and a half-interest in the Cuban Telephone Company. ITT's first major expansion came in 1923, when it consolidated operators in the telecoms market in Spain into what eventually became Telefónica . From 1922 to 1925, ITT purchased a number of European telephone companies. In 1925, ITT purchased several companies from Western Electric , as Bell had agreed to "divest" itself of its international operations. They included

1428-820: The Sheraton hotel chain, Wonder Bread maker Continental Baking , Rayonier , and Avis Rent-a-Car . ITT also absorbed smaller operations in auto parts, energy, books, semiconductors, and cosmetics. In 1966, ITT acquired Educational Services, Inc., an operator of for-profit schools , which became ITT/ESI . When ITT attempted to acquire The Hartford insurance company in 1970, the US Justice Department filed suit, and ITT agreed to divest assets equal to those of Hartford's, including Avis. ITT's sales grew from about $ 700 million in 1960 to about $ 8 billion in 1970, and its profit from $ 29 million to $ 550 million. However, when increased interest rates started eating away at profits in

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1496-641: The United States , conglomerates became popular in the 1960s as a form of economic bubble driven by low interest rates and leveraged buyouts. However, many of them collapsed or were broken up in the 1980s due to poor performance, accounting scandals, and antitrust regulation. In contrast, conglomerates have remained prevalent in Asia, especially in China , Japan , South Korea , and India . In mainland China , many state-affiliated enterprises have gone through high value mergers and acquisitions , resulting in some of

1564-572: The highest value business transactions of all time. These conglomerates have strong ties with the government and preferential policies and access to capital. During the 1960s, the United States was caught up in a "conglomerate fad " which turned out to be a form of an economic bubble . Due to a combination of low interest rates and a repeating bear-bull market , conglomerates were able to buy smaller companies in leveraged buyouts (sometimes at temporarily deflated values). Famous examples from

1632-613: The "ITT Telematch Processor" console, a rebrand of the Fairchild Channel F ); the Ideal-Computer system was licensed to other German producers of its time. ITT Schaub-Lorenz was also behind the Digivision , the first television employing digital signal processing of the image. For a comparable time span, ITT had also controlled and then fully absorbed English radio and television manufacturer Kolster-Brandes . In 1986 throughout

1700-622: 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. Alec Reeves , an ITT employee in France in

1768-504: The 1930s, developed pulse-code modulation (PCM) innovations, upon which future digital voice-communication was based. Charles K. Kao , working at STC in the UK, pioneered the use of optical fiber from 1966, for which he was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics . In 1959, Harold Geneen became CEO. Using leveraged buyouts , he turned the minor acquisitions of the 1950s into major growth during

1836-440: The 1960s include Gulf and Western Industries , Ling-Temco-Vought , ITT Corporation , Litton Industries , Textron , and Teledyne . The trick was to look for acquisition targets with solid earnings and much lower price–earnings ratios than the acquirer. The conglomerate would make a tender offer to the target's shareholders at a princely premium to the target's current stock price. Upon obtaining shareholder approval,

1904-522: The 1960s. In 1965, ITT attempted to purchase the ABC television network for $ 700 million. The deal was halted by federal antitrust regulators who feared ITT was growing too large. In order to continue growing while not running afoul of antitrust legislation, it moved to acquire companies outside of the telecommunications industry. Under Geneen, ITT bought over 300 companies in the 1960s, including some hostile takeovers . The deals included well-known businesses like

1972-618: The 1980s, General Electric also moved into financing and financial services , which in 2005 accounted for about 45% of the company's net earnings. GE formerly owned a minority interest in NBCUniversal , which owns the NBC television network and several other cable networks . United Technologies was also a successful conglomerate until it was dismantled in the late 2010s. With the spread of mutual funds (especially index funds since 1976), investors could more easily obtain diversification by owning

2040-956: The German aircraft-manufacturer, builder of some of the most successful Luftwaffe fighter-aircraft. In the 1960s, ITT Corporation won $ 27 million in compensation for damage inflicted on its share of the Focke-Wulf plant by Allied bombing during World War II . In addition, Sutton's book uncovers that ITT owned shares of Signalbau AG, Dr. Erich F. Huth (Signalbau Huth), which produced for the German Wehrmacht radar equipment and transceivers in Berlin , Hanover (later Telefunken factory), and other places. While ITT - Focke-Wulf planes were bombing Allied ships and ITT lines were passing information to German submarines, ITT direction-finders were saving other ships from torpedoes. The payments to Himmler were noted in

2108-598: The United States, some of the examples are The Walt Disney Company , Warner Bros. Discovery and The Trump Organization (see below). In Canada, one of the examples is Hudson's Bay Company . Another such conglomerate is J.D. Irving, Limited , which controls a large portion of the economic activities as well as media in the Province of New Brunswick . Some cite the decreased cost of conglomerate stock (a phenomenon known as conglomerate discount ) as evidential of these disadvantages, while other traders believe this tendency to be

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2176-533: The board for four more years. Araskog over the next two decades dismantled much of ITT, selling most of its holdings. Starting in 1977, ITT set out to develop an ambitious new Digital Telephone Exchange , System 1240 (later System 12 ), which reportedly cost US$ 1 billion. According to Fortune in 1985, Araskog directed the company's efforts towards a relentless pursuit of developing and promoting System 12, while channeling profits from successful ventures into fulfilling System 12's voracious demands. System 12

2244-611: The break-in, as well as by testimony by E. Howard Hunt . However, this theory has also been disputed by others involved in the break-in such as G. Gordon Liddy . In 1970, ITT owned 70% of CTC (the Chilean Telephone Company, now Movistar Chile) and funded El Mercurio , a Chilean right-wing newspaper. ITT also had some $ 200 million-worth of investments in Chile . Under Geneen's leadership, ITT funneled $ 350,000 to Allende 's opponent, Jorge Alessandri . When Allende won

2312-792: The case but ultimately concluded there was no evidence of criminal conduct by ITT. Nixon aides such as John Dean and Jeb Stuart Magruder have alleged that the Watergate break-in was motivated by the Committee for the Re-Election of the President 's suspicion that the Democratic National Committee was making similar deals to fund its 1972 convention . This theory is supported by conversations and exchanges between President Richard Nixon and his chief of staff H. R. Haldeman before and after

2380-806: The company won a $ 19.6 million contract from the United States Air Force to develop the "intraflight data link", a communications system for "tactical airborne forces". In 2004, they were awarded a $ 24.9 million contract from the Naval Air Systems Command Weapons Division for engineering software support services provided to the Tactical Aircraft Electronic Warfare Integrated Program Team at Point Mugu, California and China Lake, California . Through their then subsidiary Schaub Elektrik Lorenz , ITT manufactured consumer products under

2448-455: The conglomerate usually settled the transaction in something other than cash, like debentures , bonds , warrants or convertible debentures (issuing the latter two would effectively dilute its shareholders down the road, but many shareholders at the time were not thinking that far ahead). The conglomerate would then add the target's earnings to its earnings, thereby increasing the conglomerate's overall earnings per share . In finance jargon,

2516-545: The convention and the favorable settlement of a United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division lawsuit. The resulting scandal, including a Senate investigation and the threat of criminal charges, caused ITT to withdraw its support for the San Diego convention. That combined with a shortage of hotel space and problems with the proposed venue led the RNC to move the convention to Miami. Special prosecutor Leon Jaworski investigated

2584-521: The convention in San Diego ; only $ 100,000 of the contribution was publicly disclosed. The Republican National Committee selected San Diego as the site in July 1971. However, on February 29, 1972, newspaper columnist Jack Anderson disclosed an interoffice memo from ITT lobbyist Dita Beard to ITT vice president Bill Merriam, dated June 25, 1971. The memo appeared to draw a connection between ITT's contribution to

2652-434: The corporation went to significant lengths to circumvent rules regarding the exports, including setting up a front company . According to U.S. Attorney John L. Brownlee , the company fought the investigation in order "to essentially run out the clock on the statute of limitations." An agreement was reached on June 26, 2007 for ITT to acquire the privately held International Motion Control (IMC) for $ 395 million. The deal

2720-449: The coup d'état. In March 1977, Lyman C. Hamilton was appointed CEO, and Geneen became chairman of the board. In June 1979, while Hamilton was in Asia, Geneen became aware of Hamilton's plans to divest ITT's European consumer goods business, and lobbied his fellow board members to dismiss Hamilton. In July 1979, Rand Araskog became CEO. Shortly thereafter, Araskog insisted that the board remove Geneen as Chairman, though Geneen remained on

2788-522: The current company was founded as a spinoff of ITT as ITT Industries, Inc. It later changed its name to ITT Corporation in 2006. In 2011, ITT spun off its defense businesses into a company named Exelis (now part of L3Harris Technologies ), and its water technology business into a company named Xylem Inc. ITT Corporation changed its name to ITT Inc. in 2016. The brothers Hernan Behn and Colonel Sosthenes Behn formed International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT) in 1920. The brothers had acquired

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2856-462: The end came in January 1968, when Litton shocked Wall Street by announcing a quarterly profit of only 21 cents per share, versus 63 cents for the previous year's quarter. This was "just a decline in earnings of about 19 percent", not an actual loss or a corporate scandal, and "yet the stock was crushed, plummeting from $ 90 to $ 53". It would take two more years before it was clear that the conglomerate fad

2924-751: The examples are Adamjee Group , Dawood Hercules , House of Habib , Lakson Group and Nishat Group . In the Philippines , the largest conglomerate of the country is the Ayala Corporation which focuses on malls , bank , real estate development , and telecommunications . The other big conglomerates in the Philippines included JG Summit Holdings , Lopez Holdings Corporation , ABS-CBN Corporation , GMA Network, Inc. , MediaQuest Holdings , TV5 Network, Inc. , SM Investments Corporation , Metro Pacific Investments Corporation , and San Miguel Corporation . In

2992-714: The headquarters of corporations to mergers, in which independent ventures were reduced to subsidiaries of conglomerates based in New York or Los Angeles. Pittsburgh, for example, lost about a dozen. The terror instilled by the mere prospect of such harsh consequences for executives and their home cities meant that fending off takeovers, real or imagined, was a constant distraction for executives at all corporations seen as choice acquisition targets during this era. The chain reaction of rapid growth through acquisitions could not last forever. When interest rates rose to offset rising inflation, conglomerate profits began to fall. The beginning of

3060-511: The helm, ITT split into three separate public companies: In March 2007, ITT Corporation became the first major defense contractor to be convicted for criminal violations of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act . The fines resulted from ITT's outsourcing program, in which they transferred night vision goggles and classified information about countermeasures against laser weapons , including light interference filters, to engineers in Singapore ,

3128-551: The late 1960s, ITT's growth slowed considerably. In the late 1960s, the British electronics manufacturer Kolster-Brandes Limited , KB for short, had run into trouble with its color television manufacturing, and turned to ITT for help; ITT bought out the company, and for a while, UK products were badged "ITT KB" then eventually just ITT. By the late 1970s, ITT had a good presence on the UK domestic electrical market in television, audio and portable radio products. In February 1962, during

3196-503: The most powerful private economic conglomerate in 1920s Europe – Stinnes Enterprises – which embraced sectors as diverse as manufacturing, mining, shipbuilding, hotels, newspapers, and other enterprises. The best-known British conglomerate was Hanson plc . It followed a rather different timescale than the U.S. examples mentioned above, as it was founded in 1964 and ceased to be a conglomerate when it split itself into four separate listed companies between 1995 and 1997. In Hong Kong, some of

3264-567: The name again changed to ITT Telecommunications , eventually reverting to ITT Kellogg . One prominent subsidiary of this was the American Cable and Radio Corporation , which operated the transatlantic cables of the Commercial Cable Company , among other ventures. It bought Philadelphia -based heating and air-conditioning manufacturer John J. Nesbitt Inc. In 1968, the company purchased Levittown homebuilder Levitt & Sons for

3332-652: The new businesses they had recently purchased, and by the mid-1970s most conglomerates had been reduced to shells. The conglomerate fad was subsequently replaced by newer ideas like focusing on a company's core competency and unlocking shareholder value (which often translate into spin-offs ). In other cases, conglomerates are formed for genuine interests of diversification rather than manipulation of paper return on investment. Companies with this orientation would only make acquisitions or start new branches in other sectors when they believed this would increase profitability or stability by sharing risks. Flush with cash during

3400-527: The new system took longer than expected to integrate, with further losses. Against the advice of headquarters, ITT Telecommunications ( ITT Kellogg ) in Raleigh, North Carolina undertook the conversion in the US market, and although sales were announced in 1984 and 1985, the attempt ultimately failed, in early 1986. ITT divested its global telecommunications product ventures, such as ITT Kellogg , to Alcatel Alsthom ,

3468-595: The presidency of João Goulart , the State Governor of Rio Grande do Sul Leonel Brizola decided to expropriate a Brazilian subsidiary of ITT, the Companhia Telefônica Nacional. During the next years of Goulart's presidency, the expropriation was one of the most debated Brazilian political issues. The action from the State Governor to expropriate the company was never supported by the Brazilian president at

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3536-589: The presidential election, ITT offered the CIA $ 1,000,000 to defeat Allende , though the offer was rejected. Declassified documents released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 2000 reveal that the company financially helped opponents of Salvador Allende 's government prepare a military coup . On September 28, 1973, an ITT building in New York City was bombed by the Weather Underground for involvement in

3604-714: The production of electronics such as televisions. While not a keiretsu, Sony is an example of a modern Japanese conglomerate with operations in consumer electronics , video games , the music industry , television and film production and distribution , financial services , and telecommunications . In China, many of the country's conglomerates are state-owned enterprises , but there is a substantial number of private conglomerates. Notable conglomerates include BYD , CIMC , China Merchants Bank , Huawei , JXD , Meizu , Ping An Insurance , TCL , Tencent , TP-Link , ZTE , Legend Holdings , Dalian Wanda Group , China Poly Group , Beijing Enterprises , and Fosun International . Fosun

3672-545: The spinoff. In 1929, ITT's headquarters were at (75) 67 Broad Street, Manhattan , New York , New York . "During World War II the building was a hub for communications with American submarines operating in the Atlantic Ocean ." From 1961 to 1989, ITT's headquarters were at 320 Park Ave., New York. 1330 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, which was ITT's corporate headquarters prior to its merger with Starwood ,

3740-593: The time Farnsworth was also developing the Fusor fusion reactor , which was funded by ITT until 1967. Also in 1951, ITT bought a majority interest in the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company (founded in 1897 as a pioneer in "divided-multiple" telephone switchboards ) and bought the remaining shares the next year. ITT changed the company's name to ITT Kellogg. After merging Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation into ITT Kellogg and combining manufacturing operations

3808-417: The time and had severe implications for Brazil–United States relations . Some historians even say that the expropriation was one of the reasons for the federal government of the United States supporting the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état . ITT became enmeshed in scandal in connection with the 1972 Republican National Convention . In May 1971, ITT president Geneen pledged $ 400,000 to support a proposal to hold

3876-406: The transaction was " accretive to earnings." The relatively lax accounting standards of the time meant that accountants were often able to get away with creative mathematics in calculating the conglomerate's post-acquisition consolidated earnings numbers. In turn, the price of the conglomerate's stock would go up, thereby re-establishing its previous price-earnings ratio, and then it could repeat

3944-425: The well-known conglomerates include Jardine Matheson (AD1824), Swire Group (AD1816), (British companies, one Scottish one English; companies that have a history of over 150 years and have business interests that span across four continents with a focus in Asia.) C K Hutchison Whampoa (now CK Hutchison Holdings ), Sino Group , (both Asian-owned companies specialize business such as real estate and hospitality with

4012-663: The whole process with a new target. In plain English, conglomerates were using rapid acquisitions to create the illusion of rapid growth. In 1968, the peak year of the conglomerate fad, U.S. corporations completed a record number of mergers: approximately 4,500. In that year, at least 26 of the country's 500 largest corporations were acquired, of which 12 had assets above $ 250 million. All this complex company reorganization had very real consequences for people who worked for companies that were either acquired by conglomerates or were seen as likely to be acquired by them. Acquisitions were

4080-523: Was a division of ITT Corporation in Nutley , New Jersey . A 300-foot research tower at ITT Avionics was built in 1947 for scientists for microwave communications systems. Research at the tower had stopped in the 1970s. On the morning of April 4, 1996 at 10:00 am, the tower was demolished with explosives to prepare the site for sale. In October 1989, the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) awarded

4148-514: Was closed and finalized in September 2007. An announcement was made September 14, 2010 to close the Cleveland site. An agreement was reached September 18, 2007 for ITT to buy EDO Corporation for $ 1.7 billion. After EDO shareholders' approval, the deal was closed and finalized on December 20, 2007. On April 16, 2009, ITT announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Laing GmbH of Germany,

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4216-462: Was formed in 1981 from the merger of Fletcher Holdings , Challenge Corporation, and Tasman Pulp & Paper, in an attempt to create a New Zealand-based multi-national company. At the time, the newly merged company dealt in construction, building supplies, pulp and paper mills, forestry, and oil & gas. Following a series of bungled investments, the company demerged in the early 2000s to concentrate on building and construction. In Pakistan , some of

4284-443: Was founded in 1920 as International Telephone & Telegraph . During the 1960s and 1970s, under the leadership of 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. In 1995, the company sold off its hospitality portfolio, including Sheraton Hotels and Resorts . In 1996,

4352-639: Was intended to operate in all markets, and in all modes, from local switches to long distance. The design was done at the Advanced Technology Center ( Stamford, Connecticut and then Shelton, Connecticut ). Manufacturing was by ITT's subsidiaries, such as BTM in Belgium , where the first production system was installed at Brecht , in August 1982. Initial sales, particularly in Europe and Mexico, were strong, but

4420-487: Was on its way out. The stock market eventually figured out that the conglomerates' bloated and inefficient businesses were as cyclical as any others—indeed, it was that cyclical nature that had caused such businesses to be such undervalued acquisition targets in the first place —and their descent put "the lie to the claim that diversification allowed them to ride out a downturn." A major selloff of conglomerate shares ensued. To keep going, many conglomerates were forced to shed

4488-533: Was originally owned by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which ITT attempted to acquire in 1963. After a financial downturn, ABC moved out of the building known as "Brown Rock" and sold it to a Japanese conglomerate which then in turn leased a good portion out to ITT Corporation. In 2022, ITT's global headquarters moved out of White Plains, NY and into Harbor Point in Stamford, CT. ITT Avionics

4556-537: Was spun off through an IPO in 1994, with ITT as an 83% shareholder (in September 2016, ESI announced plans to close all of its 130 Technical Institutes in 38 states because their students were no longer eligible for federal aid ). ITT merged its long-distance division with Metromedia Long Distance in March 1989, 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, with Araskog still at

4624-453: 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

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