 | |
| Formerly | ITT Corporation |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
| NYSE: ITT S&P 400 Component | |
| Industry | Industrial manufacturer (historically aconglomerate) |
| Founded | 1920; 105 years ago (1920) |
| Founder | Sosthenes Behn  |
| Headquarters | Stamford, Connecticut, United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Luca Savi (CEO and president) |
| Products | Specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets |
| Revenue |  US$2.988 billion (2022)[1] |
 US$468.0 million (2022)[1] | |
| US$367.0 million (2022)[1] | |
| Total assets | US$1.8368 billion (2022)[1] |
| Total equity | US$2.248 billion (2022)[1] |
Number of employees | >10,000 (2022)[1] |
| Divisions | ITT Interconnect Solutions |
| Website | itt.com |
ITT Inc., formerlyITT Corporation,[2] is an American worldwidemanufacturing company based inStamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesses include Industrial Process, Motion Technologies, and Connect and Control Technologies.[3]
ITT has over 10,000 employees in more than 35 countries and serves customers in more than 100 countries. The company's long-standing brands include Goulds Pumps, Cannon connectors, KONI shock absorbers and Enidine energy absorption components.[4]
The company was founded in 1920 asInternational Telephone & Telegraph. During the 1960s and 1970s, under the leadership ofCEOHarold Geneen, the company rose to prominence as the archetypalconglomerate, 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, includingSheraton Hotels and Resorts. In 1996, the current company was founded as a spinoff of ITT asITT Industries, Inc. It later changed its name toITT Corporation in 2006.
In 2011, ITT spun off its defense businesses into a company namedExelis (now part ofL3Harris Technologies), and its water technology business into a company namedXylem Inc.[5][6] ITT Corporation changed its name toITT Inc. in 2016.[2]
BrothersHernan Behn and ColonelSosthenes Behn formed International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT) in 1920. The brothers had acquired thePuerto Rico Telephone Company in 1914, along with the Cuban-American Telephone and Telegraph Company and a half-interest in the Cuban Telephone Company.[7][8][9] ITT's first major expansion came in 1923, when it consolidated operators in the telecoms market in Spain into what eventually becameTelefónica.[10][11] From 1922 to 1925, ITT purchased a number[which?] of European telephone companies.
In 1925, ITT purchased several companies fromWestern Electric, asBell had agreed to "divest" itself of its international operations. They included theBell Telephone Manufacturing Company (BTM) of Antwerp, Belgium, which manufacturedrotary system switching-equipment, and the BritishInternational Western Electric, which was renamedStandard 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) andMix & Genest (both of which were internationally active companies) and Romanian telecommunications monopolySocietatea Anonima Română de Telefoane. Its only serious rival was theTheodore 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 theMackay Companies in 1928 through a specially organized subsidiary corporation,Postal Telegraph & Cable. These companies included theCommercial Cable Company, theCommercial Pacific Cable Company,Postal Telegraph, and theFederal Telegraph Company.
On August 3, 1933,Adolf Hitler receivedSosthenes Behn (then the CEO of ITT) and his German representative, Henry Mann, in one of his first meetings with USbusinessmen.[10][12][13][need quotation to verify]
In his bookWall Street and the Rise of Hitler,Antony C. Sutton claims that ITT subsidiaries made cash payments toSS-leaderHeinrich Himmler. ITT, through its subsidiaryC. Lorenz AG, owned 25% ofFocke-Wulf, the German aircraft-manufacturer, builder of some of the most successfulLuftwaffe fighter-aircraft. In the 1960s, ITT Corporation won $27 million in compensation for damage inflicted on its share of the Focke-Wulf plant byAllied bombing duringWorld War II.[10] In addition, Sutton's book uncovers that ITT owned shares ofSignalbau AG, Dr. Erich F. Huth (Signalbau Huth), which produced for the GermanWehrmachtradar equipment andtransceivers inBerlin,Hanover (laterTelefunken 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.[14] The payments to Himmler were noted in a 1946 banking investigation report by the Office of Military Government, United States.[15]
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 toKaffee HAG's share falling to 27% after the death in May of Kaffee HAG chiefDr. Ludwig Roselius.OMGUS documents reveal that the role of the HAG conglomerate could not be determined during WWII.[16]
In 1951, ITT purchasedPhilo Farnsworth'stelevision company to break into that market. At the time Farnsworth was also developing theFusorfusion reactor, which was funded by ITT until 1967.[17] Also in 1951, ITT bought a majority interest in theKellogg 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 mergingFederal Telephone and Radio Corporation into ITT Kellogg and combining manufacturing operations the name again changed toITT Telecommunications, eventually reverting toITT Kellogg.
One prominent subsidiary of this was theAmerican Cable and Radio Corporation, which operated thetransatlantic cables of theCommercial Cable Company, among other ventures. It boughtPhiladelphia-based heating and air-conditioning manufacturer John J. Nesbitt Inc. In 1968, the company purchased Levittown homebuilderLevitt & Sons for a reported $90 million.
In 1972 the KONI Group,[18] manufacturer of shock absorbers was added to the list of ITT's acquisitions.
International telecommunications manufacturing subsidiaries includedStandard Telephones and Cables in the United Kingdom and Australia,Indosat in Indonesia,Standard Elektrik Lorenz (today part ofNokia Germany) andIntermetall [de] Gesellschaft für Metallurgie und Elektronik mbH (acquired fromClevite 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 the (1960s) Pentacontacrossbar switch and (1970s) Metaconta D, L and 10cStored Program Control exchanges, mostly for sale to their respective national telephone administrations. This equipment was also produced under license inPoznań (Poland), and inYugoslavia and elsewhere. ITT was the largest owner of theLM Ericsson company in Sweden, but sold out in 1960.
Alec Reeves, an ITT employee in France in the 1930s, developedpulse-code modulation (PCM) innovations, upon which future digital voice-communication was based.Charles K. Kao, working at STC in the UK, pioneered the use ofoptical fiber from 1966, for which he was awarded the 2009Nobel Prize in Physics.
In 1959,Harold Geneen became CEO. Usingleveraged buyouts, he turned the minor acquisitions of the 1950s into major growth during the 1960s. In 1965, ITT attempted to purchase theABC television network for $700 million. The deal was halted by federalantitrust 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 somehostile takeovers. The deals included well-known businesses like theSheraton hotel chain,Wonder Bread makerContinental Baking,Rayonier, andAvis 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 offor-profit schools, which becameITT/ESI. When ITT attempted to acquireThe Hartford insurance company in 1970, theUS Justice Department filed suit, and ITT agreed to divest assets equal to those of Hartford's, including Avis.[19]
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 the late 1960s, ITT's growth slowed considerably.
In the late 1960s, the British electronics manufacturerKolster-Brandes Limited, KB for short, had run into trouble with itscolor 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 the presidency ofJoão Goulart, the State Governor ofRio Grande do SulLeonel 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 the time and had severe implications forBrazil–United States relations. Some historians even say that the expropriation was one of the reasons for thefederal government of the United States supporting the1964 Brazilian coup d'état.[20]
ITT became enmeshed in scandal in connection with the1972 Republican National Convention. In May 1971, ITT president Geneen pledged $400,000 to support a proposal to hold the convention inSan Diego; only $100,000 of the contribution was publicly disclosed. TheRepublican National Committee selected San Diego as the site in July 1971.
However, on February 29, 1972, newspaper columnistJack 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 the convention and the favorable settlement of aUnited 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.[21] Special prosecutorLeon Jaworski investigated the case but ultimately concluded there was no evidence of criminal conduct by ITT.[22]
Nixon aides such asJohn Dean andJeb Stuart Magruder have alleged that theWatergate break-in was motivated by theCommittee for the Re-Election of the President's suspicion that theDemocratic National Committee was making similar deals to fund its1972 convention. This theory is supported by conversations and exchanges between PresidentRichard Nixon and his chief of staffH. R. Haldeman before and after the break-in, as well as by testimony byE. Howard Hunt. However, this theory has also been disputed by others involved in the break-in such asG. Gordon Liddy.[23]
In 1970, ITT owned 70% of CTC (the Chilean Telephone Company, nowMovistar Chile) and fundedEl Mercurio, a Chileanright-wing newspaper. ITT also had some $200 million-worth of investments inChile. Under Geneen's leadership, ITT funneled $350,000 toAllende's opponent,Jorge Alessandri.[24] WhenAllende won the presidential election, ITT offered theCIA $1,000,000 to defeatAllende, though the offer was rejected.[25] Declassified documents released by the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency in 2000 reveal that the company financially helped opponents ofSalvador Allende's government prepare amilitary coup.[26][27][28] On September 28, 1973, an ITT building in New York City was bombed by theWeather Underground for involvement in the coup d'état.[29][30]
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 the board for four more years.[31][32]
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 newDigital Telephone Exchange, System 1240 (laterSystem 12),[33][34] which reportedly cost US$1 billion.[35] According toFortune 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.[36] System 12 was intended to operate in all markets, and in all modes, from local switches to long distance.[37] The design was done at the Advanced Technology Center (Stamford, Connecticut and thenShelton, Connecticut). Manufacturing was by ITT's subsidiaries, such asBTM inBelgium, where the first production system was installed atBrecht, in August 1982.[37] Initial sales, particularly in Europe and Mexico, were strong, but the new system took longer than expected to integrate, with further losses.[38] Against the advice of headquarters, ITT Telecommunications (ITT Kellogg) in Raleigh, North Carolina undertook the conversion in the US market,[39] and although sales were announced in 1984[40] and 1985,[41] the attempt ultimately failed, in early 1986.[42][43]
ITT divested its global telecommunications product ventures, such asITT Kellogg, toAlcatel Alsthom, 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.[44][45] 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.[46] In 2006, Alcatel Alsthom S.A. acquired withLucent to formAlcatel-Lucent.
ITT Educational Services, Inc. (ESI) was spun off through anIPO 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[47]). ITT merged its long-distance division withMetromedia Long Distance in March 1989, creatingMetromedia-ITT.[48] Metromedia-ITT would eventually be acquired by Long Distance Discount Services, Inc. (LDDS) in 1993. LDDS would later change its name toWorldCom in 1995.
In 1995, with Araskog still at the helm, ITT split into three separate public companies:
In March 2007, ITT Corporation became the first major defense contractor to be convicted forcriminal violations of the U.S.Arms Export Control Act. The fines resulted from ITT'soutsourcing program, in which they transferrednight vision goggles andclassified information aboutcountermeasures againstlaser weapons, including light interference filters, to engineers inSingapore, thePeople's Republic of China, and theUnited Kingdom.[53] They were fined US$100 million although they were also given the option of spending half of that sum onresearch and development of new night vision technology. The United States government will assume rights to the resulting intellectual property.[54][55]
In its investigation and subsequent ruling, theUnited States Department of Justice found that the corporation went to significant lengths to circumvent rules regarding the exports, including setting up afront company. According toU.S. AttorneyJohn L. Brownlee, the company fought the investigation in order "to essentially run out the clock on the statute of limitations."[56]
An agreement was reached on June 26, 2007 for ITT to acquire the privately heldInternational 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.
An agreement was reached September 18, 2007 for ITT to buyEDO Corporation for $1.7 billion.[57] 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, a privately held leading producer of energy-efficientcirculator pumps primarily used in residential and commercial plumbing andheating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
On January 12, 2011, ITT announced a transformation to separate the remaining company into threepublicly traded independent companies.[5] On July 14, 2011, ITT announced the names of the three companies:
Then-ITT stockholders subsequently owned shares in all three companies following the spinoff.[6]
In 1929, ITT's headquarters were at (75) 67 Broad Street,Manhattan,New York,New York.[58] "During World War II the building was a hub for communications with American submarines operating in theAtlantic Ocean."[59]
From 1961[60] to 1989,[61] ITT's headquarters were at 320 Park Ave., New York.[62]
1330 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, which was ITT's corporate headquarters prior to its merger withStarwood, was originally owned by theAmerican 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 was a division of ITT Corporation inNutley,New Jersey. A 300-foot research tower at ITT Avionics was built in 1947 for scientists formicrowave communications systems. Research at the tower had stopped in the 1970s.[63] 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, theNaval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) awarded a contract to ITT Avionics for production of an Airborne Self-Protection Jammer (ASPJ), and a similar contract was issued toWestinghouse Electric Corporation. Westinghouse and ITT had worked together with the U S Government to develop the ASPJ. The contract was later terminated by the governmentfor convenience because the ASPJ failed independentoperational test and evaluation (OPEVAL) procedures.[64]
In 1991, the company won a $19.6 million contract from theUnited States Air Force to develop the "intraflight data link", a communications system for "tactical airborne forces".[65] 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 atPoint Mugu, California andChina Lake, California.[66]
Through their then subsidiarySchaub Elektrik Lorenz, ITT manufactured consumer products under theITT Schaub-Lorenz brand, such asTouring radio receivers andIdeal Color television sets employingHeliochrom picture tubes.[67]
Some television models feature theIdeal-Computer cartridge system, featuring a slot suitable for housing an ultrasonic remote control (acting as front panel buttons while docked), ateletext decoder, orTele-Match video gamededicated consoles[68] (unrelated to the "ITT Telematch Processor" console, a rebrand of theFairchild Channel F); the Ideal-Computer system was licensed to other German producers of its time.
ITT Schaub-Lorenz was also behind theDigivision, the first television employingdigital signal processing of the image.[69]
For a comparable time span, ITT had also controlled and then fully absorbed English radio and television manufacturerKolster-Brandes.
In 1986 throughout the following year, the ITT Telecommunications division (which included Schaub-Lorenz and Kolster-Brandes) was transferred toAlcatel through the FrenchCGE,[70] then in 1988 the consumer electronics division was further spun off and sold toNokia, who sold some products under theITT Nokia brand.[71]Nokia closed their German TV factories in 1996,[72] although their use of the ITT brand may have been discontinued earlier.
Since 2006, the ITT brand and logo are licensed to the Karcher corporation, which is not part of the ITT group.[73]
In 2007, ITT was awarded a $207 million initial contract by theFederal Aviation Administration (FAA) to lead a team to develop and deploy theAutomatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) system. ADS-B is a key component of the FAA'sNextGen air traffic control modernization program intended to increase safety and efficiency to meet the growing needs ofair transportation.[74] ITT is responsible for overall system integration and engineering and under contract options will operate and maintain the system after deployment through September 2025. The ITT team includes its partners AT&T, Thales North America, WSI, SAIC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Aerospace Engineering, Sunhillo, Comsearch, MCS of Tampa, Pragmatics, Washington Consulting Group, Aviation Communications and Surveillance Systems (ACSS), Sandia Aerospace and NCR Corporation.
On September 6, 2008, the ITT-built imaging payload was launched aboard the GeoEye-1 satellite to provide high-resolutionearth imaging. The satellite has the ability to collect images at 0.41-meterpanchromatic (black and white) and 1.65-metermultispectral (color) resolution. GeoEye-1 can precisely locate an object to within three meters of its true location on theEarth's surface. The satellite will also be able to collect up to 700,000 square kilometers of panchromatic imagery per day.
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