ITT Corporation
Encyclopedia
ITT Corporation is a global diversified manufacturing company based in the United States
. 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 current company was founded as a spinoff of the original ITT Corporation as ITT Industries, Inc. and changed its name to ITT Corporation in 2006.
In 2011, ITT spun off its defense businesses into a company named Exelis, and its water technology business into a company named Xylem.
(ADS-B) system. ADS-B is a key component of the FAA's NextGen air traffic control modernization program intended to increase safety and efficiency to meet the growing needs of air transportation. 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.
and his brother Hernand. The brothers had acquired 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. IT&T's first major expansion was in 1923 when it consolidated the Spanish Telecoms market into what is now Telefónica
. 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
.
, one of the first US businessmen Hitler received after taking power in 1933 was Sosthenes Behn
, then the CEO of ITT, and his German representative, Henry Mann. Antony C. Sutton
, in his book Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, makes the claim that ITT subsidiaries made cash payments to SS
leader Heinrich Himmler
.
ITT, through its subsidiary The Lorenz Company, owned 25% of Focke-Wulf
, 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 Huth and Company, G.m.b.H. of Berlin
, which made radio
and radar
parts that were used in equipment for the Wehrmacht
.
's television
company to break into that market. At the time Farnsworth was also developing the Fusor
fusion reactor
. Also in 1951, ITT bought a majority interest in the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company
, founded in 1897 as a pioneer in "divided-multiple" telephone switchboard
s, 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 the name was again changed to ITT Telecommunications. 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.
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 exchange
s, 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.
became CEO. Using leveraged buyout
s, he turned the minor building of the 1950s into a major force during the 1960s. In 1963, 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 the Sheraton Hotel chain
, Wonder Bread
maker Continental Baking
, The Hartford
insurance company, 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
.
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 the higher interest rates started eating away at profits in the late 1960s, ITT's growth slowed considerably.
In the late 1960s, the British electronics manufacturer Kolster-Brandes
, 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.
was the president of Brazil
. The US government, including President Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, ambassador Lincoln Gordon
, and others, felt he had Communist leanings. ITT owned the phone company of Brazil; Washington was afraid he would nationalize it. ITT's president, Harold Geneen
, was friends with the Director of Central Intelligence, John McCone
. The CIA performed psyops against Goulart, performed character assassination
, pumped money into opposition groups, and enlisted the help of the Agency for International Development and the AFL-CIO
. The 1964 Brazilian coup d'état exiled Goulart and the military dictatorship of Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco
took over. McCone went to work for ITT a few years later. The dictatorship lasted until 1985.
, a Chilean right-wing
newspaper. Declassified documents released by the CIA in 2000 suggest that ITT financially helped opponents of Salvador Allende
's government prepare a military coup. On September 28, 1973, ITT's headquarters in New York City, New York, was bombed by protesters for alleged involvement in the September 11th overthrow of the democratically elected socialist government in Chile
.
In 1972, newspaper columnist Jack Anderson disclosed a memo of ITT's Washington lobbyist, Dita Beard, which revealed a relationship between ITT's providing funds for the Republican National Convention
and a Justice Department
settlement of an antitrust suit favorable to ITT.
Geneen remained CEO of ITT until 1977 while many conglomerates had removed their CEOs due to lack of profits. His successor, Rand Araskog
, dismantled much of ITT, selling most of its holdings, including the last of ITT's telecommunications businesses.
The business historian Robert Sobel
published ITT: The Management of Opportunity in 1982.
The song "International Thief Thief" by Fela Kuti
documents the alleged corruption and meddling of the company in Nigerian politics.[11]
. 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:
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 countermeasure
s against laser weapons, including light interference filters to engineers in Singapore
, 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 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."
for $1.7 billion. After EDO shareholders' approval, the deal was closed and finalized on December 20, 2007.
tissue in plants), and the Defense division will be named ITT Exelis, symbol XLS. Current ITT stockholders will own shares in all three companies following the spinoff.
, 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.
. A 300-foot research tower at ITT Avionics was built in the 1940s for scientists for microwave communications systems. Research at the tower had stopped in the 1970s. In 1996 the tower was demolished with explosives to prepare the site for sale.
In 1991 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, CA and China Lake, CA.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. 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
Harold Geneen
Harold "Hal" Sydney Geneen , was an American businessman most famous for serving as president of the ITT Corporation.-Biography:...
the company rose to prominence as the archetypal conglomerate
Conglomerate (company)
A conglomerate is a combination of two or more corporations engaged in entirely different businesses that fall under one corporate structure , usually involving a parent company and several subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company...
, 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
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is a hospitality ownership and management organization, headquartered in White Plains, New York. One of the world's largest hotel companies, it owns, operates, franchises and manages hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties...
.
In 1996, the current company was founded as a spinoff of the original ITT Corporation as ITT Industries, Inc. and changed its name to ITT Corporation in 2006.
In 2011, ITT spun off its defense businesses into a company named Exelis, and its water technology business into a company named Xylem.
Federal Aviation Administration NextGen
In 2007, ITT was awarded a $207 million initial contract by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to lead a team to develop and deploy the Automatic Dependent Surveillance – BroadcastAutomatic dependent surveillance-broadcast
Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast is a surveillance technology for tracking aircraft as part of the Next Generation Air Transportation System ...
(ADS-B) system. ADS-B is a key component of the FAA's NextGen air traffic control modernization program intended to increase safety and efficiency to meet the growing needs of air transportation. 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.
GeoEye-1
On September 6, 2008, the ITT-build imaging payload was launched aboard the GeoEye-1 satellite to provide high-resolution earth imaging. The satellite has the ability to collect images at 0.41-meter panchromatic (black and white) and 1.65-meter multispectral (color) resolution. GeoEye-1 can precisely locate an object to within three meters of its true location on the Earth's surface. The satellite will also be able to collect up to 700,000 square kilometers of panchromatic imagery per day.History
ITT was formed in 1920, created—with encouragement from New York— by brokers Colonel Sosthenes BehnSosthenes Behn
Sosthenes Behn was an American businessman widely known for founding ITT. He held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army.Sosthenes Behn was born in the island of St. Thomas, then part of the Danish West Indies...
and his brother Hernand. The brothers had acquired the Puerto Rico Telephone Company
Puerto Rico Telephone Company
Claro is the largest Puerto Rican telecommunications services company. It is headquartered in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and has operated for almost a century offering voice, data, long distance, broadband, directory publishing and wireless services for the island residents and businesses. It was...
in 1914 along with the Cuban-American Telephone and Telegraph Company and a half-interest in the Cuban Telephone Company. IT&T's first major expansion was in 1923 when it consolidated the Spanish Telecoms market into what is now Telefónica
Telefónica
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...
. 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
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, and manufactured rotary system switching equipment. In the 1930s, ITT grew through purchasing German electronic companies Standard Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft (SEG) and Mix & Genest
Mix & Genest
Mix & Genest was a 1879 branch of the ITT Corporation.Mix & Genest was founded on the 1st of October 1879 by the businessman Wilhelm Mix and the engineer Werner Genest in Berlin-Schöneberg. The company was very successful and became one of the pioneers in low voltage devices. Among the products...
, both of which were internationally active companies. Its only serious rival was the Theodore Gary & Company
Theodore Gary & Company
Theodore Gary & Company was a 20th century independent telephone firm in the United States. Among its subsidiaries was the Associated Telephone and Telegraph Company, which controlled telephone companies in Latin America and telephone manufacturing interests in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. In...
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
John William Mackay
John William Mackay was an American capitalist, born in Dublin, Ireland.-Early years:His parents brought him in 1840 to New York City, where he worked in a shipyard.-Gold and silver mining:...
in 1928 through a specially organized subsidiary corporation, Postal Telegraph & Cable. These companies included the Commercial Cable Company
Commercial Cable Company
The Commercial Cable Company was founded in the United States in 1884 by John William Mackay and James Gordon Bennett, Jr. Their motivation was to break the then virtual monopoly of Jay Gould on transatlantic telegraphy and bring down prices .The technology was well established by this time, and...
, the Commercial Pacific Cable Company
Commercial Pacific Cable Company
Commercial Pacific Cable Company was founded in 1901, and ceased operations in October, 1951. It provided the first direct telegraph route from America to the Philippines, China, and Japan....
, Postal Telegraph, and the Federal Telegraph Company
Federal Telegraph Company
The Federal Telegraph Company was a United States communications company that played a pivotal role in the 20th century in the development of radio communications. Founded in Palo Alto, California in 1909, it would eventually merge in August 1927 with the Mackay Companies...
.
Nazi involvement
According to Anthony Sampson's book The Sovereign State of ITTThe Sovereign State of ITT
The Sovereign State is a book by Anthony Sampson that uses the example of ITT to make a broader point about the weakening of the authority of traditional national governments by the multinational corporations.-Plot:In part it was a portrait of Harold Geneen, the chief executive of ITT from 1959...
, one of the first US businessmen Hitler received after taking power in 1933 was Sosthenes Behn
Sosthenes Behn
Sosthenes Behn was an American businessman widely known for founding ITT. He held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army.Sosthenes Behn was born in the island of St. Thomas, then part of the Danish West Indies...
, then the CEO of ITT, and his German representative, Henry Mann. Antony C. Sutton
Antony C. Sutton
Antony Cyril Sutton was a British-born economist, historian, and writer.- Biography :Sutton studied at the universities of London, Gottingen, and California, and received his D.Sc. from the University of Southampton...
, in his book Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, makes the claim that ITT subsidiaries made cash payments to SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
leader Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
.
ITT, through its subsidiary The Lorenz Company, owned 25% of Focke-Wulf
Focke-Wulf
Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.-History:...
, the German aircraft manufacturer, builder of some of the most successful Luftwaffe fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
. In the 1960s, ITT Corporation won $27 million in compensation for damage inflicted on its share of the Focke-Wulf plant by Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
bombing during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In addition, Sutton’s book uncovers that ITT owned Huth and Company, G.m.b.H. of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, which made radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
parts that were used in equipment for the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
.
Post-war acquisitions
In 1951, ITT purchased Philo FarnsworthPhilo Farnsworth
Philo Taylor Farnsworth was an American inventor and television pioneer. Although he made many contributions that were crucial to the early development of all-electronic television, he is perhaps best known for inventing the first fully functional all-electronic image pickup device , the "image...
's television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
company to break into that market. At the time Farnsworth was also developing the Fusor
Fusor
The Farnsworth–Hirsch fusor, or simply fusor, is an apparatus designed by Philo T. Farnsworth to create nuclear fusion. It has also been developed in various incarnations by researchers including Elmore, Tuck, and Watson, and more recently by George H. Miley and Robert W. Bussard...
fusion reactor
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
. Also in 1951, ITT bought a majority interest in the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company
Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company
Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company was a major manufacturer of telephone exchange equipment. It was founded in Chicago, Illinois, by Milo G. Kellogg, an electrical engineer...
, founded in 1897 as a pioneer in "divided-multiple" telephone switchboard
Telephone switchboard
A switchboard was a device used to connect a group of telephones manually to one another or to an outside connection, within and between telephone exchanges or private branch exchanges . The user was typically known as an operator...
s, and bought the remaining shares the next year. ITT changed the company's name to ITT Kellogg. After merging Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation
Federal Telegraph Company
The Federal Telegraph Company was a United States communications company that played a pivotal role in the 20th century in the development of radio communications. Founded in Palo Alto, California in 1909, it would eventually merge in August 1927 with the Mackay Companies...
into ITT Kellogg and combining manufacturing operations the name was again changed to ITT Telecommunications. One prominent subsidiary of this was the American Cable and Radio Corporation
American Cable and Radio Corporation
American Cable and Radio Corporation was a communications holding company in the middle 20th century. Created in February 1940, it was a part of ITT World Communications, and operated what was known as the American Cable and Radio System, comprising All America Cables and Radio, the Commercial...
, which operated the transatlantic cables of the Commercial Cable Company
Commercial Cable Company
The Commercial Cable Company was founded in the United States in 1884 by John William Mackay and James Gordon Bennett, Jr. Their motivation was to break the then virtual monopoly of Jay Gould on transatlantic telegraphy and bring down prices .The technology was well established by this time, and...
, among other ventures.
International telecommunications
International telecommunications manufacturing subsidiaries included STCStandard Telephones and Cables
Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd was a British telephone, telegraph, radio, telecommunications and related equipment R&D manufacturer. During its history STC invented and developed several groundbreaking new technologies including PCM and optical fibres.The company began life in London as...
in Australia and Britain, SEL in Germany, BTM in Belgium, and CGCT and LMT in France. Alec Reeves
Alec Reeves
Alec Harley Reeves, CBE was a British scientist best known for his invention of pulse-code modulation . He was awarded 82 patents.-Early life:...
invented Pulse-code modulation
Pulse-code modulation
Pulse-code modulation is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the standard form for digital audio in computers and various Blu-ray, Compact Disc and DVD formats, as well as other uses such as digital telephone systems...
(PCM), upon which future digital voice communication was based. These companies manufactured equipment according to ITT designs including the (1960s) Pentaconta crossbar switch
Crossbar switch
In electronics, a crossbar switch is a switch connecting multiple inputs to multiple outputs in a matrix manner....
and (1970s) Metaconta D, L and 10c Stored Program Control exchange
Stored Program Control exchange
Stored Program Control exchange is the technical name used for telephone exchanges controlled by a computer program stored in the memory of the system. Early exchanges such as Strowger, panel, rotary, and crossbar switches were electromechanical and had no software control...
s, mostly for sale to their respective national telephone administrations. This equipment was also produced under license in Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
(Poland), and in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, and elsewhere. ITT was the largest owner of the LM Ericsson
Ericsson
Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...
company in Sweden but sold out in 1960.
Harold Geneen appointment
In 1959, Harold GeneenHarold Geneen
Harold "Hal" Sydney Geneen , was an American businessman most famous for serving as president of the ITT Corporation.-Biography:...
became CEO. Using leveraged buyout
Leveraged buyout
A leveraged buyout occurs when an investor, typically financial sponsor, acquires a controlling interest in a company's equity and where a significant percentage of the purchase price is financed through leverage...
s, he turned the minor building of the 1950s into a major force during the 1960s. In 1963, ITT attempted to purchase the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television network for $700 million. The deal was halted by federal antitrust
Antitrust
The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...
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 the Sheraton Hotel chain
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts is Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide's largest and second oldest brand . Starwood's headquarters are in White Plains, New York.-Sheraton history:...
, Wonder Bread
Wonder Bread
Wonder Bread is the name of three North American brands of white bread: One produced by George Weston Bakeries in Canada, another by Hostess Brands in the United States, and the third by Grupo Bimbo in Mexico.- United States :...
maker Continental Baking
Continental Baking Company
The Continental Baking Company was one of the first bakeries to introduce fortified bread. It was the maker of the Twinkie and Wonder bread. Through a series of acquisitions and mergers it became Hostess Brands.-History:...
, The Hartford
The Hartford
The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. , usually known as The Hartford, is a Fortune 500 company and one of America’s largest investment and insurance companies...
insurance company, 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
ITT Technical Institute
ITT Technical Institute is a for-profit technical institute with over 130 campuses in 38 states of the United States. ITT Tech is owned and operated by ITT Educational Services, Inc. , a publicly traded company headquartered in Carmel, Indiana. ITT Educational Services, Inc...
.
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 the higher interest rates started eating away at profits in the late 1960s, ITT's growth slowed considerably.
In the late 1960s, the British electronics manufacturer Kolster-Brandes
Kolster-Brandes
Kolster-Brandes Ltd was an American owned, British manufacturer of radio and television sets based in Foots Cray, Sidcup, Kent.The company was a descendant of Brandes, a Canadian company founded in Toronto in 1908. Brandes became part of AT&T in 1922 and a British subsidiary Brandes Ltd. was...
, 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.
Involvement in the 1964 coup in Brazil
João GoulartJoão Goulart
João Belchior Marques Goulart was a Brazilian politician and the 24th President of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on April 1, 1964. He is considered to have been the last left-wing President of the country until Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in 2003.-Name:João Goulart is...
was the president of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. The US government, including President Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara, ambassador Lincoln Gordon
Lincoln Gordon
Abraham Lincoln Gordon was a United States Ambassador to Brazil and the 9th President of the Johns Hopkins University . Gordon had a career both in government and in academia, becoming a Professor of International Economic Relations at Harvard University in the 1950s, before turning his attention...
, and others, felt he had Communist leanings. ITT owned the phone company of Brazil; Washington was afraid he would nationalize it. ITT's president, Harold Geneen
Harold Geneen
Harold "Hal" Sydney Geneen , was an American businessman most famous for serving as president of the ITT Corporation.-Biography:...
, was friends with the Director of Central Intelligence, John McCone
John McCone
John Alexander McCone was an American businessman and politician who served as Director of Central Intelligence during the height of the Cold War.- Background :...
. The CIA performed psyops against Goulart, performed character assassination
Character assassination
Character assassination is an attempt to tarnish a person's reputation. It may involve exaggeration, misleading half-truths, or manipulation of facts to present an untrue picture of the targeted person...
, pumped money into opposition groups, and enlisted the help of the Agency for International Development and the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
. The 1964 Brazilian coup d'état exiled Goulart and the military dictatorship of Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco
Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco
Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco was a Brazilian military leader and politician.He was President of Brazil, as a military dictator, after the 1964 coup d'etat...
took over. McCone went to work for ITT a few years later. The dictatorship lasted until 1985.
Involvement in 1973 Pinochet coup in Chile
In 1970, ITT owned of 70% of Chitelco, the Chilean Telephone Company, and funded El MercurioEl Mercurio
El Mercurio is a conservative Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's paper-of-record and its Valparaíso edition is the oldest daily in the Spanish language currently in circulation. El Mercurio is owned by El Mercurio S.A.P...
, a Chilean right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
newspaper. Declassified documents released by the CIA in 2000 suggest that ITT financially helped opponents of Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....
's government prepare a military coup. On September 28, 1973, ITT's headquarters in New York City, New York, was bombed by protesters for alleged involvement in the September 11th overthrow of the democratically elected socialist government in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
.
In 1972, newspaper columnist Jack Anderson disclosed a memo of ITT's Washington lobbyist, Dita Beard, which revealed a relationship between ITT's providing funds for the Republican National Convention
Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States. Convened by the Republican National Committee, the stated purpose of the convocation is to nominate an official candidate in an upcoming U.S...
and a Justice Department
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
settlement of an antitrust suit favorable to ITT.
Geneen remained CEO of ITT until 1977 while many conglomerates had removed their CEOs due to lack of profits. His successor, Rand Araskog
Rand Araskog
Rand Vincent Araskog is a prominent U.S. businessman and an ex-CEO of ITT Corporation. Araskog is of Scandinavian origin; his grandfather emigrated from Sweden to Minnesota....
, dismantled much of ITT, selling most of its holdings, including the last of ITT's telecommunications businesses.
The business historian Robert Sobel
Robert Sobel
Robert Sobel was an American professor of history at Hofstra University, and a well-known and prolific writer of business histories.- Biography :...
published ITT: The Management of Opportunity in 1982.
The song "International Thief Thief" by Fela Kuti
Fela Kuti
Fela Anikulapo Kuti , or simply Fela , was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.-Biography:...
documents the alleged corruption and meddling of the company in Nigerian politics.[11]
1989 breakup
In 1989 ITT sold its international telecommunications product businesses to Alcatel, now Alcatel-LucentAlcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
. 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.
ITT Technical Institute
ITT Technical Institute is a for-profit technical institute with over 130 campuses in 38 states of the United States. ITT Tech is owned and operated by ITT Educational Services, Inc. , a publicly traded company headquartered in Carmel, Indiana. 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
Metromedia
Metromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...
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
MCI Inc.
MCI, Inc. is an American telecommunications subsidiary of Verizon Communications that is headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia...
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 WorldwideStarwood Hotels & Resorts WorldwideStarwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is a hospitality ownership and management organization, headquartered in White Plains, New York. One of the world's largest hotel companies, it owns, operates, franchises and manages hotels, resorts, spas, residences, and vacation ownership properties...
, selling off its non-hotel and resorts business. By 1999, ITT completely divested from ITT/ESI; however, the schools still operate as ITT Technical InstituteITT Technical InstituteITT Technical Institute is a for-profit technical institute with over 130 campuses in 38 states of the United States. ITT Tech is owned and operated by ITT Educational Services, Inc. , a publicly traded company headquartered in Carmel, Indiana. ITT Educational Services, Inc...
using the ITT name under license.http://www.ittesi.com/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=ESI&script=1801 Also in 1999, ITT Corp. dropped the ITT name in favor of Starwood. - 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.The HartfordThe Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. , usually known as The Hartford, is a Fortune 500 company and one of America’s largest investment and insurance companies...
- ITT Industries — ITT operated under this name until 2006 and is a major manufacturing and defense contractorDefense contractorA defense contractor is a business organization or individual that provides products or services to a military department of a government. Products typically include military aircraft, ships, vehicles, weaponry, and electronic systems...
business.- On July 1, 2006, ITT Industries changed its name to ITT Corporation as a result of its shareholders vote on May 9, 2006.
Criminal prosecution
In March 2007, ITT Corporation became the first major defense contractor to be convicted for criminal violationsCorporate crime
In criminology, corporate crime refers to crimes committed either by a corporation , or by individuals acting on behalf of a corporation or other business entity...
of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act
Arms Export Control Act
The Arms Export Control Act of 1976 gives the President of the United States the authority to control the import and export of defense articles and defense services. It requires governments that receive weapons from the United States to use them for legitimate self-defense...
. The fines resulted from ITT's outsourcing
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a business function to someone else.-Overview:The term outsourcing is used inconsistently but usually involves the contracting out of a business function - commonly one previously performed in-house - to an external provider...
program, in which they transferred night vision goggles
Night vision goggles
A night vision device is an optical instrument that allows images to be produced in levels of light approaching total darkness. They are most often used by the military and law enforcement agencies, but are available to civilian users...
and classified information
Classified information
Classified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation...
about countermeasure
Countermeasure
A countermeasure is a measure or action taken to counter or offset another one. As a general concept it implies precision, and is any technological or tactical solution or system designed to prevent an undesirable outcome in the process...
s against laser weapons, including light interference filters to engineers in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. They were fined US$100 million although they were also given the option of spending half of that sum on research and development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
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
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
found that 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
John L. Brownlee
John L. Brownlee is a former United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia and a former Republican candidate for the office of Attorney General of Virginia.-Personal:...
, the company fought the investigation in order "to essentially run out the clock on the statute of limitations."
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 CorporationEDO Corporation
EDO Corporation was an American company, which was acquired by ITT Corporation in 2007. EDO designed and manufactured products for defense, intelligence, and commercial markets, and provided related engineering and professional services. It employed 4,000 people worldwide and had revenues of $715...
for $1.7 billion. 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 three, stand-alone, publicly-traded, and independent companies. ITT will be divided into separate Industrial Process & Flow Control, Water & Waste Water, and Defense companies. On July 14, 2011, ITT announced the names of the three companies: the Industrial Process & Flow Control division will retain the name ITT Corporation, the Water & Waste Water division will be named Xylem, symbol XYL (a reference to xylemXylem
Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue in vascular plants. . The word xylem is derived from the Classical Greek word ξυλον , meaning "wood"; the best-known xylem tissue is wood, though it is found throughout the plant...
tissue in plants), and the Defense division will be named ITT Exelis, symbol XLS. Current ITT stockholders will own shares in all three companies following the spinoff.
Headquarters
1330 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, New York City, which was ITT's corporate headquarters prior to its merger with Starwood Hotels & Resorts, was originally owned by the ABC Television NetworkAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, 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.
ITT Avionics
ITT Avionics was a division of ITT Corporation in Nutley, New JerseyNutley, New Jersey
2010 Census Data:*TOTAL: 28,370 or 100%*White: 23,405 *African American: 628 *Asian: 2,824 *American Indian and Alaska Native: 36 *Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander: 4...
. A 300-foot research tower at ITT Avionics was built in the 1940s for scientists for microwave communications systems. Research at the tower had stopped in the 1970s. In 1996 the tower was demolished with explosives to prepare the site for sale.
In 1991 the company won a $19.6 million contract from the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
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, CA and China Lake, CA.
See also
- ITT Visual Information SolutionsITT Visual Information SolutionsExelis Visual Information Solutions , a wholly owned subsidiary of Exelis, Inc., provides software for the analysis and visualization of scientific data and imagery...
- Top 100 US Federal ContractorsTop 100 US Federal ContractorsThe Top 100 Contractors Report is a list developed annually by the U.S. General Services Administration as part of its tracking of U.S. federal government procurement....