ITT.com
ITT Industries
ITT Corporation is one of the largest American manufacturing companies. As a leading defense contractor of United States, it has earned nearly eight billion dollars in 2006 alone. Today, ITT Corporation is well known as one of the largest suppliers of water treatment and waste water treatment plant equipments. Known as the International Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1920’s, the company diverted its attention to the acquisition of diversified industrial interests during the 1960’s, and 1970’s. The company grew in leaps and bounds and divested its telecommunication assets in 1986. Finally, in 1995 it sold off its non-manufacturing units. From 1996 onwards the company assumed the name of ITT Industries, Inc. changing it to ITT Corporation as from July 1, 2006.
History
Sosthenes Behn formed the Puerto Rico Telephone Company in 1920. In 1923 the Spanish Telecoms market was expanded into Telefonica. The company acquired a number of European Telephone companies during the period 1922 to 1925. Finally, in 1925, it purchased the Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company in Belgium that was formerly affiliated with AT & T. The company acquired the German electronics company named Standard Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft and Mix & Genset. During the year 1933, the company got associated with Hitler and his Nazi Germany. It is also said that the company made cash payments to Heinrich Himmler, the infamous Nazi leader. Subsequently, the company purchased shares of the German aircraft manufacturer Focke-Wulf. It also owned the Huth and Company, GMBH that was manufacturing radio and radar parts for German army. During 1950’s the company purchased Philo Farnsworth’s television company. In 1951, ITT also acquired parts of the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company, and in 1952 it completely owned the company changing its name to ITT-Kellogg. Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation was the next to merge with ITT Kellogg. ITT assumed the new name of ITT Telecommunication in 1953, and before its merger with Starwood Hotels & Resorts, the company had its headquarters in New York City. ITT attempted to acquire ABC Television, but did not succeed. The company was sold off to a Japanese company.
International Telecommunications
ITT, as International Telecommunications manufacturing Company, had a number of subsidiaries. They were STC in Britain, SEL in Germany, BTM in Belgium, and CGCT and LMT in France. The father of digital voice communication system, Alec Reeves discovered the Pulse-Code Modulation or PCM during this time. ITT designs were adopted by these companies, as also the Pentaconta crossbar switch in 1960, and Metaconta D.L and 10c Strored Program Control Exchanges in 1970’s. Poznan (Poland) in Yugoslavia was one of the associates in the business. For some time, ITT also held the largest share of LM Ericsson Company in Sweden, but sold it out in the 1960’s.
Administrative and Economic Boom
One man who turned a small enterprise into a massive international organization was Harold Geneen. He was elected as CEO in 1959. When ITT tried to purchase the ABC television network, the federal authorities stopped it, fearing the ingenious growth of ITT. To grow without incurring the animosity of the antitrust laws, ITT started acquiring companies outside the telecommunication industries. They took over Sheraton Hotel Chain, Continental Baking, Hartford Insurance Company, and Avis Rent-a-Car. They took up some smaller business like the auto parts, semiconductors, cosmetics, books, energy, and machinery parts. In 1966 the company also went into acquiring educational services, becoming an operator for profit based schools known as ITT/ESI. The sales that were around $700 million in 1960’s, grew up to a staggering $8 billion in 1970’s, raising the company’s profit content from a mere $29 million to $550 million. Later however, the higher interest rate reduced both, the profits and growth considerably. ITT bought KB, the British electronics company in the 1960’s, and its products were sold as ITT KB in the UK. Business of ITT also had a good growth in the UK.
The 70’s and Afterwards
ITT also procured 70% of Chilean Telephone Company Chiteloc, and in 1970’s, acquired the newspaper company, Mercurio. However, there was some defaming news for ITT in Chile too. It has been blamed for supporting a military coup there, and as a result their office at New York City was bombed by protestors. The ITT was also blamed for funding an anti-trust and anti-government organization, known as Republican National Convention in 1972.
The Araskog Era
Rand Araskog succeeded Geneen as the CEO in 1977. He took steps to dismantle ITT by selling off some of its business operations, especially the telecommunication business. In 1989, ITT sold all international telecommunication products business to Alcatel Lucent, including ITT Kellogg. In 1994, ITT spun off its ITT Educational Service Inc. to itself, and merged its long distance division with Metromedia, that was later acquired in 1993 by LDDS.
The Split
Between 1996 and 2006, ITT was known as ITT Industries. During the year 1995, ITT split up. It was divided into three public companies. The first one is ITT Corp that merged with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide in 1997. However, by 1999, ITT was completely divested from ITT/ESI. In 1999, ITT dropped its name in favor of the Starwood Hotel & Resorts Worldwide. However, despite dropping the name, ITT Harford remained to be a large insurance company. On July 1, 2006, ITT Industries changed its name to ITT Corporation.
Legal Troubles
ITT Corporation was convicted of criminal violation of Arms Export Control Act in March, 2007, due to their outsourcing of night vision goggles and classified information about countermeasures against lesser weapons, to Singapore engineers and People’s Republic of China. They also divulged the information to United Kingdom. A fine of $100 million was imposed on them. But they were also given the option to spend half of that sum in research and development.
Today
ITT proudly carries on with around 40,000 global employees as a world leader in engineering and manufacturing, despite the reverses experienced. ITT produces equipments for water treatment and waste water treatment plants, as well as many other industrial applications. The present headquarter is based in White Plain, New York. The three main activity areas are, defense electronics and services, fluid technology, and motion and flow control. The annual revenue of ITT grew by 11% in 2006 to $7.8 billion. Net income was $581 million and $3.10 per diluted share. The cash flow increased by 9% during this period. The global purchase rose to $280 million in 2006, and the company expects to boost its turn-over to $300 million in 2007, and $400 million in 2008.
Stock Overview
- Current$68.28
- Change+0.38
- Volume852,455
- High $68.69
- Low$67.67
- Year High$70.44
- Year Low$45.34
Revenue and Earnings
(In million dollars)
- Revenue (mil) (FYE)7,807.90
- Income from continuing operations499.70
- Income from total operations499.70
- Diluted EPS from continuing operations
- Diluted EPS from Total Operations2.67
'Dividends
Ex-Dividend Date05/16/07 Dividend rate.56 Yield.82% Yield – 5 year Average.81%
Ratios
Price to Revenue1.64 Price to cash flow16.08 Price to Book4.28 Debt to Equity38.31 Current Ratio1.21 Growth Rates 5-Year Annual Dividend Growth Rate7.96 5-Year Annual Revenue Growth Rate10.80
Leadership
Over the years, ITT has acquired the services of eminent personalities like Bill Taylor, who leads the Industrial, and Bio Pharm Group, as the President of ITT, China. The others are Craig Johnson, Asst. General Counsel, Cornett Lewers, Director of Compliance, Aris Chicles, who is the Vice President, and Angela Buonocore who is the Director of Corporate Relations. All of them are renowned experts in their respective field of activities, and are now integral part of the administrative set of ITT.
Languages
English
Address
- PO Box 3700, 1919 W Cook Rd
- Fort Wayne IN 46801 US
Contact
- ITT Industries
-
- +1 260 451 6800
