Instead of building complete locomotives, ABB's transportation activities shifted increasingly toward traction motors and electric components. In 1999, the company sold its stake in the Adtranz train-building business to DaimlerChrysler. The acquisition increased ABB's presence in the high-tech industrial robotics and factory control system sectors, which reducing its reliance on traditional heavy engineering sectors such as power generation and transmission. That same year, ABB completed its purchase of Elsag Bailey Process Automation, a Netherlands-based maker of industrial control systems, for $2.1 billion. Īs a final step in the integration of the companies formerly known as ASEA and BBC, in 1999 the directors unanimously approved a plan to create a unified, single class of shares in the group. In 1998, ABB acquired Sweden-based Alfa Laval's automation unit, which at the time was one of Europe's top suppliers of process control systems and automation equipment. The company also acted to improve the productivity and profitability of its Western operations, taking an $850 million restructuring charge as it shifted more resources to emerging markets and scaled back some facilities in higher-cost countries. Ī few months after the July 1997 Asian financial crisis, ABB announced plans to accelerate its expansion in Asia. The new company, ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation ( Adtranz), had an initial global market share of nearly 12 percent. The goal was to create the world's largest maker of locomotives and railway cars. In 1995, ABB agreed to merge its rail engineering unit with that of Daimler-Benz AG of Germany. Through the 1990s, ABB continued its strategy of targeted expansion in Eastern Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas. By 1994, ABB had 30,000 employees and 100 plants, engineering, service and marketing centers across Asia numbers that would continue to grow. A similar pattern played out in Asia, where economic reforms in China and the lifting of some Western sanctions, helped open the region to a new wave of outside investment and industrial growth. By the end of 1991, the company employed 10,000 people in the region. In the early 1990s, ABB started expanding in Central and Eastern Europe. At the time of its launch, the IRB 6000 was the fastest and most accurate spot-welding robot on the market. The first modular robot, the IRB 6000, can be reconfigured to perform a variety of specific tasks. ABB's 1991 introduction of the IRB 6000 robot, demonstrated its increased capacity in this field. The acquisition expanded ABB's presence in automated spot-welding and positioned the company to better serve the American automotive industry. The following year, ABB bought the robotics business of Cincinnati Milacron in the US. In 1989, ABB purchased an additional 40 companies, including Westinghouse Electric's transmission and distribution assets, and announced an agreement to purchase the Stamford, Connecticut-based Combustion Engineering (C-E). In its first year, ABB made some 15 acquisitions, including the environmental control group Fläkt AB of Sweden, the contracting group Sadelmi/Cogepi of Italy, and the railway manufacturer Scandia-Randers A/S of Denmark. When ABB began operations on 5 January 1988, its core operations included power generation, transmission and distribution electric transportation and industrial automation and robotics. The merger created a global industrial group with revenue of approximately $15 billion and 160,000 employees. The new corporation would remain headquartered in both Zurich, Switzerland and Västerås, Sweden, with each parent company holding 50 percent. On 10 August 1987, ASEA and BBC announced they would merge to form ASEA Brown Boveri (ABB). Īn ABB entity pleaded guilty for bid rigging in 2001, and the company has had 3 US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bribing resolutions against it in 2004, 2010, and 2022. ĪBB is traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zürich, Nasdaq Stockholm in Sweden, and the New York Stock Exchange in the United States. Until the sale of its Power Grids division in 2020, ABB was Switzerland's largest industrial employer. It is ranked 341st in the Fortune Global 500 list of 2018 and has been a global Fortune 500 company for 24 years. The company has also since expanded to robotics and automation technology. Both companies were established in the late 1800s and were major electrical equipment manufacturers, a business that ABB remains active in today. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to create ASEA Brown Boveri, later simplified to the initials ABB. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland.
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