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ABB history
ABB company history timeline
ABB was founded on January 5, 1988, and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.
When ABB began operations on 5 January 1988, its core operations included power generation, transmission and distribution; electric transportation; and industrial automation and robotics.
5, 1988, had revenues of $17 billion and employed 160,000 people around the world.
In the year 1989 Asea Ltd was amalgamated with the company with effect from January 1 1989 and the company changed their name to Asea Brown Boveri Ltd with effect from October 13 1989.
1989: ABB acquires the power transmission and power distribution systems business of Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
In early 1989 ABB formed a joint venture with the American electrical firm Westinghouse.
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 1990, ABB launched Azipod, a family of electric propulsion systems that extends below the hulls of large ships, providing both thrust and steering functions.
In 1992 an operating structure was created for the Asia-Pacific region and more than 20 new manufacturing and service operations were established in the region through acquisitions, joint ventures, and other investments.
Investments in Asia continued in 1993, the year that ABB carried out another major restructuring.
During the year 1994-95 ABB Zurich and Daimler-Benz AG Germany established a joint venture company namely 'ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation AG' (Adtranz) in Germany.
In 1994, in addition to making additional investments in Asia, ABB entered into a contract to build a $1 billion combined-cycle power plant in Malaysia.
By 1994, ABB had 30,000 employees and 100 plants, engineering, service and marketing centers across Asia - numbers that would continue to grow.
By the end of 1995, ABB had a network of 60 companies in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, giving it the largest manufacturing operation of any Western firm in the region.
In June 1996 ABB was awarded a contract by the government of Malaysia to play the lead role in the building of a $5 billion-plus hydroelectric power generation plant and transmission system at Bakun on the Balui River, but this project ran into problems in the following year.
A few months after the July 1997 Asian financial crisis, ABB announced plans to accelerate its expansion in Asia.
As a result of the Asian economic crisis, which hit Malaysia particularly hard, the Malaysian government was forced to announce an indefinite delay in the project in September 1997.
In October 1997 the company announced yet another major restructuring in which it planned to shift thousands of jobs from Europe and the United States to Asia, cutting 10,000 jobs over an 18-month period.
To cover the costs of the reorganization, ABB took a charge of $850 million in the fourth quarter of 1997.
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.
In 1998, ABB launched the FlexPicker, a robot using a three-armed delta design uniquely suited to the picking and packing industry.
In March 1999 ABB and France-based ALSTOM merged their power generation businesses into a 50-50 joint venture called ABB Alstom Power.
As 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 1999, the company sold its stake in the Adtranz train-building business to DaimlerChrysler.
In 2000, ABB divested its interests in ABB Alstom Power and sold its boiler and fossil-fuel operations (including Gas turbines) to Alstom.
In 2000, ABB brought to market the world's first commercial, high-voltage, shore-to-ship electric power, at the Swedish port of Gothenburg.
In January 2001 ABB reorganized around four customer-focused divisions--utilities; process industries; manufacturing and consumer industries; and oil, gas, and petrochemicals--and two divisions based on product type, power technology products and automation technology products.
Barnevik received some $89 million in pension benefits when he left ABB in 2001; Lindahl, who succeeded Barnevik as CEO, had received $50 million in pension benefits.
ABB pushed them to return some of the money, and in March 2002 the two agreed to give back a combined $82 million.
2002: ABB restructures to focus on two core businesses: power technologies and automation; structured-finance unit is sold to General Electric.
2003: "Prepackaged" bankruptcy plan is offered for Combustion Engineering that would cap asbestos liabilities at $1.2 billion; ABB's capital base is strengthened by more than $4 billion.
The news of the $767 million loss, however, was soon followed by a report of the company's first quarterly profit in two years, during the first quarter of 2004.
But Dormann felt confident enough about the company's future to announce in early 2004 that he would step aside as chief executive at the end of the year.
In 2004, ABB launched its Extended Automation System 800xA, an industrial system for the process industries.
In the year 2005 the company won the first major equipment order for 765 KV extra-high voltage (EHV) transformers and shunt reactors from the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd.
In 2005, ABB delisted its shares from the London Stock Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
In 2006, ABB put an end to its financial uncertainties by finalizing a $1.43 billion plan to settle asbestos liabilities against its US subsidiaries, Combustion Engineering and ABB Lummus Global, Inc.
In September 2007 the company won an order Rs 933 million from KHD Humboldt Wedag GmbH Germany for providing a turnkey electrics and automation solution for a 5000 TPD capacity green-field cement plant at Katrana in Jordan.
In October 2007 the company received orders worth Rs 512 crore from JSW and their associated companies for providing turnkey power and automation solutions for their steel and power plant projects.
In July 2008 the company won an order of Rs 312 crore for design supply installation testing and commissioning of electrical products and systems for a new terminal T3 at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi India.
In December 2008, ABB acquired Ber-Mac Electrical and Instrumentation to expand its presence in Western Canada's oil and gas industries.
In December 2009 the company won an order worth Rs 506 crore from Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd for providing power solutions for a planned metro network in Bangalore.
On 10 January 2011, ABB invested $10 million in ECOtality, a San Francisco-based developed of charging stations and power storage technologies, to enter North America's electric vehicle charging market.
In 2011, ABB acquired Baldor Electric for $4.2 billion in an all-cash transaction.
On 30 January 2012, ABB acquired Thomas & Betts, a North American leader in low voltage products for industrial, construction and utility applications, in a $3.9 billion cash transaction.
In July 2013, ABB acquired Power-One in a $1 billion all-cash transaction, to become the leading global manufacturer of solar inverters.
ABB or the ASEA Brown Boveri is 158th ranked company in Forbes Ranking of 2013.
During 2014 the company set up a substation in Southern India to help meet growing power demand.
In 2014, ABB formed with Hitachi a joint venture for HVDC system solutions in Japan.
In 2015 the company won an order worth Rs 256 crore from Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Sri Lanka.
On 14 September 2016 ABB India announced that it has commissioned a state-of-the-art solution for shore-to-ship power supply for ships at the V.O.Chidambaranar Port formerly the Tuticorin Port.
On 6 July 2017, ABB announced it had completed its acquisition of Bernecker + Rainer Industrie-Elektronik (B&R), the largest independent provider of product and software-based, open-architecture for machine and factory automation.
During the year 1994-95 ABB Zurich and Daimler-Benz AG Germany established a joint venture company namely 'ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation AG' (Adtranz) in Germany. It will support customer installations in India and around the world.On 30 August 2017 ABB India announced that it has surpassed the 5 GW milestone for the supply of solar inverters in India.
ABB's 50kW fast charging station can provide a full charge to an electric vehicle in only 30 minutes.On 27 March 2018 ABB India inaugurated one of the first smart factories in Bangalore for the production of electrical protection and connection solutions.
The acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions, which closed in June 2018, further strengthened ABB's #2 global position in electrification.
On 17 December 2018, ABB announced it had agreed to sell 80.1% of its Power Grids business to Hitachi.
In December 2018, ABB and Hitachi announced that the latter would take over ABB's entire Power Grids division for about $6.4 billion.
In 2018, ABB became the title partner of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, the world's first fully electric international FIA motorsport series.
In March 2020, ABB announced that it had agreed to sell its solar inverter business to Italian solar inverter manufacturer Fimer.
Hitachi officially acquired 80.1% of the business in July 2020.
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ABB competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Schneider Electric Industrial Services | - | $320.0M | 10,001 | 787 |
| Lutron Electronics | 1961 | $500.0M | 2,422 | 2 |
| Westinghouse Appliances Australia | - | $4.3B | 9,000 | 533 |
| CTS Corporation | 1896 | $515.8M | 3,820 | 42 |
| Wartsila Holding Inc | - | $120.0M | 506 | - |
| Dresser-Rand Group | 2004 | $2.8B | 11,001 | - |
| Beckman Coulter | 1935 | $3.7B | 12,000 | - |
| Teledyne LeCroy | 1964 | $5.7B | 500 | - |
| Ovivo | 2004 | $99.0M | 750 | 22 |
| International Technologies Inc. | - | $570,000 | 7 | 72 |
ABB history FAQs
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ABB may also be known as or be related to A Bb Inc, A.b.b., ABB, ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd, ABB Inc, ABB Oy and Abb Inc.