Anixter history

After graduating high school in 1959, Zell went to college as a political science major at the University of Michigan where he began to manage some off-campus housing properties.

The company was taken public in 1967 and began using its common stock to fund further acquisitions.

When Anixter wrote the Blue Book in 1968, it reached more than $10 million in sales and had 700 employees.

Also in 1969 Anixter acquired Pruzan, a company that provided entry to the CATV (community antenna television) market, an important revenue stream in years to come.

The unit struggled, leading to a net loss for the parent company in fiscal 1972, the first time Anixter was in the red.

Anixter rebounded nicely and in fiscal 1974 increased sales to $150 million.

In 1985 Anixter made changes in its management to demonstrate to investors that it had grown beyond the family business category.

In 1986, when annual sales stood at about $600 million, Anixter was purchased for about $500 million by the Itel Corp., a large holding company controlled by Chicago financier Sam Zell.

In 1995 Itel became Anixter International Inc., also based in Skokie.

Hence, the Europe Network Integration division was sold in 1998, followed a year later by the divestiture of the North American and Asian integration divisions as well.

In the summer of 2000 the company disclosed it would have to investigate accounting irregularities in earlier financial statements.

The company then went out of business in early 2001, and Anixter acquired much of Anicom’s inventory and operating assets.

With these companies in the fold, Anixter achieved record results in 2005, posting sales of $3.8 billion and net income of $90 million.