Prysmian Group history

Unfortunately, when the music stopped in 1929 General Cable was left holding a huge inventory of copper that it had bought at 24 cents a pound.

With the company on the verge of collapse in 1932 it was Palmer who found a new source of business in the Hoover Dam.

1935 Supplied 100% of the cable for the power transmission line from the Hoover Dam to Los Angeles, California, United StatesA. – 1,626 conductor miles.

In 1936 the General Cable board named him the chief executive officer of the company.

In 1939, Alcan Cable began its first United States presence with what was to become a 24-year partnership with Central Cable in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania.

In the meantime, while other companies shied away from military contracts, General Cable became France's sole supplier of wire until the country fell in 1940; likewise, it became Britain's first and most important source of wire.

When Palmer was told by the Pentagon to cut back on production in 1944 in anticipation of the end of the war, Palmer actually stepped up production and the military bought every inch that General Cable could turn out.

Then in May 1945, with the military advising against it, Palmer began to cut back.

Profits that stood at $3.4 million in 1950 reached $8.7 million by the end of the decade.

In 1955 it purchased the outstanding stock of General Insulated Wire Works.

At its peak in 1956, General Cable posted a $12 million profit.

With the acquisition of Central Cable in 1963, Alcan Cable established its first fabricating facility in the United States.

1964 Adopted a new logo to reinforce and promote the letters “GCC” as the accepted abbreviation for General Cable Corporation.

1967 Supplied power cable to four THUMS (Texaco, Humble, Union, Mobile and Shell) man-made offshore islands at Long Beach, California, used for drilling and pumping fluid from oil-rich wells back to the mainland.

In 1970, Draka was acquired by Philips and became part of the Philips’ Wire and Cable division.

1971 Supplied hundreds of miles of power and communications cable to link the control facilities with the launch platforms at Cape Canaveral, Florida, United StatesA.

In 1973 General Cable moved its executive offices from Manhattan to Greenwich, Connecticut.

The company's name was simplified to BICC in 1975.

In that same year, Penn Central talked about spinning off the Sprague Electrical Company that General Cable had acquired in 1976.

1977 Designed, developed and manufactured a 5.6-mile optical fibre cable that GTE installed in California, United StatesA., as the world’s first light wave communications system to provide regular telephone service to the public.

It sold its Power & Control operation to Pirelli Cable Corporation for $58 million in March 1978, then in May acquired Automation Industries for $106 million to gain a presence in engineering and technical services as well as environmental products.

1979: Name is changed to GK Technologies.

In May 1981, Penn Central acquired all of the stock of GK Technologies and merged it with other assets to form a separate unit within the corporation.

1985 Supplied the wire and cable to the Marsden Point Oil Refinery located at the entrance to Whangarei Harbour in Northland, New Zealand.

Sprague was part of Penn Central's electronics division, which lost almost $155 million in 1986.

By 1987 one of the businesses he controlled, Los Angeles-based Mission Insurance, was operating under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.

General Cable was purchased for $270 million in cash and assumed debt in June 1994 by Wassall PLC, a British manufacturing holding company.

In order to concentrate on other areas, Wassall sold off 80 percent of its interest in General Cable through a public stock offering in May 1997.

1998 Produced a hybrid copper and fibre optic cable to provide electricity and communications to the guard station at the top of Mount Rushmore.

1999: General Cable acquires energy cable business of BICC Plc for $440 million.

Although it lost $26 million in 2000, General Cable posted record sales of $2.7 billion.

The company was founded on May 12, 2005 and is headquartered in Milan, Italy.“

Draka was founded in 1910 by Jan Teewis Duyvis as Hollandsche Draad & Kabel Fabriek. It formerly had a joint venture with Alcatel-Lucent for manufacturing optical fibre, but bought out its partner’s 49.9% stake for €209 million in December 2007.”

2008 Acquired majority ownership of joint ventures in Algeria and the Philippines, with each business delivering more than $100 million in annual revenues.

In 2009, Italian cable manufacturer Prysmian made a takeover offer for Draka, but doubts began to emerge in August.

In October 2010, French cable maker Nexans made a €15/share offer to buy the 43.9% of the company held by Flint Beheer, an investment fund owned by the wealthy Fentener van Vlissingen family.

The offer was launched on 5 January 2011 and concluded successfully on 8 February 2011.

On September 4, 2012, General Cable purchased the Alcan Cable North American business from Rio Tinto Alcan.