International Telcom Ltd. history

Already in 1843, a precursor of the fax ma​chine for transmitting images had been patented in the United Kingdom by Alexander Bain.​

In the United States, Samuel Morse used the new Morse code to send his first telegraph message in 1844.

A submarine telegraph wire (coated in protective gutta percha) was laid between Britain and France in 1850, and a regular service inaugurated the following year.

In 1858, the first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid.

The origin of the ITU can be traced to 1865, when the International Telegraph Union was established by a convention signed in Paris.

With the Treaty of London, in 1867, Luxembourg was declared neutral, and the fortress, containing 15 miles (24 km) of casements, three battlements with 24 forts, and an extensive (10-acre [4-hectare]) area of military barracks, was largely dismantled, an operation that took 16 years.

The 1868 International Telegraph Conference, in Vienna, decided that ITU would operate from its own bureau in Berne, Switzerland.

Only a decade later, the next leap forward in communications occurred with the patenting of the telephone in 1876.

At the International Telegraph Conference held in Berlin in 1885, ITU began to draw up international legislation governing telephony.

In 1917, when the United States purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $30 million, the U. S. also gained the Behn family as citizens.

Location: New York, NY Started: 1920 Sold to/Ended: Still exists today.

The combined effects of good timing, well-placed connections, and Sosthenes' charm brought ITT the concession for telephone service in Spain in 1924.

A National City banker arranged a meeting between Walter Gifford, chairperson of bank customers at AT&T, and Sosthenes Behn, which resulted in the sale of the company to ITT on September 30, 1925, along with temporary use of some of AT&T's patents.

To make matters worse, ITT lost a good manager when Hernand Behn died in 1933.

It was made a specialized agency of the United Nations in 1947, and the convention has been revised several times.

The ITU has had its headquarters in Geneva since 1948, when it was moved from Bern.

A boardroom battle for power occurred, which Behn eventually lost, despite having reinstated the dividend in 1951.

Harold Geneen, vice president of Raytheon, came in to head IT&T in 1956 after Colonel Behn retired.

In 1963, ITT began to make a significant number of acquisitions, averaging one company a month.

Intelsat was founded as a public-private consortium in 1964 by the telecommunication agencies of 18 nations, including the United States, which proposed the organization.

The first of these was Early Bird, later renamed Intelsat I, which was placed in a stationary orbit over the Atlantic Ocean at the Equator in 1965.

The first of a stunning series of setbacks came in 1968, when the conglomerate lost its bid to acquire the American Broadcasting Co. when the United States Justice Department challenged the takeover on antitrust grounds.

ITT's image with the United States public was further damaged in 1971.

The Direct Communication Link, or “Hot Line,” between the White House in Washington, D.C., and the Kremlin in Moscow was converted in 1978 from a terrestrial cable to a service transmitted over Intelsat satellites.

In 1979, ITT had over $4 billion in debt--more than 40 percent of its capitalization.

ITT agreed to divest assets equal to those of Hartford's--including Avis, Levitt, Canteen, and Grinnell--and pledged not to acquire any companies with assets over $100 million until 1981.

By the end of 1984, the company had divested 69 subsidiaries totaling nearly $2 billion.

While fighting off hostile overtures from three corporate raiders--Jay A. Pritzker, Philip Anschutz, and Irwin Jacobs--Araskog continued to liquidate ITT's holdings, selling over 100 subsidiaries by 1986.

Institutional investors, especially the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) revolted against ITT when, in 1990, Araskog's salary doubled to $11.4 million in spite of a 20 percent decline in the corporation's stock price and a 30 percent drop in income from operations.

Writing in 1992 for Business Horizons, Danny Miller compared Geneen's managerial style to Icarus of Greek mythology--both characters' greatest assets led to their demise.

Late in 1993, Araskog announced the pending spin-off of forest products subsidiary ITT Rayonier Inc. to shareholders.

In fact, Business Week quoted him calling that option "not outlandish," and the company announced that it was exploring the possibility early in 1994.

Araskog's pending retirement (in 1996, at age 65) and the resurgence in divestments combined to fuel speculation that the CEO might break ITT up into three independent companies.

In 2000, 70 countries used Intelsat for all international telecommunications.

Within 10 years the membership of Intelsat had grown to include agencies from 86 countries, and by 2001 about 150 countries were members.

Intelsat was then acquired in 2008 by Serafina Holdings, Limited, a company formed by the investment firms BC Partners and Silver Lake.