Lear history

AMP went public at the dawn of this period of dramatic growth in 1946 with a $2.25 million stock offering.

In 1954 AMP acquired Tube Reducing Corp., a New Jersey manufacturer of specialty hydraulic and aircraft parts.

In 1955 AMP diversified into plumbing and porcelain bath and kitchen fixtures with the acquisition of AllianceWare, Inc., and a producer of office furniture and storage units was also added to the corporate roster during this period.

By the time it was acquired by and merged into the Lear Siegler conglomerate in 1966, AMP had amassed an array of businesses with products and competencies that would later be combined in the production of a finished automotive seat.

By 1983, the Automotive Group's annual sales had reached $160 million.

Kenneth L. Way, then corporate vice-president of the Automotive Group, led a leveraged buyout of the division in 1988.

Within just a few years of its management buyout, Lear Seating's sales had multiplied nearly eight times, from around $150 million to $1.24 billion in 1990.

In 1993 Lear bought Ford Motor's North American seatmaking operations (Favesa, S.A. de C.V., headquartered in Mexico) for $173.4 million in cash, thereby becoming Ford's seatmaker of choice.

1994: Fiat Auto S.p.A.'s seat operations are acquired; Lear Seating goes public.

During 1997 Lear launched plans to consolidate its companywide technical staff at a new technical center to be located near its Southfield headquarters.

To implement the program, aimed at lower costs and improving profit margins, Lear took pretax charges of $133 million, cutting 1998 net income to $115.5 million, almost half the $207.2 million total for the preceding year.

In its largest deal ever, Lear spent $2.3 billion in May 1999 for United Technologies Automotive, Inc., the automotive parts business of United Technologies Corporation.

In 2001, however, Lear was forced to begin grappling with production cuts by major auto makers, and its sales fell.

By 2004, despite the continuing struggles of automakers, Lear was able to post record results: net income of $422.2 million on net sales of $16.96 billion.