Transamerica Title Company history

In 1889, just over 20 years after the birth of title insurance in the United States, the Orange County Title Company was established; the original predecessor to First American Title Insurance Company.

In 1904, Amadeo Giannini, who had a reputation for helping small merchants and immigrant farmers, founded the Bank of Italy in a converted San Francisco saloon.

Giannini’s success as a banker is also clearly evidenced by his anticipation of the 1907 stock market crash, and his accumulation of gold before the crash.

The Bank of Italy grew so rapidly that by 1919 Giannini was able to form Bancitaly Corporation to organize the expansion.

The company, incorporated in 1928, originated as the parent of Bank of America, and for many years banking was its principal activity.

By 1929, he had moved into the New York banking scene and purchased the solidly established Bank of America.

In the post war 1930’s Occidental was selling term life insurance to Californian families.

In 1931, just a year after the consolidation of his banks under Bank of America, Giannini retired and left the top post to Elisha Walker, a Wall Street investment banker.

Not surprisingly, Giannini forced Walker out in what was called a “furious proxy battle” at the 1932 annual meeting.

In 1937, Transamerica sold 58 percent of its stock in Bank of America, although it still controlled the board of directors.

Less than two decades later in 1946, Giannini’s bank would become the largest private bank in the world.

Donald Parker Kennedy, grandson of the founder, joined the company after finishing law school in 1948.

At the time of his death in 1949, Giannini was embroiled in a fight with the Federal Reserve Board as to whether or not Transamerica had violated the Clayton Anti-Trust Act in creating a “credit monopoly” by placing directors on the boards of banks in the huge chain owned by Bank of America.

Due to the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, Transamerica had to choose whether to divest its banks or its non-bank investments.

In 1957, the board of directors authorized an expansion plan with the intent of becoming a powerhouse in the Southern California market.

By the early 1960’s Occidental Life had assets of $751 million.

Beckett was interested in companies that would “work in harmony with one another in the market place.” The first major acquisition after Beckett became president was Pacific Finance Corporation in 1961, and additional acquisitions focused on land, title insurance, and mortgage banking companies.

Harvey was an executive vice-president under Beckett and had been with the company since 1965.

But the city was a backwater of the national music industry until 1966, when promoters such as Bill Graham began booking local bands such as the Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and Big Brother and the Holding Company at the Fillmore Auditorium and other large dance venues.

Beckett, although caught by surprise by the large loss at United Artists, eventually saw the film company turn into a very profitable business by the late 1970’s with such successful films as Rocky, Coming Home and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Recent troubles at United Artists date back to January 1978, when the five principal officers stomped out as a result of disgruntlement with Transamerica management.

In 1979 Transamerica entered the field of transportation-equipment leasing by acquiring Interway Corporation, which it renamed Transamerica Interway.

It sold United Artists to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1981, following some losses on large-budget films, in order to concentrate on other interests.

In 1982 a $300 million acquisition of Fred S. James and Company, an insurance broker, was made.

In 1986 it sold Budget Rent-A-Car Corporation, a major car rental service, and Transamerica Delaval Inc. (Delaval Turbine before its acquisition), a manufacturing company specializing in turbines, compressors, and other precision-engineered products.

In 1988, First American approached Canadian officials with a request to open title insurance offices in Canada.

The company suffered a setback in the financial services area in 1994 when it decided to sell its mutual funds business, Transamerica Fund Management Company.

More than offsetting this development, however, was Transamerica’s 1995 purchase of a $1 billion portfolio of home equity loans from the ITT Corporation.

Transamerica Financial had posted losses of $45 million in 1996, while the consumer finance industry was hit by a wave of consolidation.

In 1997, the firm took its divestment operations one step further with the sale of its consumer finance business to Household International for $1.1 billion.

In early 1998, the company acquired the retail finance business of Whirlpool Financial Corporation for $1.3 billion.

In July 1999 Transamerica was acquired by Aegon NV, an insurance company in the Netherlands.

The company’s reinsurance group began expanding in Latin America and Asia, and in 2001, Transamerica set plans in motion to sell insurance in China.

In 2010, First American separated its newly developed real estate information businesses from its title insurance and financial services operations, thus creating two new independent companies—a strategy that will enhance the focus and strengthen the competitive positions of both companies.

From FORTUNE Magazine, March 1, 2019 ©2019 Time Inc.

"Transamerica Corporation ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Retrieved April 16, 2021 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/transamerica-corporation-0