Tyco International history

Beginnings in 1962 in High Tech

Two years later in 1964, the company went public and began to fill gaps in its development and distribution network by acquiring Mule Battery Products, the first of Tyco’s 16 acquisitions in the next four years.

Green, Leslie, and J. Richard Elliot, Jr., “Cause for Alarm: The Story of the Anti-Trust Suit Against Grinnell Corp.,” Barron’s, May 30, 1966.

Gaziano, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had held a number of positions at the Raytheon Company before leaving in 1967 to run Prelude Corporation, a lobster-fishing concern.

In January 1968 Grinnell divested itself of the three subsidiaries, whose shares were spun off to Grinnell stockholders.

Accurate Forming Company, CBM Realty Corporation, Linear Corporation, Micro-Power Corporation, and Custom Products Inc. were added to the group in 1969.

In 1970 the Tyco board quietly eased out founder Rosenburg, replacing him temporarily with Joshua M. Berman, a partner in the law firm Goodwin, Proctor, and Hoar, and a director of Tyco Laboratories.

In 1971 federal courts, citing antitrust violations, gave ITT two years to divest itself of Grinnell.

The deadline passed without a suitable bid, and ITT put the company under the stewardship of a court trustee in September 1973.

In September 1975 Tyco purchased the Grinnell subsidiary of International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT). Grinnell was the market leader in automatic sprinklers.

The Wormald brothers went on to develop a fire protection empire of their own and in 1976 they acquired Mather & Platt, which had created them nearly 100 years before.

After a 20-month effort Gaziano failed to acquire Leeds & Northrup. "It just wasn't meant to be," he told Forbes magazine in 1978.

In September 1979 Tyco bought the Armin Corporation for $27 million.

In 1982 Gaziano died suddenly at the age of 47.

Gaziano continued to pursue his goal of making Tyco a $1 billion company by 1985.

Tyco paid $350 million in 1988 for the Mueller Company, a 132-year-old water and gas pipe manufacturer.

Another important deal came in 1990 when Tyco significantly bolstered its fire protection division through the purchase of Australia-based Wormald International Limited for $642.5 million in cash, stock, and a warrant.

Earnings were down despite the focus on cost containment, and the 1993 fiscal year saw the company post net income of a mere $1 million.

The first major acquisition of the Kozlowski era came in 1994 when Tyco paid $1.4 billion for Kendall International, a maker of disposable medical products with annual sales of $800 million.

In 1996, Tyco was added to the Standard & Poor’s S&P 500 Composite Index, which consists of the 500 publicly traded companies in the United States with the largest marketcapitalization.

Tyco’s largest acquisition to date was consummated in July 1997, when the company merged with ADT Limited, a Bermuda-based home security company, in a $5.4 billion transaction—a white knight deal that fended off a hostile takeover bid from Western Resources Inc.

In February 1998 Kozlowski turned down an offer to become president and eventual CEO of Raytheon Company.

Tyco expanded its electronic security unit through the early 1999 purchases of Alarmguard Holdings, Inc. and Entergy Security Corporation, the latter paid for with $237 million in cash.

Also acquired in October 2000 was Mallinckrodt Inc. in a deal that expanded the healthcare division.

For the year ended September 2001, the company’s book value exceeded $110 billion.

With complexity growing within Tyco’s subsidiaries, in January 2002, Tyco announced a plan to split the business into four separate companies.

2003: Restructuring is launched that involves the divestiture of more than 50 noncore businesses, the elimination of about 7,200 jobs, and the closure of 219 facilities worldwide.

In an effort to enhance consumer awareness and revive corporate image, in June 2004, Tyco launched a new global print-advertising campaign, “Tyco a vital part of your world.” Tyco also began a divestiture program following a review of its core businesses.

By the end of the fiscal year 2006, Tyco’s revenue had eclipsed $17 Billion.

The company generated revenue of $18.8 billion in 2007 and employs 118,000 people across all 50 states and in more than 60 countries.

In September 2012, Tyco was accused of violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and agreed in a payment of around $13 million in civil penalties to the Securities Exchange Commission.

In November 2013, Tyco approached various private equity firms offering to sell its Korean security unit, Caps Co.

In February 2014, US private equity firm Carlyle Group entered into talks with Tyco to acquire its South Korean security systems unit, valued at around $2 billion.