The Growth of a Giant: A Brief History of ITT
The International Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT) began operations in 1920 as a New York-based holding company. Its founder was the Danish-Frenchman Sosthenes Behn, whose first two...
...ITT's international operations were threatened during World War II and Behn was forced to quickly negotiate the sale of some foreign holdings to avoid having them confiscated...
...Levitt & Sons...
...HURRY-UP-HAL" GENEEN Lapel buttons recently distributed to ITT executives at a management meeting provide us with insight into what the conglomerate concept is all about: "Dig for facts...
...and the Hamilton Life Insurance Co...
...Legal work for Continental is handled by Mudge, Rbse, Guthrie, Alexander & Mitchell, the law firm that'President Nixon worked for from 1963-68, and the firm that Attorney-General John Mitchell recently rejoined...
...Offering money to the GOP convention was a way of guaranteeing it...
...1 By 1971, there were 398,000 workers in 70 countries with revenues at $7.3 billion...
...the ITT Life Insurance Co...
...After World War II, ITT continued its international expansion, primarily in Canada, Western Europe and Latin America...
...Its founder was the Danish-Frenchman Sosthenes Behn, whose first two acquisitions were indicative of ITT's future expansionist policy: the Puerto Rican Telephone Company and the Cuban Telephone Company...
...Second class postage paid at New York NY...
...ITT control to 331 (not counting the 700 companies controlled in turn by these subsidiaries), raised revenues and sales from $930-million in 1961 to over $7-billion in 1971, and has upped the market value of the giant to an amazing $11billion...
...Avis Rent-A-Car...
...Avis...
...Sheraton Hotels...
...Levitt & Sons...
...The agreement stated that in order fr Hartford to become part of the ITT empire, ITT must sell six subsidiaries within three years: Canteen Corp...
...Vol...
...Reap profits...
...ITT wanted this merger at any price...
...This means that Hartford's earnings are a full three times the earnings of the six corporations...
...a food and vending servicing company...
...According to the 1971 Annual Report, ITT receives only 23% of its earnings from telecommunications equipment and operations, the business in which the company was originally engaged...
...the fire protection division of the Grinnell Corp...
...12 per year for institutions ($22 for two years...
...Copyright c 1972 by the North American Congress on Latin America, Inc...
...The six corporations that ITT must unload accounted for $33 million of ITT income in 1971, while Hartford accounted for $105 million...
...Address all mail Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York NY 10025 or Box 226, Berkeley, California 94701...
...The following is a brief list of corporations controlled by ITT: -- Hartford Fire Insurance Company...
...Between 1960 and 1968, ITT acquired over 110 new corporations, half within the United States and half in other countries...
...In addition, Hartford's earnings increased by 28% in the year 1970-71, indicating that far from hurting ITT, the settlement will mean a huge boost in profit for the corporation...
...Make decisions...
...As a result of increasing anti-trust rulings against mergers between suppliers and customers (vertical mergers) and between competitors (horizontal mergers), many multinational corporations have embarked upon the strategy of diversification, to insure profit and to increase their economic control over many industries...
...ITT complained that'this was a "bad deal", but upon closer examination of the facts, it becomes apparent that the settlement was favorable and profitable for ITT...
...At the same time, the development of the telecommunications industry within the United States became a priority...
...This incredible expansion is due chiefly to ITT's frenzied rate of diversification: the acquisition and merging with companies in completely different lines of business...
...Since Geneen took command, ITT acquisitions have covered everything from hotels and insurance, to real estate development and foods...
...The author of these military-like directives was "Hurry-Up-Hal" Geneen, ITT Chairman and President since 1959...
...Second only to Hertz, NACLA'S LATIN AMERICA & EMPIRE REPORT (formerly NACLA NEWSLETTER) Published monthly, except May-June and July-August, when it is published bi-monthly at 160 Claremont Avenue, New York NY 10027...
...SUBSCRIPTIONS: $6 per year for year for individuals ($11 for two years...
...After arriving from the Raytheon Corporation in 1959, Geneen wasted little time in putting his expansionist ideas into practice...
...This policy was continued until 1959, when a change in ITT management (the arrival of Harold S. Geneen), began the process of rapid diversification into other industries, and centralized control of ITT's vast corporate empire...
...In his eleven years at the helm of the eighth largest corporation in the United States, Geneen has brought the number of companies under...
...By 1970, 47% of ITT's assets and sales were located abroad and 59% of its profits flowed from foreign operations...
...ITT moved into telecommunications manufacturing in 1925 by purchasing American Telephone and Telegraph's (A.T.& T.) International Western Electric Company which produced telephone equipment in eleven countries...
...Continental Baking...
...A suit to stop the merger was dropped by the Justice Department in favor of an out-of-court settlement...
...It accounts for 26% of ITT income...
...ITT gave up its facilities in China, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Rumania and Yugoslavia...
...Makes Wonder Bread (6 million loaves a day...
...Largest apartment and home builders in the world...
...Developers of whole communities, such as Levittown, Pennsylvania...
...ITT expects to sell these corporations at a "considerable profit" as well...
...Hostess Cupcakes, Twinkies, etc...
...the controversial merger of this giant Connecticutbased insurance firm was the biggest in history...
...Operators of 220 hotels in 22 nations, including openings in Iran, Buenos Aires and Portugal, in 1972...
...In its first year of operation, ITT employed 1,400 workers and had total revenues of $3.9 million...
...MOVE...
...According to columnist Jack Anderson, a confidential ITT memo (the 'Dita Beard' memo) linked the settling of the deal with a pledge by ITT of up to $400,000 for the Republican National Convention in San Diego, California...
...4 / April 1972- 3 - this firm operates at 1,336 airports around the world and in the U.S...
...Recently, letters from ITT personnel were found which indicated that even though ITT had protested about the terms of the settlement, the corporation had actually proposed almost the same deal privately to the Justice Department...
...WHY DIVERSIFICATION...
...VI, No...
...Geneen believes that diversification "is an insurance policy for orderly future growth," because if one company loses money, there are others that are not affected...
...ANTI-TRUST MEANS PROFIT The acquisition of the Hartford Fire Insurance Company by ITT reveals that there are very few obstacles in the wayof the expanding conglomerates...
Vol. 6 • April 1972 • No. 4
