The acquisition expanded ABB's presence in automated spot-welding and positioned the company to better serve the American automotive industry. 1990s ĭuring 1990, ABB bought the robotics business of Cincinnati Milacron in the US. During 1989, ABB purchased an additional 40 companies, including Westinghouse Electric's transmission and distribution assets, and announced an agreement to purchase the Stamford, Connecticut-based Combustion Engineering (C-E). In its first year, ABB undertook some 15 acquisitions, including the environmental control group Fläkt AB of Sweden, the contracting group Sadelmi/Cogepi of Italy, and the railway manufacturer Scandia-Randers A/S of Denmark. When ABB began operations on 5 January 1988, its core operations included power generation, transmission and distribution electric transportation and industrial automation and robotics. The merger created a global industrial group with revenue of approximately $15 billion and 160,000 employees. The new corporation would remain headquartered in both Zurich, Switzerland and Västerås, Sweden, with each parent company holding 50 percent.
On 10 August 1987, ASEA and BBC announced they would merge to form ASEA Brown Boveri (ABB). īrown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) was formed in 1891 in Zurich, Switzerland by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri as a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies producing AC and DC motors, generators, steam turbines and transformers. History ABB robots operating in a production line Predecessor companies and formation Īllmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA, English translation: General Swedish Electrical Limited Company) was founded in 1883 in Västerås, Sweden by Ludvig Fredholm as manufacturer of electrical light and generators.
Prior to the sale of its Power Grids division to Hitachi in 2020, ABB was Switzerland's largest industrial employer. During the 2010s, ABB has largely focused its growth strategy on the robotics and industrial automation sectors. Within three years, the company had successfully restructured its operations. In early 2002, ABB announced its first-ever annual loss, which was attributed to asbestos-related litigation. During 2001, an ABB entity pleaded guilty for bid rigging the firm has also had three US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bribing resolutions against it in 2004, 2010, and 2022. On occasion, the company's operations have encountered controversy. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, ABB acquired hundreds of other companies, often in central and eastern Europe, as well as in Asia and North America. Between 19, the company was also active in the rolling stock manufacturing sector. Its traditional core activities include power generation, transmission and distribution industrial automation, and robotics. Both companies were established in the late 1800s and grew into major electrical equipment manufacturers, a business in which ABB remains active. ĪBB was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (Asea) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to create Asea Brown Boveri, later simplified to the initials ABB.
It was ranked 340th in the Fortune Global 500 list of 2020 and has been a global Fortune 500 company for 24 years. It is traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zürich, the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Sweden and the OTC Markets Group's pink sheets in the United States. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Västerås, Sweden, and Zürich, Switzerland.