Formerly |
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Company type | Public (1916–1997) [1] |
NYSE: WX (1916–1997) [1] | |
Founded | August 8, 1886 |
Founder | George Westinghouse |
Defunct | April 26, 2000 |
Fate | Renamed CBS Corporation in 1997, then merged with Viacom in 2000 |
Successor | |
Headquarters | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , U.S. |
Area served | Worldwide |
Divisions |
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Subsidiaries |
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The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in 1945. Through the early and mid-20th century, Westinghouse Electric was a powerhouse in heavy industry, electrical production and distribution, consumer electronics, home appliances and a wide variety of other products. They were a major supplier of generators and steam turbines for most of their history, and was also a major player in the field of nuclear power, starting with the Westinghouse Atom Smasher in 1937.
A series of downturns and management missteps in the 1970s and 80s combined with large cash balances led the company to enter the financial services business. Their focus was on mortgages, which suffered significant losses in the late 1980s. In 1992 they announced a major restructuring and the liquidation of their credit operations. In 1995, in a major change of direction, the company acquired the CBS television network and renamed itself CBS Corporation. Most of its remaining industrial businesses were sold off at this time. CBS Corp was acquired by Viacom in 1999, a merger completed in April 2000. [9] The CBS Corporation name was later reused for one of the two companies resulting from the split of Viacom in 2005.
One of the few remaining original lines of business to survive this process was the nuclear power division, which was sold to BNFL in 1999 and re-formed as Westinghouse Electric Company. The Westinghouse trademarks are owned by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, [10] and were previously part of Westinghouse Licensing Corporation. [10] [11]
Westinghouse Electric was founded by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on January 8, 1886. Building on the advancement of AC technology in Europe, [12] the firm became active in developing alternating current (AC) electric infrastructure throughout the United States. The company's largest factories were located in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Lester, Pennsylvania [13] and Hamilton, Ontario, where they made turbines, generators, motors, and switch gear for the generation, transmission, and use of electricity. [14] In addition to George Westinghouse, early engineers working for the company included Frank Conrad, Benjamin Garver Lamme, Bertha Lamme (first woman mechanical engineer in the United States), Oliver B. Shallenberger, William Stanley, Nikola Tesla, Stephen Timoshenko, and Vladimir Zworykin.
Early on, Westinghouse was a rival to Thomas Edison's electric company. In 1892, Edison was merged with Westinghouse's chief AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, making an even bigger competitor, General Electric. Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company changed its name to Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1945.[ citation needed ]
In 1990, Westinghouse experienced a serious setback when the corporation lost over one billion dollars due to bad high-risk, high-fee, high-interest loans made by its Westinghouse Credit Corporation lending arm. [15]
In an attempt to revitalize the corporation, the board of directors appointed outside management in the form of CEO Michael H. Jordan, who brought in numerous consultants to help re-engineer the company in order to realize the potential that they saw in the broadcasting industry. Westinghouse reduced the workforce in many of its traditional industrial operations and made further acquisitions in broadcasting to add to its already substantial Group W network, including Infinity Broadcasting, TNN, CMT, American Radio Systems, and rights to NFL broadcasting. These investments cost the company over fifteen billion dollars. To recoup its costs, Westinghouse sold many other operations, including its defense electronics division, its metering and load control division (which was sold to ABB), its residential security division, the office furniture company Knoll, and Thermo King. [16]
Westinghouse purchased CBS Inc. in 1994 for $5.4 billion. [17] Westinghouse Electric Corporation changed its name to and became the original CBS Corporation in 1997. [18] Also in 1997, the Power Generation Business Unit, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, was sold to Siemens AG of Germany. [19] A year later, CBS sold all of its commercial nuclear power businesses to British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL). [20] In connection with that sale, certain rights to use the Westinghouse trademarks were granted to the newly formed BNFL subsidiary, Westinghouse Electric Company. [20] That company was sold to Toshiba in 2006. [21]
During the 20th century, Westinghouse engineers and scientists were granted more than 28,000 U.S. patents, the third most of any company. [22]
There have been a number of Westinghouse-related environmental incidents in the US. Below is a short list of these. All of these are chemical pollution incidents; none of them involve nuclear reactors or nuclear pollution.
Westinghouse established subsidiary companies in several countries including British Westinghouse and Società Italiana Westinghouse in Vado Ligure, Italy. British Westinghouse became a subsidiary of Metropolitan-Vickers in 1919 and the Italian Westinghouse factory was taken over by Tecnomasio in 1921.
George Westinghouse Jr. was a prolific American inventor, engineer, and entrepreneurial industrialist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is best known for his creation of the railway air brake and for being a pioneer in the development and use of alternating current (AC) electrical power distribution. During his career, he received 362 patents for his inventions and established 61 companies, many of which still exist today.
Toshiba Corporation is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors, hard disk drives (HDD), printers, batteries, lighting, as well as IT solutions such as quantum cryptography which has been in development at Cambridge Research Laboratory, Toshiba Europe, located in the United Kingdom, now being commercialised. It was one of the biggest manufacturers of personal computers, consumer electronics, home appliances, and medical equipment. As a semiconductor company and the inventor of flash memory, Toshiba had been one of the top 10 in the chip industry until its flash memory unit was spun off as Toshiba Memory, later Kioxia, in the late 2010s.
Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional and urban trains along with trams.
Hitachi, Ltd. is a Japanese multinational conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in a range of industries, including digital systems, power and renewable energy, railway systems, healthcare products, and financial systems. The company was founded as an electrical machinery manufacturing subsidiary of the Kuhara Mining Plant in Hitachi, Ibaraki by engineer Namihei Odaira in 1910. It started as an independent company under its current name in 1920.
ABB Ltd is a Swiss/Swedish multinational electrical engineering corporation headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Owing to its history, it is dual-listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich and the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, in addition to OTC Markets Group's pink sheets in the United States. It was ranked 340th in the Fortune Global 500 list of 2020 and has been a global Fortune 500 company for 24 years.
Westinghouse may refer to:
Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is an American nuclear power company formed in 1999 from the nuclear power division of the original Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It offers nuclear products and services to utilities internationally, including nuclear fuel, service and maintenance, instrumentation, control and design of nuclear power plants. Westinghouse's world headquarters are located in the Pittsburgh suburb of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.
The American Locomotive Company was an American manufacturer that operated from 1901 to 1969, initially specializing in the production of locomotives but later diversifying and fabricating at various times diesel generators, automobiles, steel, tanks, munitions, oil-production equipment, as well as heat exchangers for nuclear power plants.
The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after the armistice ending the fighting of World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, made munitions, armaments and aeroplanes.
Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget was a Swedish industrial company.
Combustion Engineering (C-E) was a multi-national American-based engineering firm that developed nuclear steam supply power systems in the United States. Originally headquartered in New York City, C-E moved its corporate offices to Stamford, Connecticut, in 1973. C-E owned over three dozen other companies including Lummus Company, National Tank Company and the Morgan Door Company. The company was acquired by Asea Brown Boveri in early 1990. The boiler and fossil fuel businesses were purchased by Alstom in 2000, and the nuclear business was purchased by Westinghouse Electric Company also in 2000.
The Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory (WANL) was a division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Established in 1959 to develop nuclear space propulsion technologies for the government, the lab was located, for most of its history, in the paradoxically small town of "Large" along Pa. Rte 51, about 13 miles (21 km) south of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA. The site is not far from the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in West Mifflin, which Westinghouse operated during the same time and later.
The Hartford Electric Light Company (HELCO) is a defunct electrical company that was located on Pearl Street in Hartford, Connecticut. HELCO merged with the Connecticut Power Company in 1958. These merged with the Connecticut Light and Power Company (CL&P) and the Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECO) in 1966 to form Northeast Utilities (NU). Its former corporate headquarters building and main facility are in the Ann Street Historic District.
The Westinghouse Licensing Corporation was a Delaware General Corporation Law organized subsidiary that was founded in 1998 by Westinghouse-CBS in managing the intellectual property assets relating to the Westinghouse trademarks produced from 1886 until 1996. The Westinghouse name and trademarks were purchased from ViacomCBS in 2021 by a new company called Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
Elliott Company designs, manufactures, installs, and services turbo-machinery for prime movers and rotating machinery. Headquartered in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, Elliott Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japan-based Ebara Corporation, and is a unit of Elliott Group, Ebara Corporation's worldwide turbomachinery business. Elliott Group employs more than 2000 employees worldwide at 32 locations, with approximately 900 in Jeannette.
The Westinghouse Combustion Turbine Systems Division (CTSD), part of Westinghouse Electric Corporation's Westinghouse Power Generation group, was originally located, along with the Steam Turbine Division (STD), in a major industrial manufacturing complex, referred to as the South Philadelphia Works, in Lester, Pennsylvania near to the Philadelphia International Airport.
Westinghouse Advanced Energy Systems Division (AESD) was a research and development facility for nonconventional renewable energy systems, in the small town of Large in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania [USA]. The site is on the east side of Pa. Rte. 51, about 13 miles (21 km) south of Pittsburgh. Formerly the site of the Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory (WANL), Westinghouse Electric Corporation changed the name of the facility, along with its charter, in 1977.
The Siemens Energy Sector was one of the four sectors of German industrial conglomerate Siemens. Founded on January 1, 2009, it generated and delivered power from numerous sources including the extraction, conversion and transport of oil and natural gas in addition to renewable and alternative energy sources. As of October 1, 2014, the sector level has been eliminated, including the Siemens Energy Sector.
Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation, commonly known as Wabtec, is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower Industries Corporation in 1999. It is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
GE Power was an American energy technology company owned by General Electric (GE). In April 2024, GE completed the spin-off of GE Power into a separate company, GE Vernova. Following this, General Electric ceased to exist as a conglomerate and pivoted to aviation, rebranding as GE Aerospace.