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 | , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Divisions |
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Subsidiaries |
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The Westinghouse Electric Corporation (later CBS Corporation) was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in 1945. The company acquired the CBS television network in 1995 and was renamed "CBS Corporation" until being acquired by Viacom in 1999, a merger completed in April 2000. [8] The CBS Corporation name was later reused for one of the two companies resulting from the split of Viacom in 2005.
The Westinghouse trademarks are owned by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, [9] and were previously part of Westinghouse Licensing Corporation. [9] [10] The nuclear power business, Westinghouse Electric Company, was spun off from the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1999.
1912 | Famous Players Film Company is founded |
---|---|
1913 | Lasky Feature Play Company is founded |
1914 | Paramount Pictures is founded as a film distributor |
1916 | Famous Players and Lasky merge as Famous Players–Lasky and acquire Paramount |
1920 | Group W forms with the launch of KDKA-AM |
1927 | CBS is founded; Famous Players–Lasky assumes Paramount's name |
1929 | Paramount buys 49% of CBS |
1932 | Paramount sells back shares of CBS |
1950 | Desilu is founded and CBS distributes its television programs |
1952 | CBS creates the CBS Television Film Sales division |
1958 | CBS Television Film Sales renamed to CBS Films |
1966 | Gulf+Western buys Paramount |
1968 | Gulf+Western acquires Desilu and renames it Paramount Television; CBS Films becomes CBS Enterprises |
1970 | CBS Enterprises renamed to Viacom |
1971 | Viacom is spun off from CBS as a separate company |
1985 | Viacom buys full ownership of Showtime and MTV Networks |
1986 | National Amusements buys Viacom |
1989 | Gulf+Western renamed to Paramount Communications |
1994 | Viacom acquires Paramount Communications |
1995 | Westinghouse buys CBS |
1997 | Westinghouse renamed to CBS Corporation |
2000 | Viacom buys CBS Corporation |
2001 | Viacom buys BET Networks |
2005 | Viacom splits into second CBS Corporation and Viacom |
2019 | CBS Corporation and Viacom re-merge to form ViacomCBS |
2022 | ViacomCBS changes its name to Paramount Global |
Westinghouse Electric was founded by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on January 8, 1886. Building on the advancement of AC technology in Europe, [11] 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 [12] and Hamilton, Ontario, where they made turbines, generators, motors, and switch gear for the generation, transmission, and use of electricity. [13] 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 financial catastrophe 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. [14]
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. [15]
Westinghouse purchased CBS Inc. in 1995 for $5.4 billion. [16] Westinghouse Electric Corporation changed its name to and became the original "CBS Corporation" in 1997. [17] Also in 1997, the Power Generation Business Unit, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, was sold to Siemens AG of Germany. [18] A year later, CBS sold all of its commercial nuclear power businesses to British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL). [19] In connection with that sale, certain rights to use the Westinghouse trademarks were granted to the newly formed BNFL subsidiary, Westinghouse Electric Company. [19] That company was sold to Toshiba in 2006. [20]
During the 20th century, Westinghouse engineers and scientists were granted more than 28,000 U.S. patents, the third most of any company. [21]
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 an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age of 19. Westinghouse saw the potential of using alternating current for electric power distribution in the early 1880s and put all his resources into developing and marketing it. This put Westinghouse's business in direct competition with Thomas Edison, who marketed direct current for electric power distribution. In 1911 Westinghouse received the American Institute of Electrical Engineers's (AIEE) Edison Medal "For meritorious achievement in connection with the development of the alternating current system." He founded the Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1886.
Toshiba Corporation is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. 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 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 specialises in a diverse range of products, including digital systems, power and renewable energy solutions, railway systems, healthcare products, and financial systems.
ABB Ltd. is a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Västerås, Sweden, and Zürich, Switzerland. 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. 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. Brookfield Renewable Partners, a Canadian private equity fund and a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management is the majority owner of Westinghouse.
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, had been making 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 Air Brake Technologies Corporation was founded on September 28, 1869 by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Earlier in the year he had invented the railway air brake in New York state.
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 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 Westinghouse Electric Corporation.
Ansaldo Energia S.p.A. is an Italian power engineering company based in Genoa, Italy. The absorbed parent company, Gio. Ansaldo & C., was started in 1853. It was merged with Leonardo S.p.A. In 2011, Leonardo S.p.A. sold a 45% stake in Ansaldo Energia to First Reserve Corporation. In 2013, Fondo Strategico Italiano acquired an 85% share of the company. It then sold a 40% share to Shanghai Electric Corporation.
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.
SA Ateliers de Constructions Electriques de Charleroi (ACEC) was a Belgian manufacturer of electrical generation, transmission, transport, lighting and industrial equipment, with origins dating to the late 19th century as a successor to the Société Électricité et Hydraulique founded by Julien Dulait.
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 is an American energy technology company, owned by General Electric.
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