ABB Ltd. is a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company 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. Both companies were established in the late 1800s and were major electrical equipment manufacturers, a business that ABB remains active in today. The company has also since expanded to robotics and automation technology.
It is ranked 341st in the Fortune Global 500 list of 2018 and has been a global Fortune 500 company for 24 years. Until the sale of its Power Grids division in 2020, ABB was Switzerland’s largest industrial employer.
ABB is traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zürich, Nasdaq Stockholm in Sweden, and the New York Stock Exchange in the United States.
An ABB entity plead guilty for bid rigging in 2001, and the company has had 3 US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bribing resolutions against it – in 2004, 2010, and 2022.
Predecessor companies
Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA, English translation: General Swedish Electrical Limited Company) was founded in 1883 in Västerås, Sweden by Ludvig Fredholm[10] as manufacturer of electrical light and generators.
Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) was formed in 1891 in Zurich, Switzerland by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri[12] as a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies producing AC and DC motors, generators, steam turbines and transformers.
Countries where ABB is present
Formation and early years
On 10 August 1987, ASEA and BBC announced they would merge to form ASEA Brown Boveri (ABB). The new corporation would remain headquartered in both Zurich, Switzerland and Västerås, Sweden, with each parent company holding 50 percent. The merger created a global industrial group with revenue of approximately $15 billion and 160,000 employees.
When ABB began operations on 5 January 1988, its core operations included power generation, transmission and distribution; electric transportation; and industrial automation and robotics.
In its first year, ABB made 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.
In 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).
The following year, ABB bought the robotics business of Cincinnati Milacron in the US. The acquisition expanded ABB’s presence in automated spot-welding and positioned the company to better serve the American automotive industry. ABB’s 1991 introduction of the IRB 6000 robot, demonstrated its increased capacity in this field. The first modular robot, the IRB 6000, can be reconfigured to perform a variety of specific tasks. At the time of its launch, the IRB 6000 was the fastest and most accurate spot-welding robot on the market.
In the early 1990s, ABB started expanding in Central and Eastern Europe. By the end of 1991, the company employed 10,000 people in the region. The following year, that number doubled. A similar pattern played out in Asia, where economic reforms in China and the lifting of some Western sanctions, helped open the region to a new wave of outside investment and industrial growth. By 1994, ABB had 30,000 employees and 100 plants, engineering, service and marketing centers across Asia – numbers that would continue to grow. Through the 1990s, ABB continued its strategy of targeted expansion in Eastern Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and the Americas.
In 1995, ABB agreed to merge its rail engineering unit with that of Daimler-Benz AG of Germany. The goal was to create the world’s largest maker of locomotives and railway cars. The new company, ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation (Adtranz), had an initial global market share of nearly 12 percent. The merge took effect on 1 January 1996.
A few months after the July 1997 Asian financial crisis, ABB announced plans to accelerate its expansion in Asia. The company also acted to improve the productivity and profitability of its Western operations, taking an $850 million restructuring charge as it shifted more resources to emerging markets and scaled back some facilities in higher-cost countries.
In 1998, ABB acquired Sweden-based Alfa Laval’s automation unit, which at the time was one of Europe’s top suppliers of process control systems and automation equipment.
As a final step in the integration of the companies formerly known as ASEA and BBC, in 1999 the directors unanimously approved a plan to create a unified, single class of shares in the group.
That same year, ABB completed its purchase of Elsag Bailey Process Automation, a Netherlands-based maker of industrial control systems, for $2.1 billion.[20] The acquisition increased ABB’s presence in the high-tech industrial robotics and factory control system sectors, which reducing its reliance on traditional heavy engineering sectors such as power generation and transmission.
Shift in business focus
In 1999, the company sold its stake in the Adtranz train-building business to DaimlerChrysler. Instead of building complete locomotives, ABB’s transportation activities shifted increasingly toward traction motors and electric components.
That same year, ABB and France-based Alstom, announced the merger of their power generation businesses in a 50-50 joint company, ABB Alstom Power. Separately, ABB agreed to sell its nuclear power business to British Nuclear Fuels of the United Kingdom.
In 2000, ABB divested its interests in ABB Alstom Power and sold its boiler and fossil-fuel operations (including Gas turbines) to Alstom. Thereafter, ABB’s power business was focused on renewable energy and transmission and distribution.
In 2002, ABB announced its first-ever annual loss, a $691 million net loss for 2001.[24] The loss was caused by ABB’s decision to nearly double its provisions for settlement costs in asbestos-related litigation against Combustion Engineering in the US from $470 million to $940 million. The claims were linked to asbestos products sold by Combustion Engineering prior to its acquisition by ABB.
At the same time, ABB’s board announced it would seek the return of money “paid in excess of obligations to Goran Lindahl and to Percy Barnevik,” two former chief executive officers of the group. Barnevik received some $89 million in pension benefits when he left ABB in 2001; Lindahl, who succeeded Barnevik as CEO, had received $50 million in pension benefits.[25]
In 2005, ABB delisted its shares from the London Stock Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
In 2006, ABB put an end to its financial uncertainties by finalizing a $1.43 billion plan to settle asbestos liabilities against its US subsidiaries, Combustion Engineering and ABB Lummus Global, Inc.[27] In August 2007, ABB Lummus Global, ABB’s downstream oil and gas business, was sold to CB&I. In 2004, ABB had sold its upstream oil and gas business, ABB Vetco Gray. ABB’s plan going forward was to support the oil and gas industry with its core automation and power technology businesses.
In 2008, ABB agreed to acquire Kuhlman Electric Corporation, a US-based maker of transformers for the industrial and electric utility sectors. In December 2008, ABB acquired Ber-Mac Electrical and Instrumentation to expand its presence in Western Canada’s oil and gas industries.
In 2010 K-TEK, a manufacturer of level measurement instruments, became part of ABB’s Measurement Products business unit within ABB’s Process Automation division.
In July 2010, ABB in Cary, North Carolina received a $4.2 million grant from the federal government to develop energy storing magnets.
On 10 January 2011, ABB invested $10 million in ECOtality, a San Francisco-based developed of charging stations and power storage technologies, to enter North America’s electric vehicle charging market.On 1 July ABB announced the acquisition of Epyon B.V. of the Netherlands, an early leader in the European EV-charging infrastructure and maintenance markets.
In 2011, ABB acquired Baldor Electric for $4.2 billion in an all-cash transaction. The move aligned with ABB’s strategy to increase its market share in the North American industrial motors business.
On 30 January 2012, ABB acquired Thomas & Betts, a North American leader in low voltage products for industrial, construction and utility applications, in a $3.9 billion cash transaction. On 15 June 2012 it completed the acquisition of commercial and industrial wireless technology specialists Tropos.
In July 2013, ABB acquired Power-One in a $1 billion all-cash transaction, to become the leading global manufacturer of solar inverters. Also in 2013, Fastned selected ABB to supply more than 200 Terra fast-charging stations along highways in the Netherlands. Ulrich Spiesshofer was named ABB’s CEO, succeeding Joe Hogan.
In 2016, ABB won the contract of TANAP Project in Turkiye, ABB will deliver the telecommunications, security and control infrastructure to contribute to safe, secure and reliable operation of the pipeline throughout its lifetime.
The TANAP pipeline is the largest diameter, and with 1,850 km length the longest pipeline ever built in Turkey crossing 20 districts and will bring Azerbaijan’s natural gas through Georgia, Turkey and Greece directly to Europe. The $11 billion TANAP pipeline will interconnect with the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCPx) at Turkey’s border with Georgia and the Trans Adriatic (TAP) at its border with Greece.
On 6 July 2017, ABB announced it had completed its acquisition of Bernecker + Rainer Industrie-Elektronik (B&R), the largest independent provider of product and software-based, open-architecture for machine and factory automation.
Spark SRT05e at Autosport International 2020 of ABB Formula E
In 2018, ABB became the title partner of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, the world’s first fully electric international FIA motorsport series.
On 30 June 2018, ABB completed its acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions, General Electric’s global electrification business.
On 17 December 2018, ABB announced it had agreed to sell 80.1% of its Power Grids business to Hitachi. The former Power Grids division is now a part of the Hitachi Group and has been rebranded to Hitachi Energy.
In March 2020, ABB announced that it had agreed to sell its solar inverter business to Italian solar inverter manufacturer Fimer. The transaction includes all of ABB’s manufacturing and R&D sites in Finland, Italy and India, along with 800 employees across 26 countries.
In December 2022, ABB opened a robotics mega factory in Shanghai. The new 67,000 square meter facility represents $150 million investment.
