Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) is a company of electro-technology with head office in Zurich. The company is world-wide active and busily today still altogether approx. 105 ' 000 coworkers. At its best times busy ABB over 140 ' 000 coworkers world-wide.

History

The ABB developed 1988 from the fusion of the Swedish Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and the Swiss Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) to the Asea Brown Boveri (ABB). This fusion, by which ABB became the world-wide number three of electro-technology, was considered at that time as milestone of restaurant history. The most important products of the company were power stations, in particular gas turbine, steam turbine and GuD power stations, locomotives, turbochargers and electrical switchgears.

1990er-Jahre

The CEO at that time, Percy Barnevik bought in the next years on a large scale still further companies. One of these companies, the American Combustion engineering, saw itself confronted in the nineties-years in the USA with enormous compensation demands by asbestos victims, which brought the company to 2002 to the edge of the collapse. The company negotiated in the meantime a comparison with the creditors, which was approved by the responsible US court on 1 April 2006. NZZ article from 2 April 2006 Barnevik received a compensation in million height with 3 digits, which is considered this very day as the largest compensation of all times after its withdrawal.

Into the 1990er-Jahren the board of directors was dominated by Financiers such as Martin Ebner, for which however the necessary is enough breath for the locomotive and power station business was missing. In the consequence the ABB stepped out of the traffic engineering industry and sold the 50%-Anteil at the Joint venture Adtranz at Daimler Benz. Afterwards the power station section was sold to the company ALSTOM. This affected however also the remaining ranges of the company negatively, from which many suppliers of the power station section were.

Into the late 1990ern the Swede Lindahl led the company. Under it 1999 the tradition company Hartmann & Braun as well as the Elsag Baily was transferred and integrated to the company. From this Alzenau and Eschborn the today's ABB automation Products GmbH, with head office in Goettingen under high personnel reduction at the locations, developed which manufactures automation solutions and process control systems. Germany boss was at that time the former Hartmann&Braun chief executive Dietz.

2000er-Jahre

In the year 2000 the ABB, although only 12 years in this form existent, celebrated its existence due to the history of the former BBC. In Germany this with the campaign beginning "route Futur" was folded up, a transformation process of the ABB aligned to future. New Germany boss became Swiss Bengt Piehl. A avowed goal of the management was it to become compared with Siemens in all competitive Geschaftszweigen the number 1. As consequence consistently divisions of the "old technology" were reduced like power station and purification plant technology as well as the turbine business. By the purchase of special Risikoinvestmentbrokern, the stock exchange transaction and thus the production-independent profits should be increased by pure capital business.

Starting from 2001 the computer science-oriented Joergen Centerman CEO, which wanted to continue the transformation process of the ABB consistently and the intention had, was the ABB must to the new information technologies and services with priority dedicate itself. A measure in this connection was the total integration before for CSC active computer scientist and PC-Dienstleister. These were transferred after the model of the SBS first into the internal Businesses unit "KIS" (communication & information of systems), separated after that general fall of the IT-market after 2001 however later only again and finally sold completely. Due to the altogether missed strategy had to vacate Centerman his armchair shortly thereafter. The shares partly lost in this time up to 70%. As emergency measure the entire company within the range management was restructured and the past high-level personnel of the individual divisions was entmachtet to a large extent. Instead 7 so-called business AREA manager was used, who flew by the day from Switzerland, in order to advise and control the local management.

From 5 September 2002 by 31 December 2004 Dormann led the company as CEO and on 1 January 2005 from Fred Kindle, up to then CEO of the Sulzer AG, was replaced. Since then Dormann dedicates itself only to its office as a president of the board of directors.

Situation

In the financial year 2005 the annual turnover of the entire company amounted to approximately 22.44 billion US Dollar and locked for the first time for several years again with a net company gain of 735 millions US$.

Largest single shareholder of the ABB with 8% of the share capital and the being correct rights is the Swedish investor OFF, which distribute themselves remaining share capital on approximately 288 ' 000 shareholders, of who nobody reaches the threshold of the Meldeplicht of 5%.

National companies

ABB Germany, with seat in Mannheim, is busy the largest national company and to time of 12 ' 600 coworkers at 51 locations, however this number constantly sinks. So were still in the year 2000 over 20 ' 000. The German annual turnover 2004 amounted to 2.68 billion euro, however a decrease is to be registered also here compared with 3.5 billion in the year 2000. The company gained thereby a surplus of 76 millions euro, the volume of business amounted to 3 billion euro.

Subsidiary company

• Shrub hunter electrical GmbH, Germany
• Calor Emag switchgears, Germany
• Stotz contacts, Germany

See also

• Family boiling mountain

Sources

Literature

• Werner Catrina: ABB - The betrayed vision. Orell Zurich 2003, ISBN 3280060044

Related links

• The ABB group
• The apprentice training of the ABB Switzerland AG

Articles in category "Asea Brown Boveri"

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