The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company (NYSE:
GT (http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=GT)) was founded in 1898 by Frank
Seiberling. It is one of the largest tire and rubber companies in the world, and is based in Akron, Ohio.
Although the company was not connected with him, the company was named in honor of the inventor of vulcanized rubber, Charles Goodyear.
Goodyear is known throughout the world because of its famous blimps. For many years it
maintained an aerospace subsidiary, first named Goodyear Aircraft Company and then after World War II renamed Goodyear Aerospace Corporation. The subsidiary was sold in 1987 to Loral Corp., in the aftermath of Sir James Goldsmith's greenmail
attack attempting a hostile takeover of Goodyear.
History
A brief history of the Goodyear company:
- Production begins in 1898 with 13 workers, manufacturing bicycle and carriage tires, rubber pads for horseshoes, and poker
chips.
- In 1901, Seiberling offers racing
tires to Henry Ford to help him get started in automobile racing.
- In 1908, the Ford's Model T is outfitted with Goodyear tires.
- 1909, Goodyear builds its first aircraft tire.
- 1911, Goodyear constructs its first airship envelope.
- 1917, Goodyear produces airships and ballons for the U.S. military during World War I
- 1919, Goodyear tires are on the car the wins at Indianaoplis
- In 1922, facing a growing economic Depression Goodyear stops race tire
production, and competitors (primarily Firestone) take up the slack.
- 1926, Goodyear becomes the world's largest rubber company.
- 1935, Goodyear purchases competitor Kelly-Springfield Tire
- 1942, Goodyear is awarded a contract to produce F4U Corsair fighter
planes for the US military.
- 1956, a Goodyear-operated U235 atomic processing plant opens in southern part of the state of Ohio (USA)
- 1958, attempting to counter a "stodgy" marketing image, Goodyear officially reenters racing.
- 1969, Goodyear's annual sales top three billion dollars as a result of significant expansions over the preceding years
- 1974, Goodyear's annual sales reach five billion dollars and the company now has manufacturing facilities in 34
countries
- 1978, the company announces that an idle Akron tire plant will be converted into a new 75 million dollar Technical Center to
support research and tire design efforts
- 1979, Goodyear Aerospace produces the MPP computer, a massively parallel supercomputer, for NASA's Goddard Spaceflight
Center
- 1984, worldwide sales exceed 10 billion dollars
- 1986, Sir James Goldsmith and an investment group initiate a takeover attempt by purchasing 11 percent of outstanding
Goodyear stock
- 1987, in order to fend off the Goldsmith takeover and prevent other attempts, Goodyear completes a massive restructuring,
selling subsidiaries and closing plants. Goodyear also announces the completion of a California to Texas "All American" oil
pipeline and the Kelly-Springfield subsidiary announces the construction of a new headquarters in Maryland.
- 1988, plans are announced to begin construction on a new state-of-the-art tire plant in Napanee, Ontario, Canada for a cost
of $320 million.
- 1990, sales top 11 billion dollars.
- 1994, Goodyear opens an "electronic store" on the CompuServe network
Competitors
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