. itt corporation type public traded as nyse itt industry industrial manufacturer historically a conglomerate predecessor itt corporation founded 1920 headquarters white plains new york united states area served worldwide key people denise l. ramos ceo and president products specialty components for the aerospace transportation energy and industrial markets revenue us 2.5 billion 2013 1 operating income us 184 million 2013 1 net income us 489 million 2013 1 total assets us 3.7 billion 2013 1 total equity us 1.2 billion 2013 1 number of employees 9 400 2013 1 website itt.com itt corporation itt is an american 2 worldwide manufacturing company based in white plains new york producing specialty components for the aerospace transportation energy and industrial markets . the company was founded in 1920 as international telephone & telegraph . during the 1960s and 1970s under the leadership of ceo harold geneen the company rose to prominence as the archetypal conglomerate deriving its growth from hundreds of acquisitions in diversified industries . itt divested its telecommunications assets in 1986 and in 1995 spun off its non manufacturing divisions later to be purchased by starwood hotels & resorts worldwide . in 1996 the current company was founded as a spinoff of itt as itt industries inc. and changed its name to itt corporation in 2006 . in 2011 itt spun off its defense businesses into a company named exelis and its water technology business into a company named xylem inc. 3 4 contents 1 history 1.1 beginnings and early acquisitions 1.2 german subsidiaries in the nazi period 1.3 post war acquisitions 1.4 international telecommunications 1.5 harold geneen appointment 1.6 involvement in the 1964 coup in brazil 1.7 1972 republican national convention 1.8 involvement in 1973 pinochet coup in chile 1.9 post geneen hamilton and araskog 1.10 1995 breakup 1.11 criminal prosecution 1.12 purchases 1.13 2011 breakup 2 headquarters 3 itt avionics 4 customers and programs 4.1 federal aviation administration nextgen 4.2 geoeye 1 5 see also 6 references 7 further reading 8 external links history edit beginnings and early acquisitions edit international telephone & telegraph itt was formed in 1920 created by brokers colonel sosthenes behn and his brother hernan behn . the brothers had acquired the puerto rico telephone company in 1914 along with the cuban american telephone and telegraph company and a half interest in the cuban telephone company . 5 6 7 itt s first major expansion was in 1923 when it consolidated the spanish telecoms market into what is now telef nica . 8 9 from 1922 to 1925 it purchased a number of european telephone companies . in 1925 itt purchased several companies from western electric as bell has agreed to divest itself of its international operations . they included the bell telephone manufacturing company btm of antwerp belgium which manufactured rotary system switching equipment and the british international western electric which was renamed standard telephones and cables stc . compagnie g n rale d electricit later purchased btm ; nortel later purchased stc . in the 1930s itt purchased german electronic companies standard elektrizit tsgesellschaft seg and mix & genest both of which were internationally active companies and romanian telecommunications monopoly societatea anonima rom n de telefoane . its only serious rival was the theodore gary & company conglomerate which operated a subsidiary associated telephone and telegraph with manufacturing plants in europe . in the united states itt acquired the various companies of the mackay companies in 1928 through a specially organized subsidiary corporation postal telegraph & cable . these companies included the commercial cable company the commercial pacific cable company postal telegraph and the federal telegraph company . 75 broad street manhattan former headquarters of itt detail of door german subsidiaries in the nazi period edit on 3 august 1933 hitler received in one of the first meetings with us businessmen sosthenes behn then the ceo of itt and his german representative henry mann . 8 10 11 antony c. sutton in his book wall street and the rise of hitler makes the claim that itt subsidiaries made cash payments to ss leader heinrich himmler . behn chief of itt corporation met with ludwig roselius in switzerland during wwii and in 1942 roselius and carl goerdeler together with barbara goette decided that hitler must be eliminated and operation spark almost succeeded in march 1943 but the gestapo traced the trail to roselius and in may hitler strangled him in the hotel kaiserhof berlin after arguing about forced labour at focke wulf plants . 12 itt through its subsidiary c. lorenz ag owned 25 % of focke wulf the german aircraft manufacturer builder of some of the most successful luftwaffe fighter aircraft . in the 1960s itt corporation won 27 million in compensation for damage inflicted on its share of the focke wulf plant by allied bombing during world war ii . 8 in addition sutton s book uncovers that itt owned shares of signalbau ag dr. erich f. huth signalbau huth which produced for the german wehrmacht radar equipment and transceivers in berlin hanover later telefunken factory and other places . while itt focke wulf planes were bombing allied ships and itt lines were passing information german submarines itt direction finders were saving other ships from torpedoes . 13 in 1943 itt became the largest shareholder of focke wulf flugzeugbau gmbh for the remainder of the war with 29 % . this was due to kaffee hag s share falling to 27 % after the death in may of kaffee hag chief dr ludwig roselius . omgus documents reveal that the role of the hag conglomerate could not be determined during wwii . 14 post war acquisitions edit in 1951 itt purchased philo farnsworth s television company to break into that market . at the time farnsworth was also developing the fusor fusion reactor which was funded by itt until 1967 . 15 also in 1951 itt bought a majority interest in the kellogg switchboard & supply company founded in 1897 as a pioneer in divided multiple telephone switchboards and bought the remaining shares the next year . itt changed the company s name to itt kellogg . after merging federal telephone and radio corporation into itt kellogg and combining manufacturing operations the name was again changed to itt telecommunications eventually reverting to itt kellogg . one prominent subsidiary of this was the american cable and radio corporation which operated the transatlantic cables of the commercial cable company among other ventures . it bought philadelphia based heating and air conditioning manufacturer john j. nesbitt inc. in 1968 the company purchased levittown homebuilder levitt and sons for a reported 90 million . in 1972 the koni group 16 manufacturer of shock absorbers was added to the list of acquisitions and remains a leader world wide as the quality shock absorber specialist focusing solely on high performing suspension damping technology for cars racing specialty trucks busses trailers locomotives and railway rolling stock . international telecommunications edit international telecommunications manufacturing subsidiaries included stc in britain and australia sel today alcatel lucent germany and intermetall gesellschaft f r metallurgie und elektronik mbh today micronas in germany btm in belgium and cgct and lmt in france . these companies manufactured equipment according to itt designs including the 1960s pentaconta crossbar switch and 1970s metaconta d l and 10c stored program control exchanges mostly for sale to their respective national telephone administrations . this equipment was also produced under license in pozna poland and in yugoslavia and elsewhere . itt was the largest owner of the lm ericsson company in sweden but sold out in 1960 . alec reeves invented pulse code modulation pcm upon which future digital voice communication was based and charles k. kao pioneered the use of optical fiber for which he was awarded the 2009 nobel prize in physics . harold geneen appointment edit in 1959 harold geneen became ceo . using leveraged buyouts he turned the minor acquisitions of the 1950s into major growth during the 1960s . in 1963 itt attempted to purchase the abc television network for 700 million . the deal was halted by federal antitrust regulators who feared itt was growing too large . in order to continue growing while not running afoul of antitrust legislation it moved to acquire companies outside of the telecommunications industry . under geneen itt bought over 300 companies in the 1960s including some hostile takeovers . the deals included well known businesses like the sheraton hotel chain wonder bread maker continental baking rayonier and avis rent a car . itt also absorbed smaller operations in auto parts energy books semiconductors and cosmetics . in 1966 itt acquired educational services inc. an operator of for profit schools which became itt esi . when itt attempted to acquire the hartford insurance company in 1970 the us justice department filed suit and itt agreed to divest assets equal to those of hartford s including avis . 17 itt s sales grew from about 700 million in 1960 to about 8 billion in 1970 and its profit from 29 million to 550 million . however when the higher interest rates started eating away at profits in the late 1960s itt s growth slowed considerably . in the late 1960s the british electronics manufacturer kolster brandes kb for short had run into trouble with its color television manufacturing and turned to itt for help ; itt bought out the company and for a while uk products were badged itt kb then eventually just itt . by the late 1970s itt had a good presence on the uk domestic electrical market in television audio and portable radio products . involvement in the 1964 coup in brazil edit jo o goulart was the president of brazil . the us government including president lyndon johnson defense secretary robert s. mcnamara ambassador lincoln gordon and others felt he had communist leanings . itt s president harold geneen was friends with the director of central intelligence john mccone . the cia performed psyops against goulart performed character assassination pumped money into opposition groups and enlisted the help of the agency for international development and the afl cio . the 1964 brazilian coup d tat exiled goulart and the military dictatorship of humberto de alencar castelo branco took over . mccone went to work for itt a few years later . the dictatorship lasted until 1985 . 18 1972 republican national convention edit itt became enmeshed in scandal in connection with the 1972 republican national convention . in may 1971 itt president geneen pledged 400 000 to support a proposal to hold the convention in san diego ; only 100 000 of the contribution was publicly disclosed . the republican national committee selected san diego as the site in july 1971 . however on february 29 1972 newspaper columnist jack anderson disclosed an interoffice memo from itt lobbyist dita beard to itt vice president bill merriam dated june 25 1971 . the memo appeared to draw a connection between itt s contribution to the convention and the favorable settlement of a justice department antitrust lawsuit . the resulting scandal including a senate investigation and the threat of criminal charges caused itt to withdraw its support for the san diego convention . that combined with a shortage of hotel space and problems with the proposed venue led the rnc to move the convention to miami . 19 special prosecutor leon jaworski investigated the case but ultimately concluded there was no evidence of criminal conduct by itt . 20 involvement in 1973 pinochet coup in chile edit in 1970 itt owned 70 % of ctc the chilean telephone company now movistar chile and funded el mercurio a chilean right wing newspaper . declassified documents released by the u.s. central intelligence agency in 2000 suggest that the company financially helped opponents of salvador allende s government prepare a military coup . 21 22 23 on september 28 1973 an itt building in new york city was bombed