type public traded as nyse ajrd industry aerospace defense and real estate predecessor general tire and rubber company founded akron ohio united states 1915 1915 founder william f. o neil headquarters rancho cordova california united states of america area served nationwide key people eileen drake president and ceo brands aerojet rocketdyne easton real estate revenue 419.5 million q3 2014 1 operating income 3.6 million q3 2014 1 net income 9.5 million q3 2014 1 total assets 1.749 billion q3 2014 1 total equity 48.7 million q3 2014 1 website www.aerojetrocketdyne.com aerojet rocketdyne holdings inc. formerly gencorp inc. is an american technology based manufacturer based in rancho cordova california . established in 1915 it was formerly known as the general tire and rubber company becoming gencorp in 1984 and adopting its current name in april 2015 . 2 contents 1 history 1.1 background 1.2 name change 1.3 disconglomeration 1.4 aeronautics expansion 2 pension and bond problems 3 nuclear controversy 4 references 5 external links history edit background edit main article general tire and rubber company several decades after it began manufacturing rubber products general tire diversified into broadcasting and aeronautics . in the 1940s the aerojet company began experimenting with various rocket designs . for a solid fuel rocket they needed binders and turned to general rubber for assistance . general became a partner in the company . radio broadcasting began with the purchase of several radio networks starting in 1943 . in 1952 its purchase of wor tv expanded the broadcast business into television . in 1953 general bought the rko radio pictures movie studio . all of its media and entertainment holdings were organized into the rko general division . due to the studio and rocket businesses general came to own a great deal of property in california . its internal facilities management unit began commercializing its operations landing general in the real estate business . this started when aerojet general corporation acquired approximately 12 600 acres 51 km2 of land in eastern sacramento county . aerojet converted these former gold fields into one of the premier rocket manufacturing and testing facilities in the western world . however most of this land was used to provide safe buffer zones for aerojet s testing and manufacturing operations . later as the need for these facilities and safety zones decreased the property became available for other uses . located 15 miles 24 km northeast of sacramento along highway 50 the properties were valuable being in a key growth corridor in the region . approximately 6 000 acres 24 km2 of the aerojet lands are now being planned as a community called easton . easton development company llc was formed to assist in the process . 3 name change edit in 1984 general created a parent holding company gencorp for its various businesses . the main subsidiaries were general tire broadcaster rko general diversitech general a manufacturer of tennis balls and polymer products including automotive soundproofing and home wallpapers defense contractor aerojet . through its rko general subsidiary the company also held stakes in frontier airlines rko bottlers which operated pepsi cola distributorships several resorts and hotels including the westward look resort in tucson arizona disconglomeration edit faced with a hostile takeover attempt among other difficulties gencorp shed some of its long held units in the late 1980s . rko general ran into difficulties with the federal communications commission fcc during license renewal proceedings in the late 1980s . the fcc was reluctant to renew the broadcast licenses due to widespread lying to advertisers and regulators . as a result of the protracted proceedings gencorp sold rko general s broadcast properties beginning in 1987 . gencorp also sold its former flagship general tire to german tire maker continental ag in order to concentrate on aerojet . in 1999 gencorp spun off its decorative & building products and performance chemicals businesses . gencorp formed omnova solutions inc. into a separate publicly traded company and transferred those businesses into it . gencorp s two remaining businesses as of 2008 are aerojet and real estate . 4 aeronautics expansion edit in july 2012 gencorp agreed to buy rocket engine producer pratt & whitney rocketdyne from united technologies corporation for 550 million . 5 6 7 the ftc approved the deal on june 10 2013 and it closed on june 17 . 8 9 10 11 pension and bond problems edit this section may require cleanup to meet wikipedia s quality standards . no cleanup reason has been specified . please help improve this section if you can . february 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message gencorp withdrew its over funded pension during the real estate boom years of 2006 and 2007 . the real estate bust caused an underfunding of the pension plan of over 300 million . this caused a freeze of its pension plan on feb. 1 2009 and an end to 401k match on jan 15 2009 . the move was expected to save the company 29 million a year . 12 the under funded pension gave the company a negative net worth of 6.88 per share as of 30 november 2009 . gencorp also is holding 142.80 million in 4 % bonds due in 2010 and 147.70 million in bonds due in 2011 that the company expects to have to repurchase as of the 2008 annual report . in december 2009 the company issued 200.0 million in aggregate principal amount of 4.0625 % convertible subordinated debentures 4 1 16 % debentures in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers under the securities act of 1933 . issuance of the 4 1 16 % debentures generated net proceeds of approximately 195.0 million a portion of which were used to repurchase 124.7 million of the 4 % notes in january 2010 . the remaining proceeds will be used to redeem a portion of the 9 % senior subordinatednotes 9 % notes ; pay accrued interest on the 4 % notes and 9 % notes ; and pay other debt issuance costs . 13 in march 2010 gencorp amended a 280 million revolving line of credit 14 gencorp s former ceo j. scott neish resigned on jan. 6 2010 . he had been interim ceo from march 2008 terry j hall resigned head of the aerojet division since november 2005 . the new ceo was placed in as permanent and j. scott neish elected to resign from aerojet . scott seymour had been the head of northrop grumman integrated systems from 2002 to 2008 . 15 gencorp since 2008 has had significant changes in its board of directors and corporate officers per the 2008 annual report on march 5 2008 terry l. hall resigned as a director and as our chief executive officer and president and our board appointed three new directors . the board appointed j. scott neish our vice president and president of aerojet to serve as our interim chief executive officer and president pending the results of a search to identify qualified candidates to fill this position on a permanent basis . on may 15 2008 timothy a.wicks chairman of the board todd r. snyder and sheila e. widnall resigned as directors of the company . our board of directors appointed james h. perry and thomas a. corcoran as new directors on may 16 2008 and september 25 2008 respectively . on september 29 2008 yasmin r. seyal our former senior vice president and chief financial officer and r. leon blackburn our former vice president controller left the company and our board appointed kathleen e. redd vice president finance of aerojet to serve as our vice president chief financial officer and secretary . nuclear controversy edit in 2008 the government pension fund of norway withdrew its investments in gencorp due to production of nuclear weapons . 16 as of 2015 there has been no change to this status . references edit a b c d e gencorp q3 2014 earnings report october 10 2014 gencorp announces effective date for name and stock ticker symbol change easton plan home gencorp home los angeles times ; rocketdyne sold to gencorp . accessed 12.12.2012 gencorp to buy rocket manufacturer rocketdyne . flightglobal . retrieved 23 july 2012 . who s where aviation week & space technology january 1 2007 gencorp acquisition of rocketdyne delayed pending ftc approval pratt & whitney rocketdyne cuts 100 jobs u.s. clears gencorp rocketdyne deal after defense department request . washington dc . reuters . june 10 2013 . retrieved october 7 2013 . gencorp closes rocketdyne buy . yahoo finance . zacks equity research . june 17 2013 . 1 2 corporate news article archived copy . archived from the original on 2012 10 23 . retrieved 2010 03 21 . 3 4 one producer of cluster munitions and two producers of nuclear weapons excluded from the government pension fund global external links edit official aerojet rocketdyne holdings homepage omnova homepage v t e aerojet rocketdyne holdings people thomas f. o neil dan a. kimball robert truax subsidiaries aerojet rocketdyne pratt & whitney rocketdyne rocketdyne joint ventures bristol aerojet products aerobee aerojet general x 8 aerozine 50 aquarius lr 87 sea dragon related articles aerojet general tire omnova solutions retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title aerojet rocketdyne holdings & oldid 742658810 categories gencorpmanufacturing companies based in californiacompanies based in sacramento californiacompanies listed on the new york stock exchangehidden categories articles needing cleanup from february 2010all articles needing cleanupcleanup tagged articles without a reason field from february 2010wikipedia pages needing cleanup from february 2010 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial 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