nyse cat dow jones industrial average component s & p 500 component industry heavy equipment engines financial services predecessor c. l. best holt manufacturing company founded april 15 1925 ; 91 years ago 1925 04 15 california u.s. headquarters peoria illinois u.s. area served worldwide key people douglas r. oberhelman chairman and ceo products products list d11 bulldozer 345c l excavator 930g wheel loader 797f haul truck c13 diesel engine c32 diesel gasoline engine c280 diesel gasoline engine services services list financing insurance maintenance training revenue us 47.01 billion 2015 1 operating income us 3.25 billion 2015 1 net income us 2.10 billion 2015 1 total assets us 78.49 billion 2015 1 total equity us 14.80 billion 2015 1 number of employees 114 233 q2 2015 2 subsidiaries subsidiary list caterpillar financial services caterpillar insurance holdings caterpillar logistics services caterpillar marine power systems fg wilson perkins engines progress rail services corporation solar turbines website www.caterpillar.com footnotes references 3 4 5 6 caterpillar inc. is an american corporation which designs develops engineers manufactures markets and sells machinery engines financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network . 3 4 caterpillar is a leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment diesel and natural gas engines industrial gas turbines and diesel electric locomotives . 1 with more than us 89 billion in assets caterpillar was ranked number one in its industry and number 44 overall in the 2009 fortune 500 . 7 in 2016 caterpillar was ranked 59 on the fortune 500 list and 194 on the global fortune 500 list . 8 caterpillar stock is a component of the dow jones industrial average . 9 caterpillar inc. traces its origins to the 1925 merger of the holt manufacturing company and the c. l. best tractor company creating a new entity the california based caterpillar tractor company . 10 in 1986 the company re organized itself as a delaware corporation under the current name caterpillar inc. caterpillar s headquarters are located in peoria illinois united states . 1 the company also licenses and markets a line of clothing and workwear boots under its cat caterpillar name . 11 caterpillar machinery is recognizable by its trademark caterpillar yellow livery and the cat logo . 12 contents 1 history 1.1 origins 1.2 move to peoria 1.3 use in world war i 1.4 post war challenges 1.5 caterpillar company formed 1925 1.6 expansion in developing markets 1.7 acquisitions 1.8 divestitures 2 business lines 2.1 machinery 2.2 on road trucks 2.3 engines 2.4 caterpillar defense products 2.5 caterpillar electronics 2.6 agriculture products 2.7 financial products and brand licensing 2.8 brand licensing 3 operations 3.1 manufacturing 3.2 distribution 3.3 management 3.4 current board of directors 4 workforce and labor relations 4.1 labor practices 5 environmental record 5.1 environmental stewardship 6 controversies 6.1 clean air act violation 6.2 allegations of human rights violations 7 advocacy philanthropy and awards 8 see also 9 references 10 further reading 11 external links history edit main article holt manufacturing company benjamin holt one of the founding fathers of holt manufacturing company . origins edit the steam tractors of the 1890s and early 1900s were extremely heavy sometimes weighing 1 000 pounds 450 kg per horsepower and often sank into the rich soft earth of the san joaquin valley delta farmland surrounding stockton california . benjamin holt attempted to fix the problem by increasing the size and width of the wheels up to 7.5 feet 2.3 m tall and 6 feet 1.8 m wide producing a tractor 46 feet 14 m wide . but this also made the tractors increasingly complex expensive and difficult to maintain . two holt 45 gas crawler tractors team up to pull a long wagon train in the mojave desert during construction of the los angeles aqueduct in 1909 . another solution considered was to lay a temporary plank road ahead of the steam tractor but this was time consuming expensive and interfered with earthmoving . holt thought of wrapping the planks around the wheels . he replaced the wheels on a 40 horsepower 30 kw holt steamer no. 77 with a set of wooden tracks bolted to chains . on thanksgiving day november 24 1904 he successfully tested the updated machine plowing the soggy delta land of roberts island . 13 company photographer charles clements was reported to have observed that the tractor crawled like a caterpillar 14 and holt seized on the metaphor . caterpillar it is . that s the name for it 13 some sources though attribute this name to british soldiers in july 1907 . two years later holt sold his first steam powered tractor crawlers for us 5 500 about us 128 000 today . each side featured a track frame measured 30 inches 760 mm high by 42 inches 1 100 mm wide and were 9 feet 2.7 m long . the tracks were 3 inches 76 mm by 4 inches 100 mm redwood slats . 13 holt received the first patent for a practical continuous track for use with a tractor on december 7 1907 for his improved traction engine improvement in vehicles and especially of the traction engine class ; and included endless traveling platform supports upon which the engine is carried . 15 move to peoria edit a postcard showing the caterpillar tractor co. plant in peoria period 1930 1945 . on february 2 1910 16 holt opened up a plant in east peoria illinois led by his nephew pliny holt . there pliny met farm implement dealer murray baker who knew of an empty factory that had been recently built to manufacture farm implements and steam traction engines . baker who later became the first executive vice president of what became caterpillar tractor company wrote to holt headquarters in stockton and described the plant of the bankrupt colean manufacturing co. of east peoria illinois . on october 25 1909 pliny holt purchased the factory 17 and immediately began operations with 12 employees . 18 holt incorporated it as the holt caterpillar company although he did not trademark the name caterpillar until august 2 1910 . 16 the addition of a plant in the midwest despite the hefty capital needed to retool the plant proved so profitable that only two years later the company employed 625 people and was exporting tractors to argentina canada and mexico . 19 tractors were built in both stockton and east peoria . 20 21 use in world war i edit holt s track type tractors played a support role in world war i. even before the u.s. formally entered wwi holt had shipped 1 200 tractors to england france and russia for agricultural purposes . these governments however sent the tractors directly to the battlefront where the military put them to work hauling artillery and supplies . 22 when world war i broke out the british war office ordered a holt tractor and put it through trials at aldershot . the war office was suitably impressed and chose it as a gun tractor . 23 over the next four years the holt tractor became a major artillery tractor mainly used to haul medium guns like the 6 inch howitzer the 60 pounder and later the 9.2 inch howitzer . 24 holt tractors were also the inspiration for the development of the british tank which profoundly altered ground warfare tactics . 13 25 major ernest swinton sent to france as an army war correspondent very soon saw the potential of a track laying tractor . 26 116 although the british later chose an english firm to build its first tanks the holt tractor became one of the most important military vehicles of all time . 24 a caterpillar d2 introduced in 1938 at the serpentine vintage tractor museum serpentine western australia . post war challenges edit holt tractors had become well known during world war i. military contracts formed the major part of the company s production . when the war ended holt s planned expansion to meet the military s needs was abruptly terminated . the heavy duty tractors needed by the military were unsuitable for farmers . the company s situation worsened when artillery tractors were returned from europe depressing prices for new equipment and holt s unsold inventory of military tractors . the company struggled with the transition from wartime boom to peacetime bust . to keep the company afloat they borrowed heavily . c. l. best gas tractor company formed by clarence leo best in 1910 and holt s primary competitor had during the war received government support enabling it to supply farmers with the smaller agricultural tractors they needed . 27 28 as a result best had gained a considerable market advantage over holt by war s end . best also assumed considerable debt to allow it to continue expansion especially production of its new best model 60 tracklayer . both companies were adversely impacted by the transition from a wartime to a peacetime economy which contributed to a nationwide depression further inhibiting sales . on december 5 1920 71 year old benjamin holt died after a month long illness . 28 29 caterpillar company formed 1925 edit a 60 horsepower caterpillar sixty being used for road work in the cibola national forest new mexico united states in 1931 the banks who held the company s large debt forced the holt board of directors to accept their candidate thomas a. baxter to succeed benjamin holt . baxter initially cut the large tractors from the company s product line and introduced smaller models focused on the agricultural market . when the federal aid highway act of 1921 funded a us 1 billion federal highway building program baxter began re focusing the company towards building road construction equipment . 17 66 both companies also faced fierce competition from the fordson company . between 1907 and 1918 best and holt had spent about us 1.5 million in legal fees fighting each other in a number of contractual trademark and patent infringement lawsuits . 30 harry h. fair of the bond brokerage house of pierce fair & company of san francisco had helped to finance c. l. best s debt and holt shareholders approached him about their company s financial difficulty . fair recommended that the two companies should merge . in april and may 1925 the financially stronger c. l. best merged with the market leader holt caterpillar to form the caterpillar tractor co. 31 the new company was headquartered in san leandro until 1930 when under the terms of the merger it was moved to peoria . 18 baxter had been removed as ceo earlier in 1925 and clarence leo best assumed the title of ceo and remained in that role until october 1951 . 27 the caterpillar company consolidated its product lines offering only five track type tractors the 2 ton 5 ton and 10 ton from the holt manufacturing company s old product line and the caterpillar 30 and caterpillar 60 from the c. l. best tractor co. s former product line . the 10 ton and 5 ton models were discontinued in 1926 . in 1928 the 2 ton was discontinued . sales the first year were us 13 million . by 1929 sales climbed to us 52.8 million and caterpillar continued to grow throughout the great depression of the 1930s . caterpillar adopted the diesel engine to replace gasoline engines . during world war ii caterpillar products found fame with the seabees construction battalions of the united states navy who built airfields and other facilities in the pacific theater of operations . caterpillar ranked 44th among united states corporations in the value of wartime military production contracts . 32 during the post war construction boom the company grew at a rapid pace and launched its first venture outside the u.s. in 1950 marking the beginning of caterpillar s development into a multinational corporation . expansion in developing markets edit cat 323dl caterpillar built its