Tyco International

Tyco International should not be confused with the similarly named Tyco Toys, a division of Mattel.

Tyco International Ltd. is a conglomerate with official headquarters in Bermuda, and U.S. operational headquarters in New Jersey. Major business areas of Tyco include electronic components, health care, fire safety, security, and fluid control.

History

1960s

Tyco was founded in 1960 by Arthur J. Rosenburg and incorporated into Tyco International in 1963 in 1964 the company went public and in 1965 it made several acquisitions, its first being Mule Battery Products.

1970s

In the 1970s and early 1980s Tyco made many aquisitions including Simplex Technologies and Grinnell Fire Protection Systems. In 1974 Tyco was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

After this series of acquisitions and growth Tyco concentrated on strengthening the company and split its subsidiaries into three business segments:
* Fire & Security products
* Electronics
* Packaging

1980s

Once again in the late 1980s Tyco started another series of acquisitions and growth.Companies acquired during this time included:
* Mueller Company
* Wormald
* Hindle valves
* Earth Technology Corporation
* Thorn Security
* ADT
* Electrostar
* Wells Fargo alarms
* AMP (1999)
* Siemens Electrochemical ComponentsFor a full list of Tyco acquisitions please see (here(PDF))

1990s

Cover scan of the final issue of Tyco World

In 1992, Dennis Kozlowski became CEO of Tyco, and for the next several years, the company adopted an aggressive acquisition strategy, eventually acquiring (by some accounts) over 1000 other companies between 1991 and 2001.

In 1993 Tyco launched The Pipeline the internal employees newsletter. This was later changed to Tyco World. The final issue of which was published in April/May of 2006.

After the acquisition of ADT Security, Tyco moved its incorporation to Bermuda in 1997. While publicly part of the merger (ADT was already incorporated in Bermuda), this move was controversial as it was seen as a use of a tax haven. This tax advantage was promoted in literature to shareholders and investors.

In 1999, just prior to a stock split, rumours of accounting irregularities surfaced. The rumours were strongly denied by Tyco's leadership, who accused the sources of selling Tyco shares short for personal gain. Partly in response to this, shareholders fought a proxy battle to reincorporate in Delaware, but this effort was rebuffed by the board of directors.

During this time, Tyco spun off the deep-sea cable laying division it had purchased from AT&T as Tyco Submarine Systems in a much anticipated IPO.

Throughout the 1990s, Tyco's earnings seemed to improve steadily, with many investors giving it blue chip status. In hindsight this may have been an illusion generated by the ways in which the acquisitions were treated on the company's books. Unlike other companies where fraud and other charges were made public in 2001 and 2002, such as Enron and HealthSouth, Tyco was never in a cash crisis.

2000-Present

In January of 2002 Tyco announced a plan to split the company into four separate companies, however this plan was abandoned.

In June of 2002 Edward D. Breen was appointed CEO of Tyco International. He was previously President and COO of Motorola.

In 2003 the company adopted a Guide to Ethical Conduct in order to guide and advise employees as to correct procedures and warn of so called unethical practices and behaviour.

In January 2006 the company announces its split into three separate companies. (See section below)

Company separation

In the first quarter of 2007 Tyco International will be separated into three companies (ABC News), (Official Tyco press release), which will in turn operate totally separately from each other, with their own board of directors, CEO, management staff and financial structure.

The three companies will be:
* Tyco Healthcare
* Tyco Electronics
* Tyco Fire & Security and Tyco Engineered Products & Services (TFS/TEPS)

This announcement was made publicly on January 13, 2006.

An official Separation Management Team has been created to deal with all aspects of the separation and to make it as smooth as is possible for customers, employees and shareholders. Bob Scott has been announced as the leader of the SMT (link (DOC)). He joined Tyco in 2004.

Edward D. Breen, the current CEO of Tyco has announced that he will be staying on with TFS/TEPS as CEO.

Legal charges

Former chairman and chief executive Dennis Kozlowski and former chief financial officer Mark H. Swartz, were accused of the theft of US $600 million from the company. During their trial in March 2004, they contended the board of directors authorized it as compensation.

During jury deliberations, juror Ruth Jordan, while passing through the courtroom appeared to make an "okay" sign with her fingers to the defense table. She later denied she had intended that gesture, but the incident received much publicity (including a caricature in the Wall Street Journal), and the juror received threats after her name became public. Judge Michael Obus declared a mistrial on April 2, 2004.

On June 17, 2005, after a retrial, Kozlowski and Swartz were convicted on all but one of the more than 30 counts against them. The verdicts carry potential jail terms of up to 25 years in state prison. Kozlowski himself was sentenced to no less than eight years and four months and no more than 25 years in prison.

Products

Some of the many products made by Tyco include:
*Electronic components and cables. AMP
*Critical communications systems. OpenSky and EDACS
*Engineering services
*Fire sprinklers. SimplexGrinnell, Wormald
*Medical supplies (Kendall wound care, Monoject syringes, Shiley endotracheal tubes)
*Pharmaceuticals (leading producer of narcotics and acetaminophen), Mallinckrodt laboratory chemicals
*Cyberskin
*Security systems (ADT)
*Curad brand bandages
*Valves and Controls
*Pressure Relief Valves for Nuclear Power Generation
*Safety Products [including Industrial site safety & Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
*EAS(Electronic Article Surveillance) & RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Products [Sensormatic]
*CCTV / Access Control Equipment. American Dynamics, Kantech, Software House
*Touchscreen Displays. ELO Touch Displays