Dover Corporation
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| Public | |
| Traded as | : DOV S&P 500 Component |
| Industry | Conglomerate |
| Founded | 1955 |
| Headquarters | Downers Grove, Illinois, USA |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Robert W. Cremin (Chairman of the Board) Robert A. Livingston (President), (CEO) & (Director) |
| Revenue |
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| Total assets |
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| Total equity |
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Number of employees
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26,000 |
| Website | www |
US$ 7,752.728 million (2014) 
US$ 775.235 million (2014) Dover Corporation is an American conglomerate manufacturer of industrial products. Founded in 1955 in New York City, Dover is now based in Downers Grove, Illinois, and employs more than 26,000 people worldwide. Dover's business is divided into four segments: Energy, Engineered Systems, Fluids, and Refrigeration & Food Equipment. Each segment holds operating companies that are run like independent companies. Dover is a constituent of the S&P 500 index and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under "DOV". Dover is ranked 346th on the Fortune 500.
In the 1930s and 1940s, George Ohrstrom Sr., a New York City stockbroker, bought four manufacturing companies: C. Lee Cook Company (seals and piston rings), Rotary Lift (automotive lifts), C. Norris (oil-well pump-sucker rods), and Peerless (space heaters). Dover Corporation was incorporated in 1947, and in 1955, Ohrstrom brought in the former owner and president of C. Lee Cook Company, Fred D. Durham, to manage his four companies. Later that same year, the Dover Corporate offices opened in Washington, D.C., and Dover Corporation went public on the . As such, the year 1955 marks the company's official founding.
Fred Durham influenced Dover's corporate culture, emphasizing autonomy, decentralization, and few corporate staff members. As a result, divisions were run in an independent fashion, each with its own president. Today, Dover is still known for its decentralized management structure, in its governance of operating companies, and for its acquisitive approach.
Between 1955 and 1979, Dover acquired fourteen companies. A great deal of this acquisition activity served to build the Dover Elevator business. This elevator growth began in 1955, as Dover Elevator split from Rotary Lift and became an independent operating company within Dover. Dover's purchase of the Shepard Warner Elevator Company in 1958 marked the beginning of an effort to grow the elevator business. In 1963, Dover acquired Acme Elevator, and then Elevator Service, Reddy Elevator Company in 1964, and Hunter-Hayes Elevator Company in 1970. With these purchases, Dover soon became the third largest elevator company in the U.S. and remained so for many years. Dover continued to expand its elevator division throughout the 1960s and 1970s with the purchases of Moody & Rowe, Burch, Turnbull, Burlington, Hammond & Champness, Louisiana Elevator, and W.W. Moore. Ultimately, Dover sold its elevator business in 1998 to Thyssen AG for $1.1 billion. Dover Elevator had a pretax operating profit of $93 million in 1997 and the sale was mutually beneficial: it allowed Dover to focus on building its other businesses and moved ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas to the number three spot worldwide in the elevator and escalator industry.
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Wikipedia