Public | |
Traded as | : UTX DJIA Component S&P 100 Component S&P 500 Component |
Industry | Conglomerate |
Predecessor | United Aircraft Corporation |
Founded | 1934 |
Founders | Frederick Rentschler |
Headquarters | Farmington, Connecticut, United States |
Area served
|
Worldwide |
Key people
|
Gregory J. Hayes (President and CEO) |
Revenue | US$56.098 billion (2015) |
US$7.291 billion (2015) | |
US$7.608 billion (2015) | |
Total assets | US$87.484 billion (2015) |
Total equity | US$27.358 billion (2015) |
Number of employees
|
196,200 (2016) |
Website | www |
United Technologies Corporation (UTC) is an American multinational conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researches, develops, and manufactures high-technology products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, aerospace systems, HVAC, elevators and escalators, fire and security, building systems, and industrial products, among others. UTC is also a large military contractor, getting about 10% of its revenue from the U.S. government. Gregory Hayes is the current CEO.
In 1974, Harry Gray left Litton Industries to become the CEO of United Aircraft. He pursued a strategy of growth and diversification, changing the parent corporation's name to United Technologies Corporation (UTC) in 1975 to reflect the intent to diversify into numerous high tech fields beyond aerospace. (The change became official on May 1, 1975.) The diversification was partially to balance civilian business against any overreliance on military business. UTC became a mergers and acquisitions (M&A)–focused organization, with various forced takeovers of unwilling smaller corporations. The next year (1976), UTC forcibly acquired Otis Elevator. In 1979, Carrier Refrigeration and Mostek were acquired; the Carrier deal was forcible, while the Mostek deal was a white knight move against hostile takeover designs by Gould.
At one point the military portion of UTC's business, whose sensitivity to "excess profits" and boom/bust demand drove UTC to diversify away from it, actually carried the weight of losses incurred by the commercial M&A side of the business. Although M&A activity was not new to United Aircraft, the M&A activity of the 1970s and 1980s was higher-stakes and arguably unfocused. Rather than aviation being the central theme of UTC businesses, high tech (of any type) was the new theme. Some Wall Street watchers questioned the true value of M&A at almost any price, seemingly for its own sake.