Post by MCS on Mar 6, 2012 19:49:06 GMT -5
Homelite started in Port Chester, NY.
It was acquired by Textron in the early '50s
www.textron.com/about/company/history.php
This is copied from the above link.
Birth of a Conglomerate
Men sawing wood
In 1952, facing yet another decline in the demand for textiles, Little approached the Textron Board of Directors for approval to diversify by acquiring businesses in unrelated industries. He planned to maintain textile operations as an earnings base while acquiring non-textile businesses.
In 1953, Textron purchased its first non-textile business, Burkart Manufacturing Co. of St. Louis, Missouri. This company supplied cushioning materials to the automotive market.
Little's success building a diversified company prompted other businesses to follow his model. Textron avoided many of the costly mistakes of other conglomerates by entering new lines of business with small, incremental investments, where other conglomerates tended to make massive, headline-grabbing acquisitions when they moved into new industries.
The pace of acquisitions was great and among the more important businesses added in the early 1950's were Homelite, which was retained until 1994; Camcar, which was retained until 2006; and CWC, which remains part of Textron today.
At some time, Homelite and Jacobsen were together. Jabobsen is currently part the Textron lineup but I don't see anything in the company history as to how or when Jacobsen was acquired by Textron.
1994 may be when the Homelite brand was sold to John Deere.
If anyone else has some more information, please add it to this thread.
It was acquired by Textron in the early '50s
www.textron.com/about/company/history.php
This is copied from the above link.
Birth of a Conglomerate
Men sawing wood
In 1952, facing yet another decline in the demand for textiles, Little approached the Textron Board of Directors for approval to diversify by acquiring businesses in unrelated industries. He planned to maintain textile operations as an earnings base while acquiring non-textile businesses.
In 1953, Textron purchased its first non-textile business, Burkart Manufacturing Co. of St. Louis, Missouri. This company supplied cushioning materials to the automotive market.
Little's success building a diversified company prompted other businesses to follow his model. Textron avoided many of the costly mistakes of other conglomerates by entering new lines of business with small, incremental investments, where other conglomerates tended to make massive, headline-grabbing acquisitions when they moved into new industries.
The pace of acquisitions was great and among the more important businesses added in the early 1950's were Homelite, which was retained until 1994; Camcar, which was retained until 2006; and CWC, which remains part of Textron today.
At some time, Homelite and Jacobsen were together. Jabobsen is currently part the Textron lineup but I don't see anything in the company history as to how or when Jacobsen was acquired by Textron.
1994 may be when the Homelite brand was sold to John Deere.
If anyone else has some more information, please add it to this thread.