MELBOURNE, Fla., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Harris Corporation
(NYSE: HRS) marks its 110th anniversary on December 23, 2005. The company was
founded by brothers Alfred and Charles Harris and incorporated in Niles, Ohio
on December 23, 1895 as a manufacturer of automatic printing press equipment.
110 years later, Harris is an international communications and information
technology company with $3 billion in annual sales serving government and
commercial customers in more than 150 countries.
"Few U.S. companies today, and even fewer publicly traded companies, can
stake their claim to 110 years of successful operation as a corporation.
Throughout our company's history and continuing today is a foundation of core
values that helps Harris maintain an outstanding reputation with customers,
employees and other stakeholders," said Howard Lance, chairman, president and
CEO. "Adherence to these values has enabled the company to adapt to changes
in the marketplace, diversify into new and emerging markets, and evolve from
printing to electronics to communications and information technology. This
milestone anniversary is a tribute to our 13,000 global employees who continue
to shape our solid reputation as a best-in-class provider of communications
products, systems and services."
The company began as the Harris Automatic Press Company in Niles, Ohio in
the house in which President William McKinley had been born. During the next
30 years, Harris flourished as a leading manufacturer of printing presses and
an innovator in printing technology. The company outgrew its Niles facility,
moving to Cleveland in 1917. In 1926, Harris merged with the Seybold Machine
Company and the Premiere-Potter Company to become the Harris-Seybold-Potter
Company, and was incorporated in Delaware. Over the next 30 years, the
company pioneered many innovations in offset lithographic printing, and on
July 13, 1955, Harris-Seybold became a public company. The company merged
with Intertype Corporation, a leading provider of typesetting equipment, in
1957 to become Harris-Intertype Corporation.
As the printing industry evolved from mechanical controls and typesetting
to electronics, and with electronic media presenting significant competition
to newspapers and other print media, the company embarked on a diversification
strategy toward electronic communications. Later in 1957, the company made
the first of several acquisitions that would catapult it into the electronic
age and the broadcast market by acquiring Gates Radio, a leading U.S.
manufacturer of radio transmitters.
Diversification into electronics continued with the 1959 acquisition of
PRD electronics, a maker of microwave testing equipment, and the 1967 merger
with Melbourne, Florida-based communications equipment and electronics
manufacturer Radiation, Inc. In 1969 Harris-Intertype acquired Rochester-based
RF Communications, a manufacturer of single sideband and VHF radio equipment,
and predecessor to the present day Harris RF Communications Division.
The company changed its name from Harris-Intertype to Harris Corporation
in 1974, relocated headquarters to Melbourne, Florida in 1978, and acquired
microwave equipment manufacturer Farinon Electric in 1980, predecessor to the
company's Microwave Communications Division. In 1983, the company sold its
remaining printing equipment operations. In 1999, Harris became a pure-play
communications company with the sale of its semiconductor operations and the
spin-off of its Lanier office products business and has since focused on
organic growth, acquisitions and diversification in both commercial and
government communications markets. Today, the company's operating divisions
serve markets for government communications, RF communications, broadcast
communications, and microwave communications.
Additional information about Harris Corporation is available at
http://www.harris.com .
SOURCE Harris Corporation
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Related links:
http://www.harris.com
CONTACT:
Brent Dietz, Harris Corporation,
+1-321-724-3554, or brent.dietz@harris.com
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