ABB

ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd, and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich. ABB was ranked 340th in the Fortune Global 500 list of 2020 and has been a global Fortune 500 company for 24 years.

ABB was formed in 1988, when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to create Asea Brown Boveri, later simplified to the initials ABB. Both companies were established in the late 1800s and grew into major electrical equipment manufacturers, a business in which ABB remains active. Its traditional core activities include power generation, transmission and distribution; industrial automation, and robotics. Between 1989 and 1999, the company was also active in the rolling stock manufacturing sector. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, ABB acquired hundreds of other companies, often in central and eastern Europe, as well as in Asia and North America.

On occasion, the company's operations have encountered controversy. During 2001, an ABB entity pleaded guilty for bid rigging; the firm has also had three US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bribing resolutions against it; in 2004, 2010, and 2022. In early 2002, ABB announced its first-ever annual loss, which was attributed to asbestos-related litigation. Within three years, the company had successfully restructured its operations. During the 2010s, ABB largely focused its growth strategy on the robotics and industrial automation sectors. Before the sale of its Power Grids division to Hitachi in 2020, ABB was Switzerland's largest industrial employer.

Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA, English translation: General Swedish Electrical Company Limited) was founded in 1883 in Västerås, Sweden by Ludvig Fredholm as manufacturer of electrical light and generators.

Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) was formed in 1891 in Baden near Zurich, Switzerland by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri as a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies producing AC and DC motors, generators, steam turbines and transformers.

On 10 August 1987, ASEA and BBC announced they would merge to form ASEA Brown Boveri (ABB). The new corporation would remain headquartered in both Zurich, Switzerland and Västerås, Sweden, with each parent company holding 50 percent. The merger created a global industrial group with revenue of approximately $15 billion and 160,000 employees.

When ABB began operations on 5 January 1988, its core businesses included power generation, transmission and distribution; electric transportation; and industrial automation and robotics.

In its first year, ABB undertook some 15 acquisitions, including the environmental control group Fläkt AB of Sweden, the contracting group Sadelmi/Cogepi of Italy, and the railway manufacturer Scandia-Randers A/S of Denmark. In 1989, ABB purchased an additional 40 companies, including Westinghouse Electric's transmission and distribution assets, and announced an agreement to purchase the Stamford, Connecticut-based Combustion Engineering (C-E).