MagneTek, Inc. History

Address:

26 Century Boulevard, Suite 600
Nashville, Tennessee 37214
U.S.A.

Telephone: (615) 316-5100
Fax: (615) 316-5158

Website: www.magnetek.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1984
Employees:2,000
Sales:$294 million (2000)
Stock Exchanges:New York
Ticker Symbol: MAG
NAIC: 333612 Speed Changer, Industrial High-Speed Drive, and Gear Manufacturing; 335311 Power, Distribution, and Specialty Transformer Manufacturing; 335312 Motor and Generator Manufacturing; 335999 All Other Miscellaneous Electrical Equipment and Component Manufacturing

Company Perspectives:

MagneTek now operates as a smaller but stronger company fixed on products that process power for the digital economy including broadband, wireless and optical wireline communications infrastructure, mass data processing and storage, high-tech manufacturing, distributing power generation, and specialized industrial controls. Key Dates:

Key Dates:

1984:: MagneTek is incorporated.
1986:: MagneTek acquires Universal Manufacturing Corp., Century Electric, Inc., Cooper Service, Inc., Cooper Controls, Inc., and Universal Electric Co.
1989:: Company goes public.
1990:: Revenues exceed $1 billion.
1993:: Andrew G. Galef takes over as CEO.
1994:: The firm begins a major restructuring effort.
1997:: MagneTek forms a partnership with GE Lighting.
1998:: Company acquires Omega Power Systems.
1999:: The firm's generator business and electric motor business is sold.
2000:: MagneTek announces plans to divest all remaining electrical component operations.

Company History:

MagneTek, Inc. supplies digital power products for communications, industrial and building systems, data processing, imaging, and various other applications that require precision power. The company is distinguished as the world's leading independent manufacturer of elevator drives and drive systems for cranes and hoists. MagneTek operates as an electronics products company with five research and manufacturing centers in North America, two in Europe, and one in China.

Early Beginnings with Litton Industries Inc.

MagneTek was created in July 1984 when Litton Industries, Inc. spun off its Magnetics Group. Litton Industries was a diversified conglomerate with an emphasis on high-tech industries. Founded in 1954 by Charles 'Tex' Thornton, Litton had expanded rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s by developing its own technologies and by acquiring numerous companies. Among the ventures in which it became involved were various electric equipment businesses. For example, in 1967, Litton purchased Louis Allis, a leading manufacturer of specialty electrical motors, condensers, and generators. Litton assembled several of its electric products companies into the Magnetics Group.

Litton fostered growth and success at many of its subsidiaries by providing investment capital and allowing them to cooperate with other Litton companies. In fact, engineers in Litton's electric products companies achieved a number of notable technological breakthroughs. In the mid-1970s, for example, they developed the first high-efficiency electric motor. Dubbed the E-plus, the device set the energy-saving standard in the industry for the next decade. Despite successes in the Magnetics Group, by the early 1980s Litton was ready to jettison the division as part of its ongoing effort to streamline operations and focus on key industries and technologies. Litton sold its Magnetics Group by way of a leveraged buyout, and MagneTek was incorporated on June 1, 1984 to purchase the assets of the Magnetics Group in July of that year.

At the time of the purchase, the Magnetics Group was generating close to $200 million in annual sales from four primary product lines: integral horsepower motors; drives and controls; lighting ballasts; and small transformers. Integral horsepower motors are used to power commercial mechanisms like heating and air-conditioning systems, mining and petrochemical equipment, and commercial laundry machines. Integral horsepower drives and drive systems are mechanisms used to adjust and control the speed and output of electric motors. They typically drive motors in applications like air-conditioning systems, elevators, and machine tools. Lighting ballasts are used in both residential and commercial fluorescent lighting fixtures. The ballast controls the power going to the light bulbs and can have a significant impact on the amount of energy consumed by the lighting fixture. Finally, MagneTek's small transformers were used as power conversion devices in a range of electronic equipment.

Expansion in the late 1980s and early 1990s

MagneTek posted a net loss of $501,000 in 1985 from sales of $195 million. After reorganizing the former Magnetics Group during that first full year of business, however, MagneTek began posting consistently rising profits and sales. Indeed, revenues bolted to $273 million in 1986, $608 million in 1987, and then to more than $900 million in 1988. Those gains were primarily the result of an aggressive acquisition strategy adopted by MagneTek's management team. In February 1986, MagneTek purchased Universal Manufacturing Corp. for $71 million, the first in a string of buyouts. In October, the company bought motor manufacturer Century Electric, Inc. for $76 million, and in December of that year MagneTek paid $108 million for Cooper Service, Inc., Cooper Controls, Inc., and Universal Electric Co. Six months later, MagneTek also snared ALS Corp. for about $50 million.

MagneTek's expansion strategy during the late 1980s and into the early 1990s was devised by Frank Perna, Jr., the chief executive hired in 1985 to head MagneTek. Perna was a veteran of the electric products industry. He had earned a master's degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a master's degree in electrical engineering from Wayne State University. Perna spent 17 years with General Motors, after which he served as president of Sun Electric and as head of the Instrumentation Group at the venerable Bell & Howell Co. Prior to joining MagneTek, he was serving as the chief executive of a subsidiary of Whittaker Corp.

Perna had witnessed firsthand the evolution of the electrical equipment industry during the late 1970s and 1980s. Among the dominant trends were increasing foreign competition and a rising emphasis on advanced technology, particularly related to energy efficiency. Perna believed that for MagneTek to compete in the widely diverse electric products industry, the company would have to become big enough to overcome barriers such as low-cost foreign manufacturers and high capital requirements for product development and manufacturing. His plan was to purchase other companies and integrate them into a cohesive whole, thus achieving economies of scales related to product development, production, marketing, and distribution. To that end, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, MagneTek made the six major acquisitions described above, added numerous product lines, and purchased various manufacturing operations, including several in Europe.

By 1990, MagneTek was operating 50 manufacturing and service facilities throughout North America and overseas and employing roughly 15,000 workers. Revenues had risen to $961 million in 1989 before cruising past the $1 billion mark in 1990. Furthermore, the company had managed to post steady profit growth, culminating in a $33 million net income for 1990. MagneTek then ceased its acquisition efforts during the early 1990s, concentrating instead on whipping its existing operations into shape. Sales rose about 8 percent in 1991 to $1.13 billion and then to $1.23 billion in 1992. Those sales gains were achieved despite an economic recession that reduced orders from many market segments, particularly those related to defense and new construction.

MagneTek had started out as a private venture. The leveraged buyout was funded heavily by two investment partnerships, Magtek Partners and Champlain Associates, which provided seed money for MagneTek's start-up and acquisition drive. The partnerships were created by colleagues of the infamous Michael Milken at investment firm Drexel Burnham Lambert. In 1989, the owners of MagneTek decided to take the venture public to help pay down the company's debt and to provide more growth capital. MagneTek made its initial public stock offering in July 1989 at a price of $12 per share. Unfortunately, the stock price languished during the early 1990s and provided little opportunity for the company to benefit greatly from subsequent stock sales.

Part of the reason that MagneTek's stock stagnated was that investors were concerned about the Milken-related investment groups, which still owned about one-third of the company by the early 1990s. More importantly, Wall Street was concerned about the massive liabilities that MagneTek had assumed when it was created and during its buyout blitz of the late 1980s. Indeed, by the end of the 1980s MagneTek was staggering under a hefty debt load that was eating into profits and cash flow. The stock sale had helped to reduce that debt, and MagneTek went a long way toward improving its equity position between 1990 and 1992. But weak sales gains during the recession pressured the company and began to take a toll. Although sales rose to a peak of $1.5 million in 1993, profits slipped for the first time in the company's short history in 1992 and stood still in 1993.

Although MagneTek's financial performance waned, the company claimed victories in other arenas. For example, in 1992 MagneTek introduced an ultraefficient light bulb designed to operate for 20,000 hours (compared to about 750 hours for the typical incandescent light bulb). The new bulb, dubbed the E-Lamp and priced at $10 to $20, operated without a filament. Instead, a signal generated by an electronic circuit excited a phosphor coating inside the bulb that produced a glow similar in intensity to a traditional filament bulb. The breakthrough device reflected MagneTek's marketing strategy of emphasizing energy-efficient products. 'We've been pursuing this energy-engineered strategy for three and one-half years,' Perna said in the Los Angeles Business Journal. 'And I think it was finally recognized as a good strategy,' he added.

Restructuring in the Mid-1990s

Despite some engineering and marketing successes, MagneTek's balance sheet at the end of 1993 demanded that the company adopt a new strategy. Perna exited his post and was replaced as chief executive by Andrew G. Galef. The 60-year-old Galef had served as chairman of the company since its inception and had broad experience in investment and management consulting. Galef steered MagneTek on a new course. Rather than try to compete in the increasingly diverse electrical equipment industry, the company would eliminate noncore business and focus on product segments in which it was most competitive: ballasts, transformers, motors, and generators. Importantly, the move would allow MagneTek to sell off many of the assets that it had accrued during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The company hoped to use that cash to reduce its $530-million debt burden.

By the end of 1993, the sprawling MagneTek organization had grown to encompass 79 production and support facilities in North America, Europe, Japan, and the Far East. Early in 1994, MagneTek announced a restructuring plan that entailed the divestment of six business groups that accounted for roughly 30 percent of the company's annual revenues. Those groups encompassed certain noncore product lines related to electrical services, utility and power products, component transformers and converters, and controls. Among the businesses sold, for example, was the Louis Allis subsidiary, which by 1994 had become a relatively meager part of MagneTek's holdings. (Louis Allis was sold to managers at the subsidiary, making it independent for the first time since Litton bought it in 1967.) Also part of the restructuring was a move of the company headquarters from Los Angeles to Nashville, Tennessee.

MagneTek completed its restructuring and divestment plan by mid-1995. The effort reduced the number of production and support facilities by more than half, to 38, and generated about $200 million in cash. Similarly, MagneTek's 42 business units were consolidated into three groups: lighting products, motors and controls, and power electronics. Company revenues dipped to $1.13 billion in 1994 but rose to $1.2 billion in 1995, and net income recovered to $21.5 million. Meanwhile, MagneTek sustained its energy-engineering strategy, as evidenced by its introduction of the E-plus III in 1995. That motor, a successor to the E-plus motor that Litton had introduced in the 1970s, set a new standard for efficiency in the industry.

Renewed from its recent restructuring effort, MagneTek continued to develop products related to its newly aligned groups. Along with the release of a new line of motors, the firm also purchased a stake in Automation Systems and Products Inc., a factory automation software developer. The firm's lighting products division also beefed up its offerings and a new line of lighting controls was introduced to compliment its electronic ballast products. In October 1997, MagneTek teamed up with GE Lighting to develop and market energy-efficient lighting systems.

The company's power electronics group, based in Valdarno, Italy, made a key acquisition in July 1998. Omega Power Systems, an electronic power supplies manufacturer, was purchased to diversify the firm's product line and solidify its stance in the North American market. By the end of the year, MagneTek's product lines included electronic power supplies, motor drives, electric motors and generators, and lighting ballasts. Sixteen factories were in operation in North America, seven were functional in Europe, and one operated in Asia. Revenues for the year reached $1.2 billion.

MagneTek began once again to restructure itself in 1999 in an effort to gain financial strength and remain competitive. The firm began to sell off major business operations, including its European ballast operations, its generator business, which was sold to Emerson Electric Co. for $115 million, and its electric motor interests, purchased by A.O. Smith Corp. for $253 million. Management used the cash generated by these sales to pay off debt, repurchase stock, and make strategic acquisitions. One such acquisition occurred in July 1999, when MagneTek acquired EMS Inc., an electronic drives manufacturer, as part of a new company focus on growth in the programmable power supplies industry.

New Focus in the New Millennium

Management's plan to divest certain business units continued into the new millennium. The company decided to focus solely on its power electronics interests, which meant the discontinuation of its lighting ballasts, magnet wire, capacitors, and small transformers. According to a company press release, CEO Galef stated, 'All of these actions are aimed at creating a pure power electronics company that is financially strong and focused on markets that offer double-digit margins and double-digit growth.' Galef also stated that the company made the decision to focus on its power electronic business due to the increased demand for electric power sparked by the burgeoning telecommunications industry. This new focus led to the November 2000 acquisition of J-Tec Inc., a power systems integrator catering to the telecommunications industry.

MagneTek continued with plans to divest the remainder of its electrical components. In early 2001, the firm sold its Drive Products division to Yaskawa Electric America for nearly $30 million. Management remained focused on research and development in power electronics technology and becoming debt-free. By catering to the digital power marketplace, MagneTek appeared on track to remain a strong leader in the industry with its strategic focus on products that processed power for the digital economy.

Principal Subsidiaries: A.O. Smith Electrical Products Co.; MagneTek Drives & Systems; MagneTek Lighting Products; MagneTek Power Electronics Group of North America.

Principal Competitors: Aerovox Inc.; Artesyn Technologies Inc.; Insilco Holding Co.

MagneTek, Inc. History

Company Perspectives:

Key Dates:

Company History:

Further Reading: