Tenneco, Inc. (formerly Tenneco Automotive and originally Tennessee Gas Transmission Company) is an American original equipment manufacturer of automotive components and an aftermarket manufacturer of suspension and emissions control products. It is a Fortune 500 company that was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange from November 1999 until Apollo Global Management took it private in November 2022.[4] Tenneco is headquartered in Northville, Michigan.

History

Tenneco traces its origins to the Chicago Corporation, established around 1930.[6] The Tennessee Gas and Transmission Company (completely separate) had been formed in 1940.[7]

Natural Gas

A fuel shortage for the defense industries in the Appalachian region arose during World War II when industrial production increased. The nuclear development operations of the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, consumed enormous amounts of electrical power from the Tennessee Valley Authority that would otherwise have been available for other industrial operations. The Chicago Corporation was able to obtain a license from the Federal Power Commission (FPC) to construct a gas pipeline from Texas to Appalachia, eventually expanding to become the largest natural gas pipeline network in the United States. These pipelines were acquired by the El Paso Corporation in 1996 and are now owned by Kinder Morgan.

A Tenneco service station in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1967.

Diversification

In the 1950s, the company acquired existing oil companies, including Sterling Oil, Del-Key Petroleum, and Bay Petroleum. The Tennessee division of the Chicago Corporation acquired the Tennessee Gas Transmission Company in 1943 to construct a 1,265-mile (2,036 km) natural gas pipeline from Texas to West Virginia. The first pipeline was laid in October 1944. It was followed by three additional pipelines totaling 3,840 miles (6,180 km)[7] over the next 15 years, supplying gas to New York and New Jersey.[9]

In 1966, Tennessee Gas was incorporated as Tenneco, Inc.[6] Tenneco expanded into a number of trading companies as a result of diversification. In 1967, the company acquired Walker, Inc., a manufacturer of universal-fit mufflers and exhaust pipes. The following year, it began work on building a universal-fit catalytic converter, which would become a cost-effective alternative to original equipment catalytic converters. It took the company eight years to introduce one. Tenneco purchased Houston Oil & Minerals Corporation, which owned two gold mines in Nevada, in the late 1970s. Tenneco owned and operated a large number of gas stations, but all of them were closed or replaced by other brands by the mid-1990s.[7]

A Tenneco Fairchild F-27J business jet at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in 1979. The company also operated British Aircraft Corporation's BAC One-Eleven jets in executive configuration.

In the 1970s, Tenneco acquired a 53% stake in J.I. Caso when it purchased its owner, Kern County Land Company, the Racine, Wisconsin-based agricultural equipment manufacturer.[7] In 1972, Tenneco purchased the UK-based David Brown Tractors and merged it with J.I. Caso's business. In 1984, Case's parent company, Tenneco, purchased selected assets from the International Harvester agricultural division and merged it with J.I. Caso. All agricultural products were initially labeled as Case International and later as Case IH. Tenneco purchased the 4WD articulated tractor manufacturer Steiger Tractor in 1986 and merged it with Case IH.

The new corporate direction was to buy failing companies in a variety of industries and then develop them into profitable businesses. This worked well with Newport News Shipbuilding but failed miserably with the various tractor companies, likely due in large part to the economy at the time. By 1988, the company was losing $2 million a day. Following pressure from the banks, the decision was made to sell the oil business. Tenneco Oil Exploration Company was broken up and sold to several buyers.[11]

In 1994, Tenneco decided to begin exiting the agricultural business and agreed to sell 35% of what was now called Case Corporation.[12] In 1996, the spin-off of Case Corporation was completed. The company was acquired by Fiat in 1999 and merged with New Holland Agriculture to form CNH Global.

Consolidation

Tenneco Inc. emerged from a conglomerate consisting of six unrelated businesses: shipbuilding, packaging, agricultural and construction equipment, gas transmission, automotive, and chemicals.[14] The automotive division was spun off from Tenneco, Inc. in 1991 along with...