History
In 1957, Frank Stronach founded Multimatic Investments Ltd in a tool-and-die rented garage out of Toronto.[11] Its first automotive industry contract for metal sun visor brackets was with General Motors in 1959.[12]
By the late 1960s, the company was operating in eight plants. Stronach took Multimatic Investments public in 1969 through a merger with Magna Electronics Corporation, an aerospace, defence and industrial components company, and became known as Magna International in 1973.[11]
The company developed an employee equity participation and profit-sharing program in 1974. By 1981, Magna had sold its aerospace and defence operations to focus on the automotive industry. It began decentralizing major systems into independent, publicly traded companies during the 1990s, while expanding into Asia.
Magna began designing automotive rearview cameras for Hummers in 2005 on its production line in Michigan, US, which were not a federal requirement at the time. It was one of the first to develop rearview cameras for automakers, and had a 350,000 unit contract by 2007. The company has produced more than 46 million components and opened a $66.5 million plant to produce cameras and driver-assistance components.[13][14]
In February 2015, Samsung SDI agreed to purchase the battery pack business from Magna Steyr, an Austrian operating unit of Magna International, for $120 million.[15] Magna International partnered with Argus Cyber Security after joining in a 2015 Series B funding round to access the company's security technology.[16] The company sold its interiors business, which includes door and instrument panels, overhead systems and cargo management parts, to Grupo Antolin in August 2015. The sale to Grupo Antolin included 36 plants and 12,000 employees in Europe, North America and Asia, about 10 percent of the Magna's global workforce at the time. The operations generated sales of $2.4 billion in 2014.[17]
In March 2018, Magna announced they will work together with the ride-share company Lyft to supply high-tech kits that turn vehicles into self-driving cars. The company invested $200 million into the project and both parties will jointly own the intellectual property developed. It was also noted that Magna will be Lyft's exclusive supplier of self-driving kits.[18] Magna announced a partnership with BAIC Group in June 2018 to develop "next-generation" smart electric vehicles for Chinese consumers.[19] Walker retired as CEO at the end of 2020, with Swamy Kotagiri replacing him in January 2021.[20]
In February 2021, the office of the governor of the state of Michigan announced that Magna plans to open a facility in the city of St. Clair to build battery enclosures for the 2022 GMC Hummer electric pickup. The battery enclosures will be produced at General Motors' facility in Detroit and Hamtramck. The new facility is expected to cost $70 million and to create over 300 jobs for the state.[21] An electric version of the Ineos Grenadier off-road utility vehicle is to be developed by Ineos and Magna, scheduled to enter production in Graz, Austria in 2026.[22]
