1970s and 1980s
In 1974, Harry Jack Gray left Litton Industries to become the CEO of United Aircraft.[6] He pursued a strategy of growth and diversification, changing the parent corporation's name to United Technologies Corporation (UTC) in 1975 to reflect the intent to diversify into numerous high tech fields beyond aerospace.[7] (The change became official on May 1, 1975.) The diversification was partially to balance civilian business against any overreliance on military business.[6] UTC became a mergers and acquisitions (M&A)–focused organization, with various forced takeovers of unwilling smaller corporations.[6] The next year (1976), UTC forcibly acquired Otis Elevator.[8] In 1979, Carrier Refrigeration and Mostek were acquired;[9] the Carrier deal was forcible, while the Mostek deal was a white knight move against hostile takeover designs by Gould.
At one point, the military portion of UTC's business, whose sensitivity to "excess profits" and boom/bust demand drove UTC to diversify away from it, actually carried the weight of losses incurred by the commercial M&A side of the business.[6] Although M&A activity was not new to United Aircraft, the M&A activity of the 1970s and 1980s was higher-stakes and arguably unfocused. Rather than aviation being the central theme of UTC businesses, high tech (of any type) was the new theme. Some Wall Street watchers questioned the true value of M&A at almost any price, seemingly for its own sake.[6]
Mostek was sold in 1985 to the French electronics company Thomson.
In 2007, UTC opened the Hawk Works, a Rapid Prototyping and Military Derivatives Completion Center (RPMDCC) located west of the Elmira-Corning Regional Airport in Big Flats, New York.[10]
In March 2008, UTC made a $2.63 billion bid to acquire Diebold, a Canton, Ohio based manufacturer of banking and voting machines. Diebold rejected the buyout bid as inadequate.[11]
In April 2010, UTC announced that it was investing €15 million ($20 million) to set up the United Technologies Research Centre Ireland at University College Cork’s Tyndall National Institute which would carry out research on energy and security systems.[12]
In June 2012, it was discovered that UTC sold military technology to the Chinese.[13] For pleading guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act and making false statements, United Technologies and its subsidiaries were fined $75 million.[14] In February 2013, UTC Power was sold to ClearEdge Power.[15]
In October 2014, Toshiba and United Technologies made a deal to expand their joint venture outside Japan.[16] In February 2016, UTC subsidiary Carrier Air Conditioner announced to employees at its Indianapolis and Huntington plants, that Carrier is moving manufacturing to Mexico: "The best way to stay competitive and protect the business for long-term is to move production from our facility in Indianapolis to Monterrey, Mexico. "[17] In December, Carrier agreed to keep the Indianapolis plant open, keeping 700 jobs in Indianapolis.[18] The plant in Huntington, Indiana would still close their doors, leaving 700 employees jobless.[19]
In June 2019, United Technologies announced the intention to merge with defense contractor Raytheon to form Raytheon Technologies Corporation. The combined company, valued at more than $100 billion after planned spinoffs, would be the world's second-largest aerospace-and-defense company by sales behind Boeing.[20] Although UTC was the nominal survivor, the merged company was headquartered at legacy Raytheon's former base in Waltham, Massachusetts.[21] The merger was completed in April 2020.[5]
In March 2020, United Technologies Corporation announced the separations of Carrier Global and Otis Worldwide.[22]
