This page provides information on the historic (and defunct) Westinghouse Electric Corporation founded in 1886 and renamed CBS Corporation in 1997 until its acquisition by Viacom. See Westinghouse for other uses including modern incarnations and recent licensing deals using the Westinghouse brand. See CBS Corporation for the present-day media company.

The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an organization founded by George Westinghouse in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and was renamed CBS Corporation in 1997.

George Westinghouse had previously founded the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. Westinghouse Electric received the rights for the first patent for alternating-current transmission, from Nikola Tesla, and unveiled the technology for lighting in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The company pioneered long-distance power transmission and high-voltage transmission. In addition to George Westinghouse, engineers working for the company include William Stanley, Nikola Tesla and Oliver Schallenberger. It was historically the rival to General Electric.

Timeline of company evolution

• 1889 - renames itself the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company
• 1899 - founds British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company
• 1914 - acquires Copeman Electric Stove Company and enters the home appliance market (sold in 1974 to White Consolidated Industries)
• 1916 - share of British Westinghouse purchased by a British holding company, which becomes Metropolitan-Vickers
• 1920s - enters the broadcasting industry, with stations like KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• 1930s - enters the nuclear age with an industrial atom smasher.
• 1940s - enters aviation with airborne radar (defense electronics sold 1996) and ground based airport lighting.
• 1945 - renames itself the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, and makes first automatic elevator.
• 1950s - enters consumer finance with Westinghouse Credit Corporation
• 1960s - acquires ThermoKing, begins automated mass transit (sold 1988)
• 1970s - sells well-known appliance division to White Consolidated Industries which becomes White-Westinghouse
• 1980s - acquires cable television operator TelePrompter (sold 1985) and robot maker Unimation; sells street light division to Cooper Lighting, elevator/escalator division to Schindler Group, and lamp division to Philips.
• 1994 - sells electric power distribution and control business unit to Eaton Corporation for $1 billion
• 1995 - buys CBS for US$5.4 billion.
• 1996 - buys Infinity Broadcasting
• 1996 - sells Westinghouse Electronic Systems defense business to Northrop Grumman for $3 billion, becoming Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems.
• 1997 - sells most non-broadcast operations; renames itself CBS Corporation
• 1998 - sells remaining manufacturing asset, its nuclear business, to BNFL who still operates it as Westinghouse Electric Company; now known as CBS Corporation, creates new subsidiary company called Westinghouse Electric Corporation to manage the Westinghouse brand
• 1999 - sold to Viacom, Inc.

See also

• Westinghouse Works, 1904
• Group W, the broadcasting division of Westinghouse

Defunct companies of the United States | 1886 establishments | 1997 disestablishments | Manufacturing companies of the United StatesMedia companies of the United States | Nikola Tesla | Locomotive manufacturers

Westinghouse Electric Corporation | Westinghouse | ウェスティングハウス・エレクトリック