1935: Engineer Ralph Allison founds Audio Development Co. in the basement of his south Minneapolis home with a $1,250 inheritance from his grandfather.
1961: ADC merges with Magnetic Controls Co., a manufacturer with strong ties to the U.S. space program.
1960s: ADC Magnetic Controls invents the "bantam jack," a component that becomes standard for telephone networks.
1970s: ADC becomes the largest supplier of test equipment to telephone companies.
1983: AT&T is ordered to deregulate, leaving seven Baby Bells that can now turn to ADC and other equipment makers.
1984: The renamed ADC Telecommunications goes public at $13 a share, or $1.26 when adjusted for splits and dividends.
1991: ADC CEO Chuck Denny retires after more than 20 years, replaced by William Cadogan.
Late 1990s: ADC rides the dot-com bubble with four consecutive quarters of $1 billion in revenue in 1997. Management goes on a buying spree, spending $7 billion of its stock to acquire 15 telecommunications companies between 1998 and 2000. ADC stock splits five times between 1993 and 2000, becoming one of the Twin Cities' biggest corporate success stories.
