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ADC Telecom through good years and bad

July 14, 2010 at 2:57AM

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.

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July 2000: Shares peak, valued at more than $325, when adjusted.

January 2001: ADC employs more than 22,000 people, and is about to move into its $100 million Eden Prairie campus. First-quarter sales are more than $800 million.

March 2001: Sales growth halts. ADC says it will cut 3,000 to 4,000 jobs, or about 19 percent of its workforce, on top of 3,000 jobs cut since Nov. 1. The stock continues its nose dive.

2003: ADC continues dismantling the company. Employment has dropped by 18,000. First quarter sales are $200 million.

2005: ADC does a reverse 1-for-7 stock split that raises the price to about $16 a share.

August 2006: ADC is rebuffed in an attempted $2 billion stock takeover of Andrew Corp. Andrew pays ADC $10 million in breakup fees.

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October 2008: ADC cuts another 3 percent of its 10,600 employees.

2009: ADC posts a $442.8 million fiscal first-quarter loss and eliminates more than 10 percent of its workforce.

July 2010: ADC agrees to be acquired for $1.25 billion by Tyco Electronics.

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