Harris Corporation - History

History

The "Harris Automatic Press Company" was founded in Niles, Ohio in 1895. They spent the next 60 years developing lithographic processes and printing presses before acquiring Intertype Corporation and Gates Radio, once a major producer of broadcast electronics, in 1957, expanding their reach into broadcasting and typesetting.

In 1959, they acquired PRD Electronics of Brooklyn, New York, gaining microwave technology.

In 1967, they merged with Radiation, Inc. of Melbourne, Florida, a developer of antenna, integrated circuit, and modem technology used in the space race: the semiconductor business that later became Intersil in 1999 was born of this development. The company headquarters was moved from Cleveland to Melbourne in 1978.

In 1969, Harris Corporation acquired RF Communications and Farinon, furthering its microwave assets. The printing operations were sold off in 1983 and are now known as GSS Printing Equipment. GSS Printing Equipment later acquired Lanier Worldwide, which itself was spun off from Harris Corporation in the late 1990s.

In the late 1980s, Harris bought the semiconductor division of RCA after GE's acquisition of RCA, later selling the same to Texas Instruments in the later 1990s or very early 2000s. TI still (as of Sept. 2006) makes the CD4000 family of CMOS logic chips originally offered by RCA and acquired by TI through Harris.

In 1996, Harris Corporation formed a joint venture with Shenzhen Telecom Company to produce and sell Harris’ digital microwave radios and integrate them with other systems to provide complete telecommunication solutions.

In 2005, the corporation spent $870 million on research and development.

In January 2011 Harris opened its Calgary, Alberta avionics operation, Harris Canada Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Harris Corporation. The new facility's operations include among others the support of the work to be completed under the company's six-year, $273 million (CAD) services contract with the Government of Canada for the CF-18 Avionics Optimized Weapon System Support (OWSS) program.

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