History
The company was founded in Esslingen, Germany, by Dr. Otto Röhm and Mr. Otto Haas in 1907. Haas moved to Philadelphia and began the American side of the business on September 1, 1909, from an office on Front Street, while Otto Röhm remained in Germany to run a company that would eventually become Röhm GmbH. The American company grew rapidly as World War I approached, because of their initial invention, a synthetic substitute (brand name Oropon) for fermented dog dung, which was used for bating leather (part of the old tanning process); leather was needed for the war in large quantities for belts and saddles.
The company again grew rapidly as World War II approached, as it manufactured Plexiglas acrylic, a transparent plastic which was needed for aircraft canopies. They sold this part of the business in 1998 to Elf Atochem (now Arkema).
In 1965 Rohm and Haas moved its headquarters from its Washington Square to a new building on Independence Mall a few blocks away. The new Rohm and Haas Corporate Headquarters was designed by Pietro Belluschi and George M. Ewing Co. (now EwingCole).
In 1999 Rohm and Haas acquired the Morton Salt company.
The main products of Rohm and Haas are specialty materials, advanced chemistry that allows end-use products to have a particular characteristic, e.g., low-odor, water-based paints, sunscreens with greater SPF functionality, or more powerful semiconductor chips.
On July 10, 2008 Rohm and Haas announced it was being bought by Dow Chemical Company for US$18.8 billion. Rohm and Haas will continue doing business under its name and will remain in its Philadelphia headquarters. Dow Chemical tried to back out of acquiring Rohm and Haas, when a deal to form a joint venture with Kuwait Petroleum that would give Dow money to buy Rohm and Haas failed. On 2 April 2009, it was reported that Morton Salt was being acquired by German fertilizer and salt company K+S for a total enterprise value of US$1.7bn. The sale, completed by October 2009, was in conjunction with the Dow Chemical Company's takeover of Rohm and Haas.
Dow announced their intent to sell the Rohm and Haas Powder Division.
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