Owens Corning

1935–1980 controversy

Owens-Corning Fiberglass Company was formed in 1935 through the merger of Owens-Illinois and Corning Glass Works. It became a separate company in 1938 with its headquarters established in Toledo, Ohio. In 1938, the company sales reached $2.6 million.The company held its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in 1952. In 1955, Owens-Corning purchased land for a research and testing facility near Granville, Ohio. Also in 1955, Owens-Corning made the first Fortune 500 company list. The company has been on the Fortune 500 list every year since its creation.In 1965, Owens-Corning Fiberglas Europe was formed. In 1966, Owens-Corning established a partnership with Armstrong Rubber Co. to produce fiberglass-reinforced automobile tires. By 1971, Owens-Corning's annual revenue was over $500 million. In 1974, the company opened a temporary plant to produce insulation for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. In 1977, Owens-Corning acquired Frye Roofing and began production of fiberglass mat to replace traditional paper mat used in roofing. Owens-Corning sales surpassed $1 billion in 1976, and sales were over $2 billion by 1979. In 1978, two shipyard workers filed a class action lawsuit against which alleged that Owens-Corning and 14 other manufacturers had known about asbestos-containing products. Over the next three decades, it was named in hundreds of thousands of asbestos lawsuits. By 2000, it had settled with 440,000 people who claimed Owens Corning’s products caused them to develop asbestos-related illnesses such as mesothelioma.

1981–present

In 1985, Owens-Corning acquired Aerospace and Strategic Metals Group in Newport Beach, California for $415 million from Armco Inc. The color PINK was trademarked through Owens-Corning in 1986, making it the first company to trademark a color. By 1990, Owens-Corning was the defendant in about 84,500 asbestos-related lawsuits.The company opened an Asia/Pacific division in 1993. In May 1994, Owens-Corning acquired UC Industries, which produced Foamular polystyrene insulation, as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 1996, the company changed its name to Owens Corning. In May 1997, Owens Corning acquired Fibreboard Corporation, a vinyl siding and other industrial material manufacturer, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Owens Corning. The company was ordered to pay $5 million to an asbestos victim in 1997, making it the highest jury verdict in the history of the United States for a single non-malignant asbestos case. In 1999, a jury in federal district court in Florida awarded $1.8 million compensatory damages and $31 million punitive damages against the company for asbestos products.The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000. In 2002, Owens Corning removed its shares from the New York Stock Exchange. In 2006, the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange again under ticker "OC." In 2007, Owens Corning announced a joint venture with Saint-Gobain named OCV Reinforcements.Owens Corning partnered with DuPont in 2011 to create a steel and foam energy reduction barrier around auto racetracks. In July 2015, the company announced it would be moving a manufacturing center for mineral wool insulation into an empty plant west of Joplin, Missouri.