FMC Corp.

FMC Corporation NYSE: FMC is a chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. FMC employs over 5,000 people world wide, and had gross revenues of over US$2 billion in 2004.

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Founded in 1883 as the Bean Spray Pump Company in San Jose, California by John Bean, the company's first product was a piston pump. Bean invented the pump to spray insecticide on the many fruit orchards in the area. In 1928, Bean Spray Pump purchased Anderson-Barngrover Co. and Sprague-Sells, and changed its name to Food Machinery Corporation, and began using the initials FMC. FMC received a contract to design and build landing vehicles tracked for the United States War Department in 1941. FMC also built the Bradley Fighting Vehicle at its former facility in Santa Clara, California. The troubled development of the Bradley was satirized in the 1998 HBO movie The Pentagon Wars. In the movie FMC was fictionalized as A.O.C corporation. Bean also manufactured fire fighting equipment in the 1960s through the 1980s under the FMC and the Bean names.

FMC changed names again in 1946, becoming Food Machinery and Chemical Corporation. In 1961 the name was changed to FMC Corporation. In the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, FMC Corporation began spinning several of its divisions into separate companies, including United Defense and FMC Technologies, and selling its divisions, including the John Bean Company, now a subsidiary of Snap-on.

During the 1980's, FMC was involved in the insider trading scandals hitting Wall Street when Ivan Boesky used illegally gained information regarding a restructuring plan to turn a $975,000 profit.

In 2001, FMC spun off its energy, airport, and food equipment businesses into a separate company named FMC Technologies, Inc.

In 2006 FMC Corporation celebrated 75 years being listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

References

• "FMC Corp"; Yahoo! Finance; retrieved January 28, 2006
• "www.FMC.com"; FMC Corporation; retrieved January 28, 2006
• "International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 11. St. James Press, 1995"; retrieved November 16, 2007
• "Insider Trading - The Market's Albatross"