Littelfuse, Inc. is an American electronics manufacturing company headquartered in
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
.
The company primarily produces circuit protection products (
fuses) but also manufactures a variety of switches, automotive sensors and, through its subsidiary
Zilog,
microprocessors.
Littelfuse was founded in 1927. In addition to its Chicago, Illinois, world headquarters, Littelfuse has more than 40 sales, distribution, manufacturing and engineering facilities in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Littelfuse is the developer of AutoFuse, the first blade-type
automotive fuse.
History
Early history
Edward V. Sundt founded Littelfuse in 1927 in
Chicago Illinois as Littelfuse Laboratories.
Prior to founding Littelfuse, Sundt had worked for
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston.
Over the year ...
and
Stewart-Warner, where he found diagnostic equipment frequently experienced electrical failure.
Sundt developed Littelfuse's first product, a small protective fuse, to regulate current in diagnostic equipment and prevent electrical failure.
When the US government refused Sundt a trademark for Little fuse (the small protective fuse) on the grounds that the words were too common, Sundt compromised by reversing the l and the e to form Littelfuse.
Littelfuse was incorporated and renamed Littelfuse, Inc. in 1938.
Littelfuse became a
public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...
in 1962.
The company retained founder Edward V. Sundt as the chairman of its board.
In 1963, Littelfuse moved its headquarters from Chicago to
Des Plaines, Illinois.
Sundt retired in 1965 and was succeeded by Thomas Blake.
purchased the company in 1968.
Blake was made president of Littelfuse, which operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Tracor.
1970–1991
The company expanded its manufacturing base in the 1970s with new factories opening in
Watseka, Illinois
Watseka is a city in and the county seat of Iroquois County, Illinois, Iroquois County, Illinois, United States. It is located approximately west of the Illinois-Indiana state line on U.S. Route 24.
The population of Watseka was 4,679 as of th ...
and
Piedras Negras, Mexico.
In 1974, the company also introduced Littelites, electronic indicator lights used in industrial and office machinery, household appliances and computers.
In 1976, Littelfuse developed Autofuse, which was the first blade-type fuse used in automobiles.
The Autofuse brand was counterfeited heavily and in 1983 the company obtained an exclusionary order from the
United States International Trade Commission, which barred the importation of counterfeit blade-type fuses.
In 1987, Westmark Systems purchased Tracor and its Littelfuse subsidiary in
leveraged buyout
A leveraged buyout (LBO) is the acquisition of a company using a significant proportion of borrowed money (Leverage (finance), leverage) to fund the acquisition with the remainder of the purchase price funded with private equity. The assets of t ...
.
Tracor filed for bankruptcy in 1991 and
spun off Littelfuse.
Modern history
Littelfuse reincorporated in November 1991 with Howard Witt as its president and CEO.
Witt had worked for Littelfuse since 1979 and had been president and CEO of Littelfuse since February 1990, when the company was still owned by Tracor.
[ In 1991, Littelfuse offered its second IPO in company history.]São Paulo, Brazil
SAO or Sao may refer to:
Places
* Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD
* Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso
* Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of Yu ...
.
Products
Littelfuse designs and manufactures circuit protection products for the electronics, automotive and electrical industries.[ The company operates between three business unit segments: Electronics, Industrial, and Automotive.][ Products include: fuses and protectors, suppressors, gas discharge tubes, electronic switches, solenoids, battery management devices, solid-state relays, and protective relays.][
With the acquisition of Hamlin, Inc. in 2013, Littelfuse expanded its product offering to include sensors for the automotive, industrial and consumer industries.]
Acquisitions
Littelfuse has acquired multiple companies since 1999, including:
* 1999 – Harris Suppression Products.
* 2002 – Semitron.
* 2003 – Teccor, a manufacturer of circuit and overvoltage protection products.ON Semiconductor
ON Semiconductor Corporation (stylized and doing business as onsemi) is an American semiconductor supplier company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Products include power and signal management, logic, discrete, and custom devices for automotive, c ...
, a semiconductors supplier company.
* 2017 – U.S. Sensor, Manufacturer of Temperature Sensors.
* 2017 – IXYS Corp., a power semiconductor manufacturer, thereby also acquiring Zilog
*2018 – Monolith Semiconductor Inc., a silicon carbide switch developer and manufacturer.
*2021 – Carling Technologies Inc., a switch and electromechanical circuit breaker manufacturer.
*2022 – C&K Switches, an electromechanical switch manufacturer
*2023 – Western Automation Research and Development Limited, a designer and manufacturer of electrical shock protection devices.
References
{{Authority control
1927 establishments in Illinois
1960s initial public offerings
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Manufacturing companies based in Chicago
Electronics companies established in 1927
Electrical engineering companies
Companies in the S&P 400