Predecessor companies and formation Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA, English translation: General Swedish Electrical Company Limited) was founded in 1883 in
Västerås, Sweden by Ludvig Fredholm as manufacturer of electrical light and generators.
Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) was formed in 1891 in
Baden near
Zurich, Switzerland by
Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and
Walter Boveri as a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies producing
AC and
DC motors, generators, steam turbines and transformers. On 10 August 1987, ASEA and BBC announced they would merge to form ASEA Brown Boveri (ABB). The new corporation would remain headquartered in both Zurich, Switzerland and Västerås, Sweden, with each parent company holding 50 percent. The merger created a global industrial group with revenue of approximately $15 billion and 160,000 employees. In 1989, ABB purchased an additional 40 companies, including Westinghouse Electric's transmission and distribution assets, and announced an agreement to purchase the Stamford, Connecticut-based
Combustion Engineering (C-E).
1990s In 1990, ABB bought the robotics business of Cincinnati Milacron in the US. The acquisition expanded ABB's automated spot-welding operations in the American automotive industry. ABB's 1991 introduction of the IRB 6000 robot, demonstrated its increased capacity in this field. The first modular robot, the IRB 6000, can be reconfigured to perform a variety of specific tasks. The IRB 6000 was designed for spot-welding applications. In 1990, ABB also expanded into Australia when it acquired
Commonwealth Engineering's (Comeng)
plant in Dandenong, Melbourne. ABB continued to manufacture Comeng's
B-class Melbourne tram at the plant. However, it did not continue manufacturing Comeng's Adelaide
3000 class railcar, which was manufactured by
Clyde Engineering instead. In the early 1990s, ABB started expanding in
Central and
Eastern Europe. By the end of 1991, the company employed 10,000 people in the region. The following year, that number doubled. A similar pattern played out in Asia, where the
reform and opening up in China and the lifting of some
economic sanctions, helped open the region to a new wave of outside investment and industrial growth. In March 1992, ABB bought out the other shareholders of the formerly state owned
BREL. At the time of the management buyout, BREL's locations comprised Crewe, York, and two separate works in Derby; Derby Locomotive Works was closed by 1991. The merge took effect on 1 January 1996. A few months following the start of the
1997 Asian financial crisis, ABB announced plans to accelerate its expansion in Asia as well as to improve the productivity and profitability of its Western operations. The company took an $850 million restructuring charge and shed 10,000 jobs as it scaled back some of its facilities in higher-cost countries and shifted resources towards emerging markets. In June 1998, ABB announced that it would acquire Sweden-based Alfa Laval's automation unit, which at the time was one of Europe's top suppliers of process control systems and automation equipment. In 1999, as a final step in the integration of the companies formerly known as ASEA and BBC, the directors unanimously approved a plan to create a unified, single class of shares in the group. That same year, ABB completed its purchase of Elsag Bailey Process Automation, a Netherlands-based maker of industrial control systems, for $2.1 billion. The acquisition increased ABB's presence in the high-tech industrial robotics and factory control system sectors, reducing its reliance on traditional heavy engineering sectors such as power generation and transmission. In 1999, the company sold its stake in the Adtranz train-building business to
DaimlerChrysler. Instead of building complete locomotives, ABB's transportation activities shifted increasingly toward traction motors and electric components. That same year, ABB and France-based
Alstom announced the merger of their power generation businesses in a 50-50 joint company, ABB Alstom Power. Separately, in December 1999, ABB agreed to sell its nuclear power business to
British Nuclear Fuels of the United Kingdom.
2000s on a production line, 2008 In 2000, ABB divested its interests in ABB Alstom Power and sold its boiler and fossil-fuel operations (including Gas turbines) to Alstom. In early 2002, ABB announced its first-ever annual loss, a $691 million net loss for 2001. The loss was caused by ABB's decision to double its provisions for settlement costs from $470 million to $940 million in
asbestos-related litigation against its American subsidiary Combustion Engineering. The provisions were to cover claims linked to asbestos products sold by Combustion Engineering prior to its acquisition by ABB. At the same time, ABB's board announced it would seek the partial return of retirement pay from Goran Lindahl and Percy Barnevik, two former chief executive officers of the group. Barnevik received some $89 million in pension benefits when he left ABB in 2001; Lindahl, who succeeded Barnevik as CEO, had received $50 million in pension benefits, which ABB's board called "excessive". In 2004, ABB sold its upstream oil and gas business, ABB Vetco Gray, to a consortium of private equity investors for an initial sum of $925 million. ABB continued to play an active role in the oil and gas industry via its core automation and power technology businesses. In 2005, ABB delisted its shares from the
London Stock Exchange and
Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The following year, the company resolved its asbestos liabilities against its US subsidiaries, Combustion Engineering and ABB Lummus Global, Inc, for $1.43 billion. A three-part capital strengthening plan also aided in ABB's recovery. In August 2007, ABB Lummus Global, ABB's downstream oil and gas business, was sold to CB&I for $950 million. The sale led to ABB making an accelerated $204 million payment to the CE Asbestos PI Trust, a trust fund covering the asbestos liabilities of Combustion Engineering. In 2008, ABB agreed to acquire Kuhlman Electric Corporation, a US-based maker of transformers for the industrial and electric utility sectors. In November 2008, ABB acquired Ber-Mac Electrical and Instrumentation to expand its presence in Western Canada's oil and gas industries.
2010s s, 2013 In September 2010, the company bought K-TEK, a manufacturer of level measurement instruments, for $50 million; it was incorporated into ABB's Measurement Products business unit within ABB's Process Automation division. In July 2010, ABB in Cary, North Carolina received a $4.2 million grant from the US federal government to develop energy storing magnets. On 10 January 2011, ABB invested $10 million in ECOtality, a
San Francisco-based developer of charging stations and power storage technologies, to enter North America's
electric vehicle charging market. On 1 July of that year, the company announced its acquisition of Epyon B.V. of the Netherlands, a manufacturer of EV-charging infrastructure. In early 2011, ABB acquired Baldor Electric for $4.2 billion in an all-cash transaction as part of ABB's strategy to increase its market share in the North American industrial motors segment. On 30 January 2012, the company announced the acquisition of Thomas & Betts, a North American specialist in low voltage products for industrial, construction and utility applications, in a $3.9 billion cash transaction. On 15 June 2012, ABB completed its acquisition of commercial and industrial wireless technology specialists Tropos. In July 2013, ABB acquired Power-One in a $1 billion all-cash transaction to become the leading global manufacturer of
solar inverters. That same year,
Fastned selected ABB to supply more than 200 Terra fast-charging stations along highways in the Netherlands. On 6 July 2017, ABB announced it had completed its acquisition of
Bernecker + Rainer Industrie-Elektronik (B&R), the largest independent provider of product and software-based open-architecture for industrial automation. electric racing series. During January 2018, ABB became the title partner of the ABB FIA
Formula E Championship, the world's first fully electric international FIA motorsport series. On 30 June 2018, the company completed its acquisition of GE Industrial Solutions,
General Electric's global electrification business. On 17 December 2018, ABB announced it had agreed to sell 80.1% of its Power Grids business to
Hitachi; the former Power Grids division thus became a part of the Hitachi Group and was rebranded to
Hitachi Energy. During December 2022, it was confirmed that Hitachi had acquired the remaining 19.9% of the business.
2020s In March 2020 ABB announced the intent to purchase Cylon Controls Ltd. (Cylon). The acquisition enhanced ABB Electrification business' position in the commercial buildings segment. Also in March 2020, ABB announced that it had agreed to sell its solar inverter business to Italian solar inverter manufacturer Fimer; the transaction includes all of ABB's manufacturing and R&D sites in Finland, Italy and India, along with 800 employees across 26 countries. During mid-2021, ABB announced its involvement in the construction of the first permanent electric road that powers private vehicles and commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses. In November 2021, ABB completed the sale of its Mechanical Power Transmission business to RBC Bearings Inc. for $2.9 billion in cash. The sale was part of ABB's broader strategy to streamline its business and reduce its range of activities. In July 2022, the company announced the spinoff of its turbocharging business to shareholders. The spinoff was completed in October 2022 when the business was listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the new name of Accelleron. In May 2023, ABB announced that it had completed the acquisition of Siemens' low-voltage NEMA motors business, with manufacturing operations in
Guadalajara,
Mexico. At the time, the business employed around 600 people and generated revenues of approximately $63 million in 2021. In June 2023, ABB agreed to acquire smart home automation provider
Eve Systems. In September 2023, ABB announced it would partner with the
Well Done Foundation to monitor
methane and
greenhouse gas emissions from
orphaned wells in the United States. In January 2024, ABB acquired Real Tech, a prominent Canadian company specializing in innovative optical sensor technology for real-time water monitoring and testing. It also acquired two start-ups, Sevensense and the R&D engineering firm Meshmind, to expand its activities in AI and software. In 2024, ABB increased its acquisition activity and announced several smaller transactions, including the acquisition of Siemens' wiring accessories business in China, which included a distribution network across 230 cities, and the power electronics business of Gamesa Electric in
Spain from
Siemens Gamesa. As of 2025, ABB planned to rebrand all of its residential electrical product lines acquired from GE with the ABB ReliaHome brand. In October 2025, ABB agreed to sell its industrial robotics business to
Softbank Group in a $5.4 billion deal—preempting plans to spin the division off as its own company in 2026. In December 2025, it was announced ABB had completed its acquisition of Gamesa Electric's power electronics business in Spain from
Siemens Gamesa, originally revealed in December 2024. The acquired portfolio includes power conversion products such as wind converters for
doubly-fed induction generators (DFIG), industrial battery energy storage systems (BESS), and utility-scale
solar inverters. Financial terms were not disclosed. == Products and services ==