in
San Francisco In October 1904,
A. P. Giannini founded the
Bank of Italy in
San Francisco. In October 1928, Giannini created a
holding company that he named the Transamerica Corporation, which owned Bank of America, Bank of Italy, Bancitaly Corporation, National Bankitaly Company, California Joint Stock Land Bank, and , which gave it assets in excess of $1.5billion (equivalent to $billion in ). The Transamerica Corporation
original headquarters was located at 4 Columbus Avenue in San Francisco. The Bank of Italy later merged with
Bank of America, Los Angeles in 1928, which was then renamed
Bank of America in 1930. In March 1930, Transamerica acquired Occidental Life Insurance Company, founded in 1906. At the time, Occidental had over $25million in assets and over $150million in life insurance policies in force.
Boeing 747 Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point 1982 Over time, the company became a more diversified conglomerate that included
Liberty Records, the
film distributor United Artists,
Trans International Airlines (bought from
Kirk Kerkorian, later known as Transamerica Airlines) and
Budget Rent a Car. In 1972, the company completed construction of the
Transamerica Pyramid skyscraper in
San Francisco which served as its headquarters for many years. Although the company currently retains no offices in the building, the pyramid is still depicted in the company's updated logo (as of 2025) and marketing materials. In the 1980s, Transamerica began to divest and focused exclusively on financial services. In 1981, Transamerica sold
United Artists to
Tracinda Corporation, a media company owned by Kirk Kerkorian which in turn also owned
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Transamerica was eventually reduced to three main product divisions: insurance, investments, and retirement planning. In July 1999, Transamerica CEO Frank C. Herringer announced that
Aegon, the
Netherlands-based insurer, would acquire the company. Transamerica Occidental merged into Transamerica Life Insurance Company on October 1, 2008. In 2018, Transamerica entered a 10-year, $2 billion agreement with
Tata Consultancy Services, an Indian technology company, to digitize their policies under a single platform. However, this project was abandoned in 2023. == Products and services ==