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It was a subsidiary of the Ingersoll Rand Company from 1995 until July, 2007 when it was sold for US$4.9 billion to Doosan Infracore.[1]
The company sells skid steer loaders, compact excavators, compact utility vehicles, compact tractors and other small hydraulic equipment under the Bobcat brand name. It is one of the few major manufacturing companies operating in North Dakota, and the only manufacturer building compact excavators in the United States.
"Korean firm buys Bobcat diggers". BBC. 2007.
BBC | 30 July 2007 US conglomerate Ingersoll-Rand is selling its Bobcat industrial machinery business to South Korean firm Doosan Infracore for $4.9 Billion (£2.4bn).
The deal, which also includes the sale of Ingersoll's utility equipment and attachment units, is the largest overseas takeover in Korean history.
Doosan will now become the world's seventh largest maker of construction equipment, and nearly double its sales.
Ingersoll is shifting its focus to its air conditioning and security work.
'Global maker'
The sale of Bobcat also reduces Ingersoll's exposure to the continuing downturn in the US house building sector.
It comes four months after Ingersoll sold its road-building equipment business to Swedish firm Volvo for $1.3bn.
Doosan is already South Korea's largest construction and machinery equipment company.
"The acquisition will help Doosan become a global heavy machinery maker as it can add models which it could not [previously] produce, with technologies from the US company," said Song Jae-hak, an analyst at Woori Investment & Securities.
Ingersoll Rand (NYSE: IR) is a $17 billion global diversified industrial company founded in 1871. The Ingersoll Rand name came into use in 1905 through the combination of Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company and Rand Drill Company. Ingersoll Rand used to be part of the S&P 500 (one of the 13 companies in that index that is incorporated outside the U.S.), but was replaced by Quanta Services in June 2009.[1]
In May 2007 the company announced it was looking into a sale or spin-off of its Bobcat, utility equipment, and attachments divisions. With this divestiture, Ingersoll Rand will be left with the Industrial Technologies, Climate Control Technologies, and Security Technologies sectors. This would complete the transformation from the diversified machinery label to a diversified industrial company.
On July 30, 2007, Ingersoll Rand announced that the utility and attachment businesses had been sold to Doosan Infracore, part of the South Korean chaebol Doosan, for USD $4.9 billion.
