Company Heritage Cited in Return to BorgWarner Name
11 February 2000
Company Heritage Cited in Return to BorgWarner Name
CHICAGO, Feb. 10 -- As a pioneering innovator in powertrain
products for cars and trucks, Borg-Warner Automotive is
capitalizing on its heritage by returning to its founding name from 1928:
BorgWarner.
"To our customers, our shareholders and our employees, we have always been
known as 'BorgWarner,'" said John F. Fiedler, the company's chairman and chief
executive officer. "Returning to the BorgWarner name reflects our roots in
the car and truck industry. The BorgWarner name is tied to many of our
industry's important powertrain innovations. Every day, millions of people
throughout the world rely on products built by BorgWarner people that improve
the performance and reliability of their vehicles' engines, transmissions and
four-wheel drive systems. Our name is also closely associated with one of the
world's greatest racing events through sponsorship of the BorgWarner
Indianapolis 500 Trophy(TM). Since 1936, our trophy has been synonymous with
top performance, speed and leading-edge technology."
The company's legal name is now BorgWarner Inc. The stock symbol remains
BWA. In addition, the names of the company's operating groups have been
updated with a simplified identity system to reflect the BorgWarner name and
the broadened capabilities of some of its business groups.
BorgWarner TorqTransfer Systems replaces Borg-Warner Automotive Powertrain
Systems to communicate an expanded focus on torque distribution beyond
traditional four-wheel drive. BorgWarner Transmission Systems replaces
Borg-Warner Automotive Automatic Transmission Systems, to more accurately
represent that group's capabilities in new technologies including automated
manual transmissions and continuously variable transmissions. The other
groups are BorgWarner Air/Fluid Systems, BorgWarner Morse TEC, BorgWarner
Turbo Systems and the company's newest group, BorgWarner Cooling Systems. The
changes are effective immediately. The company's Internet address remains
http://www.bwauto.com .
BorgWarner was founded in Chicago in 1928 when four automotive parts
makers banded together to supply the burgeoning vehicle industry, the
technology boom of its day. By the 1980s, the company grew into a diversified
corporation which was split up following a leveraged buyout. The automotive
business became its own public company in 1993. "As a company, we are now the
one and only BorgWarner," noted Fiedler. "We have been a pioneering innovator
in our industry for more than 70 years. The same engineering entrepreneurship
that characterized our founding companies still drives us today."
The founding companies of BorgWarner were industry innovators Borg & Beck
of Chicago, Illinois; Warner Gear of Muncie, Indiana; Marvel-Schebler
Carburetor of Flint, Michigan and Decatur, Illinois; and Mechanics Universal
Joint of Rockford, Illinois. Morse Chain of Ithaca, New York joined the next
year. In 1996, another automotive icon, Holley Automotive of Detroit,
Michigan, became part of the BorgWarner family.
Over the past three years, BorgWarner has expanded its growth in engine
products with the acquisitions of U.S. and German turbocharger pioneers,
Schwitzer and AG Kuhnle, Kopp & Kausch, and the purchase of Eaton
Corporation's Fluid Power Division.
Chicago-based BorgWarner is a product leader in highly engineered
components and systems for vehicle powertrain applications. With over 14,000
employees, the company operates 60 manufacturing and technical facilities in
13 countries serving worldwide vehicle manufacturers. Customers include Ford,
DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Toyota, Caterpillar, Navistar and VW.
Statements contained in this news release may contain forward-looking
statements as contemplated by the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act that are based on management's current expectations, estimates and
projections. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans,"
"believes," "estimates," variations of such words and similar expressions are
intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual
results to differ materially from those projected or implied in the
forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include:
fluctuations in domestic or foreign automotive production, the continued use
of outside suppliers by original equipment manufacturers, fluctuations in
demand for vehicles containing the Company's products, general economic
conditions, as well as other risks detailed in the Company's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Cautionary Statements filed
as Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 1998.