OMEGA Engineering, Inc.
IndustryInstrumentation
FoundedStamford, Connecticut in 1962 [1]
FounderBetty Hollander [1]
Headquarters
Norwalk, Connecticut[2][3]
,
United States
Key people
Naoto Mizuta, CEO
Productsthermocouples
flow meters
pH meters
electric heaters
data collection
automation devices [4]
Revenue$168 million (2010) [3][5]
Number of employees
700 [3][5]
ParentArcline Investment Management[6]
Websiteomega.com

OMEGA Engineering is an American instrumentation company headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, with its main factory in Bridgeport, New Jersey.[7]

It has sales offices in the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, China, Brazil, Singapore, Korea, Japan, and Mexico. Local websites are also available for customers in France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, India, and Chile.[7] OMEGA does business with the United States Navy, NASA and other industrial corporations.[8]

History

The company was founded in 1962 by Betty Hollander at her kitchen table while she was raising 4 children.[1][9] OMEGA began as a thermocouple manufacturer but slowly transitioned to other types of instrumentation. Today, OMEGA manufactures and sells devices that measure everything from temperature to pH.[10]

Hacking

In 1996, Tim Lloyd, an 11-year employee of OMEGA and a network administrator within the company, was fired. Three weeks after he was fired,[11] he unleashed a hacking "time bomb" within OMEGA's computer systems, deleting the software that ran all of OMEGA's manufacturing operations at its factory in Bridgeport, New Jersey.[8][12][13] Law enforcement was contacted by Omega executives during the second week of the incident and the U.S. Secret Service found suspicious activity early on, including deliberate data erasure and reformatting of critical files.[11] OMEGA spent nearly $2 million repairing the programs and lost nearly $10 million in revenue, resulting in 80 employee layoffs, though Lloyd's lawyer stated that OMEGA's losses were far smaller.[8][12][13] Tim Lloyd was convicted of computer sabotage and was sentenced to 41 months in Federal prison.[13] The Tim Lloyd hacking case is considered one of the largest employee sabotage cases in United States business history.[12] The case also aired in a Forensic Files episode "Hack Attack", episode 39 of season 8.

Sale to Spectris

In April 2011, Betty Hollander died, and the company was turned over to her husband Milton Hollander.[1] Later that year, Milton Hollander sold OMEGA Engineering to British-based Spectris plc for $475 million.[3][5] Then, in March 2017, Spectris was forced to recognize an impairment charge of £115 million with relation to the past acquisition. This charge decreased goodwill and other intangible assets on Spectris' balance sheet. The charge also decreased its 2016 net income.[14]

Sale to Arcline

On April 19, 2022, Spectris announced the sale of Omega Engineering to Arcline Investment Management for $525 million.[15] This was more than $100 million above the Net Book Value subsequent to the goodwill writeoff that Spectris previously took. Spectris announced a $390 million stock buyback as a result of the sale.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Lieberman, Joseph A. "Remembering Betty Hollander". capitolwords.org. Sunlight Foundation. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  2. ↑ http://www.concord-sots.ct.gov/CONCORD/online?sn=PublicInquiry&eid=9740
  3. 1 2 3 4 Sen, Anirban (15 August 2011). "UPDATE 1-Spectris Buys OMEGA Engineering for $475 mln". Reuters. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  4. ↑ "About OMEGA". omega.com. OMEGA Engineering. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 Ebrahami, Helia (16 August 2011). "Spectris buys US rival for $475m". The Telegraph. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  6. 1 2 "Spectris Sells Omega Engineering for $525 MLN; Plans $390 MLN Share Buyback".
  7. 1 2 "OMEGA Engineering Global Contacts". omega.com. OMEGA Engineering. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 Gaudin, Sharon. "Case Study of Insider Sabotage: The Tim Lloyd/OMEGA Case" (PDF). craigchamberlain.com. Craig Chamberlain Security Do-er. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  9. ↑ Betty Ruth Hollander (obituary), Apr. 9, 2011, Stamford Advocate
  10. ↑ "OMEGA Website Homepage". omega.com. Omega Engineering. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  11. 1 2 Gaudin, Sharon (June 27, 2000). "The Omega files: A true story". CNN. Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  12. 1 2 3 "Notable Hacks". pbs.org. Public Broadcasting Station. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  13. 1 2 3 Strunsky, Steve. "Prison Sentence in Computer Case". New York Times Company. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  14. ↑ Baba, Razak Musah (February 14, 2017). "Spectris 2016 profit falls; but hikes dividend". MarketWatch. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Arcline Investment Management to Acquire Omega Engineering from Spectris PLC". PR Newswire (Cision). 2022-04-19. Retrieved 2023-09-08.
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