"seems to one above and beyond any handshake agreement in workings of Whirlpool"
That struck me as unusual, too. Though those are the words out of the Sears' representatives mouth when he awarded the Sears Excellence Award to the St. Joe division in 1965. And it was repeated prior by Elisha Gray, and years later in Whirlpool's corporate history during their silver anniversary. A PR move? I don't know. Hard to believe such a thing in today's world.
I was moving some boxes yesterday and did come upon a few decades worth of WP annual reports. In 1964, they offered an additional 731,747 shares of common stock. RCA sold off and held less than 1%. Sears, Roebuck and Co maintained their 4.6% share, with the Sears group itself holding a total of 7.5% of Whirlpool Corp.
I tried to back-track, but little was mentioned in prior years. Adding to search difficulty, they were technically the 1900 Corp before 1950, and the modern internet doesn't play nice with search queries the way it once did. It's a fascinating, but guarded topic. Some sources suggest significant Sears divestiture in the early '50s due to anti-trust concerns. This makes sense considering the number of government contracts WP took on throughout the 1950's and 60's.
The answers are out there, I'm just not sure they're on the internet.
That struck me as unusual, too. Though those are the words out of the Sears' representatives mouth when he awarded the Sears Excellence Award to the St. Joe division in 1965. And it was repeated prior by Elisha Gray, and years later in Whirlpool's corporate history during their silver anniversary. A PR move? I don't know. Hard to believe such a thing in today's world.
I was moving some boxes yesterday and did come upon a few decades worth of WP annual reports. In 1964, they offered an additional 731,747 shares of common stock. RCA sold off and held less than 1%. Sears, Roebuck and Co maintained their 4.6% share, with the Sears group itself holding a total of 7.5% of Whirlpool Corp.
I tried to back-track, but little was mentioned in prior years. Adding to search difficulty, they were technically the 1900 Corp before 1950, and the modern internet doesn't play nice with search queries the way it once did. It's a fascinating, but guarded topic. Some sources suggest significant Sears divestiture in the early '50s due to anti-trust concerns. This makes sense considering the number of government contracts WP took on throughout the 1950's and 60's.
The answers are out there, I'm just not sure they're on the internet.
