Loews Corporation

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Loews Corporation

Type	Public (NYSE: L)
Headquarters	New York, NY
Products	insurance, hotels, oil drilling, pipeline transport
Revenue	▲ $16.02 billion USD
Operating income	▲ $1.85 billion USD
Net income	▲ $1.21 billion USD
Subsidiaries	CNA Financial Corporation Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. Loews Hotels
Website	www.loews.com

Loews Corporation is a holding company run by the Tisch Family whose subsidiaries are engaged in the following lines of business:

• property and casualty insurance (CNA Financial Corporation, a 90%-owned subsidiary)
• the operation of hotels (Loews Hotels, a wholly owned subsidiary)
• the operation of offshore oil and gas drilling rigs (Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc., a 54%-owned subsidiary)
• the operation of an interstate natural gas transmission pipeline system (Texas Gas Transmission, LLC and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP wholly owned subsidiaries)

Loews Corporation was formerly the parent company of Lorrilard, Inc. until 2008 and Bulova Watches until 2007.

On May 10, 2006 Loews Corporation announced that it would offer 15 million shares of Carolina Group via a public offering, with the proceeds to be used for general corporate purposes. ^[1] The sale's value was $740 million.

On June 4, 2007 Loews Corporation announced it would acquire a portion of the operations of Dominion Resources for 4.03 billion dollars. ^[2]

On December 17, 2007, Loews Corporation announced a plan to spin off its entire ownership interest in its subsidiary, Lorillard, Inc., to holders of Carolina Group stock and Loews common stock. ^[3]

Outside of Loews, the estate of chairman Bob Tisch co-owns the New York Giants football team. Loews has in the past had extensive involvement with the CBS network.

History

In the wake of the landmark 1948 U.S. Supreme Court antitrust ruling, United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., all the major Hollywood movie studios, including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), were ordered to sell off the movie theater chains they owned and operated.

New York City hotel developers Robert and Laurence Tisch purchased a large stake in the Loews chain from MGM in 1959; by the summer of 1960 they had gained control of the company; the brothers became co-chairmen. The Loew's theaters were aging and not suited to then-current movie-going trends which anticipated the multiplex; however, the theaters were located on highly valuable city property. Almost immediately the Tisch brothers began closing many of these theaters, demolishing them (hastening the end of the classic movie theater palaces from the Golden Age of Hollywood) and selling the vacant lots to developers (they would continue to run the Loews theater chain until 1985).

The Tisch brothers soon diversified the Loews business, successfully venturing into a variety of areas as the 1960s and 1970's progressed; Loews acquired Lorillard, a tobacco company, in 1968; CNA Financial in 1974, and the Bulova watch company in 1979. Through acquisitions, Loews' revenues grew from $100 million in 1970 to more than $3 billion by a decade later.

Laurence Tisch briefly owned, through Loews, a significant portion of U.S. television and radio broadcaster CBS in the 1980s; Tisch was a controversial owner of CBS and made many unpopular cost-cutting moves. Loews involvement in CBS ended in 1995, with the sale of CBS to Westinghouse Electric Corporation for $5.4 billion.

By 2002, the corporation had revenues of more than $17 billion and assets of more than $70 billion.^[4]

Management

• Co-Chairman of the Board, Chairman of the Exec. Committee, and Member of the Office of the President: Andrew Tisch
• Co-Chairman of the Board and Member of the Office of the President: Jonathan Tisch
• President, Chief Exec. Officer, and Member of the Office of the President: James S. Tisch
• Chief Financial Officer and Sr. VP: Peter W. Keegan
• Sr. VP: David B. Edelson
• Chief Investment Officer: Lisa W. Hess

References

1. ^ Loews Corporation to Sell 15,000,000 Shares of Carolina Group Stock
2. ^ Dominion's Sale Makes Waves - Forbes.com
3. ^ lc_body.htm
4. ^ History of Loews Incorporated with emphasis on Tisch ownership

External links

• Loews Corporation
• Yahoo! - Loews Corporation Company Profile
• Forbes.com: Forbes 400 Richest in America - Tisch, Preston Robert