1980 Recession With $2 billon in reserves, Case was well positioned to survive the recession that stunned the farming community and construction market in the early-'80s. The company lost almost $200 million by 1984, yet still had enough money to acquire International Harvester's agriculture line in 1985. A series of brand consolidations followed, and the company became Case International and then Case IH. As the recession deepened, the company closed facilities and reduced production to 45 percent of capacity. By the fourth quarter of 1990, company earnings were off by $100 million. The cuts continued. By 1991, company losses stood at $1.1 billion. Tenneco executives offered to sell the company for a dollar to anyone who would assume the $1 billion debt load. The phones were quiet.
Incredibly, Tenneco launched another Case restructuring program in March of 1993, to the tune of $920 million. The usual plant closings, consolidations, abandoning money-losing product lines, and privatization of the dealer networks led the plan. Case was aided by reduction of inventories, higher retail pricing, and increased farm demand. Revenues soon rose to $3.7 billion and increased again in 1994, to allow Tenneco to sell 56 percent of the company's stock to the public. By 1996, Tenneco had completely divested itself of its troubled subsidiary.
The Italian Connection
As a publicly traded company, Case purchased several producers of farm equipment, including the Austrian tractor manufacturer Styer in 1996. Within a short 24 months, the company entered another international sales slump due to reduced product demand and industry consolidation. Case was then merged with New Holland in 1999 and dubbed CNH (Case New Holland) Global. Today, The Fiat Group (the parent company of Chrysler) owns 75 percent of CNH Global.