Omega Engineering

OMEGA Engineering, Inc.
Industry Instrumentation
Founded Stamford, Connecticut in 1962 [1]
Founder Betty Hollander [1]
Headquarters Stamford, Connecticut [2], United States
Key people
 James Dale, CEO[3]
Products thermocouples
flow meters
pH meters
electric heaters
data collection
automation devices [4]
Revenue $168 million (2010) [2][5]
Number of employees
 700 [2][5]
Parent Spectris [2][5]
Website omega.com

OMEGA Engineering is an instrumentation company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, with its main factory in Bridgeport, New Jersey.[6]

It has sales offices in United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, China, Brazil, Singapore, Korea, Japan, and Mexico. Local websites are also available for customer convenience in France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, India, and Chile. [6] OMEGA does business with the United States Navy, NASA and other industrial corporations.[7]

OMEGA is now owned by British-owned conglomerate Spectris plc.[2][5]

History

The company was founded in 1962 by Betty Hollander at her kitchen table while she was raising 4 kids.[1][8] OMEGA began as a thermocouple manufacturer but slowly began to produce other types of instrumentation. Today, OMEGA produces devices that measure everything from temperature to pH.[9]

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, 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.[7][10][11] OMEGA had to spend nearly $2 million to repair the programs, and lost nearly $10 million in sales; this led to the layoff of 80 employees, although Lloyd's lawyer stated that OMEGA's losses were far smaller.[7][10][11] Tim Lloyd was later convicted of computer sabotage and was sentenced to 41 months in Federal prison.[11] The Tim Lloyd hacking is considered to be one of the largest employee sabotage cases in the United States history.[10] (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.[2][5] The current CEO of OMEGA Engineering is James Dale.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Lieberman, Joseph A. "Remembering Betty Hollander". capitolwords.org. Sunlight Foundation. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sen, Anirban (15 August 2011). "UPDATE 1-Spectris Buys OMEGA Engineering for $475 mln". Reuters. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  3. 1 2 "BBB Business Review". bbb.org. Better Business Bureau. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  4. ↑ "About OMEGA". omega.com. OMEGA Engineering. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Ebrahami, Helia (16 August 2011). "Spectris buys US rival for $475m". The Telegraph. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  6. 1 2 "OMEGA Engineering Global Contacts". omega.com. OMEGA Engineering. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 Gaudin, Sharon. "Case Study of Insider Sabotage: The Tim Lloyd/OMEGA Case" (PDF). craigchamberlain.com. Craig Chamberlain Security Do-er. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  8. ↑ Betty Ruth Hollander (obituary), Apr. 9, 2011, Stamford Advocate
  9. ↑ "OMEGA Website Homepage". omega.com. Omega Engineering. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 "Notable Hacks". pbs.org. Public Broadcasting Station. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 Strunsky, Steve. "Prison Sentence in Computer Case". New York Times Company. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
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