Timelines: Goodyear and Cooper Tire

Goodyear Tire history

1898 — Frank Seiberling borrows $3,500 from his brother-in-law Lucius Miles for the down payment on an abandoned strawboard factory on the banks of the Little Cuyahoga River in Akron, founding Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. in honor of Charles Goodyear, the man credited with discovering vulcanization.

1900 — The company trademarks the Wingfoot logo, based on the winged foot of Mercury.

1903 — Paul Litchfield is granted a patent on the first tubeless automobile tire.

1907 — Goodyear sells 1,200 sets of tires to Henry Ford for use on the Model T.

1916 — Goodyear becomes the world's largest tire company.

1917 — Goodyear builds its first blimp.

1927 — Goodyear has its initial public offering and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

1935 — Goodyear buys Kelly-Springfield Tire Co. of Cumberland, Md.

1938 — Goodyear builds and tests the first American-made synthetic rubber tire.

1944 — Goodyear creates a joint-venture subsidiary in Mexico, Compañía Hulera Goodyear-Oxo, S.A. de C.V. or Goodyear-Oxo.

1951 — Goodyear reaches $1 billion in sales.

1956 — Goodyear markets a full line of stock car racing tires.

1963 — Goodyear produces its 1 billionth tire.

1966 — Goodyear buys Gummiwerke Fulda in Fulda, Germany.

1970 — Apollo 14 features the first tires on the moon, supplied by Goodyear, on the Lunar Roving Vehicle.

1977 — Goodyear introduces two advances in tire design: Tiempo, the first all-season tire, and the fuel-saving elliptic tire.

1986 — Goodyear, under the leadership of CEO Robert E. Mercer, staves off a hostile takeover attempt by Anglo-French financier Sir James Goldsmith.

1994 — The Chinese government grants applications for the Goodyear-Dalian joint venture to manufacture tires in China.

1997 — Goodyear becomes the exclusive tire supplier for NASCAR.

1997 — Goodyear buys majority ownership of Sava Tyres of Slovenia.

1999 — Goodyear reaches a $1 billion global alliance with Japan's Sumitomo Rubber Industries. Goodyear becomes the world's largest tire company.

2006 — Goodyear sells its farm tire business in the Americas to Titan International.

2013 — Goodyear opens new global headquarters in Akron.

2015 — Goodyear and Sumitomo dissolve their partnership, with the two companies splitting the rights to the Dunlop brand along geographical lines. Goodyear retains control of Dunlop manufacturing assets in Europe, sells U.S. plant to Sumitomo.

2018 — Goodyear and Bridgestone Americas create TireHub, a joint wholesale distribution network across the U.S.

2021 — Goodyear announces plans to acquire Cooper Tire for $2.5 billion in the second half of 2021.

Cooper Tire history

1914 — Brothers-in-law John F. Schaefer and Claude E. Hart purchase M & M Manufacturing Co. in Akron, producing tire patches, tire cement and tire repair kits.

1915 — Messrs. Schaefer and Hart purchase Giant Tire & Rubber Co.of Akron, a tire rebuilding business, and two years later move the business to Findlay, Ohio.

1920 — Cincinnati auto-parts dealer I.J. Cooper forms Cooper Corp. in Findlay, to manufacture new tires.

1930 — Cooper Corp., M & M Manufacturing and Falls Rubber Co. merge to form Master Tire & Rubber Co.

1946 — The firm changes its name to Cooper Tire & Rubber Co.

1960 — The firm becomes a publicly held corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

1983 — Cooper Tire joins the ranks of Fortune 500 companies.

1991 — Net sales reach $1 billion.

1997 — Cooper acquires Avon Tyres Ltd., based in Melksham, England.

2003 — Cooper acquires Mickey Thompson Performance & Wheels.

2003 — Cooper partners with Taiwan's Kenda Rubber Industrial Co. Ltd. for construction of a plant outside Shanghai, China, to produce radial passenger and light truck tires. Cooper takes 100% ownership of JV in 2011.

2004 — Cooper sells of its non-tire automotive business, Cooper-Standard Automotive, for $1.17 billion.

2005 — Cooper obtains majority ownership of China's third-largest tire manufacturer, Chengshan Group.

2007 — Coopers enters into a 50-50 joint venture with Mexican tire manufacturer Corporación de Occidente SA de CV, forming Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. de Mexico S.A. de V.C.

2012 — Cooper acquires the tire manufacturing assets of Trayal Corp.'s plant in Krusevac, Serbia.

2013 — India's Apollo Tyres offers to buy Cooper; deal later terminated without resolution.

2014 — Cooper sells ownership stake in Cooper-Chengshan Tire back to Chengshan Group.

2016 — Cooper purchases majority ownership of China-based Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co. (GRT) for the production of truck/bus radial tires.

2019 — Cooper opens A.C.T.R. Co. Ltd. truck tire plant in Vietnam, a joint venture with China's Sailun Group Co. Ltd.

2019 — Makes Cooper Tire Mexico a wholly owned subsidiary.

Sources: Cooper Tire, Goodyear, Tire Business archives