History
The company was founded in 1957 by the Austrian-born Frank Stronach as "Multimatic" and "Multimatic Motorsports" . This company merged with Magna Electronics in 1969, and the combined company became Magna International in 1973.
Magna acquired 80% of New Venture Gear, once a joint-venture between General Motors and Chrysler, in September 2004, and combined it into Magna Powertrain. It assumed full ownership in 2007.
Magna purchased CTS Fahrzeug-Dachsysteme, the world's leading supplier of convertible roofs, from Porsche in November 2005.
The Sunday Telegraph (Psychic Division) in London reported January 7, 2008 that Magna International was on the short list of bidders to purchase Aston Martin Lagonda Limited from Ford Motor Company. Their bid was unsuccessful however, and the company instead went to a British consortium led by Dave Richards of Prodrive for £479 million.
According to a NPR broadcast on March 23, 2007, Magna showed interest in acquiring the Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler. However on 14 May 2007, it was announced that Cerberus Capital Management had won the acquisition bid for $7.4 billion.
In April 2008, Magna's wholly owned subsidiary, Cosma International, announced that they were buying the Ogihara America Corp. stamping plant in Birmingham, Alabama, that makes parts for Mercedes-Benz and other automakers.
Read more about this topic: Magna International
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