Transamerica Corporation
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Transamerica Corporation is an insurance and investment company in the United States.
Transamerica began as the holding company controlled by A. P. Giannini, then head of Bank of America and founder of its predecessor, the Bank of Italy in San Francisco. Transamerica, which also owned the Occidental Life Insurance Company, intended to create a nationwide bank. However, in 1956, due to the passage of the Bank Holding Company Act, Transamerica Corporation divested itself of its banking concerns, including Bank of America. This left Transamerica with life insurance and property and casualty insurance operations.
Over the next 20 years, Transamerica gradually became a diversified conglomerate whose subsidiaries included United Artists (a major motion picture studio), Transamerica Airlines, Budget Rent A Car, and a manufacturer of machinery.
In 1972, construction of the Transamerica Pyramid skyscraper in San Francisco was completed. The company's headquarters was located in the building for many years, although today, it retains only a small presence in the building. Nevertheless, the company's logo still depicts the iconic building and still use it on their marketing materials.
In the 1980s, Transamerica sold all operations that were not related to its core competency of insurance and other financial services.
In the early 1990s, the company briefly entered the UK market.
In July 1999, with Frank C. Herringer as CEO, Transamerica Corporation was acquired by AEGON, an insurance holding company based in the Netherlands, though Transamerica Finance, responsible for commercial lending, was subsequently sold to GE Commercial Finance in 2003.
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